Talitha Maslin chats with us about her involvement in regional dance performance Flow choreographed by Chrissie Parrott AO, as part of the Nannup Music Festival in March 2025.
Tell us a little about Flow – how did the project begin?
Flow is a community dance project created by Chrissie Parrott. The aim of the project is to bring people in the community together to generate a sense of community wellbeing, resilience and support. The project was brought to life after Chrissie’s experience working with the Northcliffe community on Annette Carmichael’s project The Stars Descend. This catalyst enabled Chrissie to connect with Fiona Sinclair from Southern Forest Arts, who became a huge advocate and support for Chrissie’s aim to bring community members together through dance. Classes and workshops were delivered over a development period of several months, offering one class per week in Northcliffe and Nannup. The workshops culminated in a week intensive, where Chrissie invited Sarah Francis and me to join. We performed at the Nannup Flower Festival in August 2024 and the Nannup Music Festival in March 2025.
Who did it involve and what has been your role?
The Flow project involved members of the Manjimup, Northcliffe and Nannup communities, along with three professional dance leaders – Sarah Francis, Claudia Alessi and me. The show also featured live musical accompaniment from Dave Mann who created the digital soundscape, and played steel lap guitar, with Bec Schofield on vocals and Amanda Reynolds on cello.
Chrissie and I have collaborated on numerous projects since 2016, and she is an ongoing mentor to my creative practice. Chrissie’s style as a director is very collaborative, she draws on the uniqueness of each individual, which creates a depth to the movement, narrative and collective experience which I believe is one of the reasons her work is so highly regarded. It was beautiful to see how Chrissie worked with the community movers’ capabilities and created choreographic sequences of grace, strength and beauty. Sarah and I were tasked with the role of rehearsal directors as well as performers, as Chrissie was not only directing but performing in the project. It was so enriching to work in this way as both Sarah and I were born and grew up in the South West, so the opportunity to reconnect through leading and moving with people in the community was so very special.
How has the community been engaged in the making and performing of the work?
To bring this work to life, Chrissie first began with dance classes. The offering was guided movement which assisted in building some technical knowledge in the participants’ bodies. The participants ranged in age and movement experience, so the act of training and preparation helped with physical strength and confidence. Chrissie used visual cues to assist with memorising sequences and building skills weekly. As we often do in contemporary dance choreography, the abstract movements in the final choreographic sequence were given specific names like ‘peacock’, ‘queen’ and ‘wings’, to help everyone remember. The choreography worked mainly with this key sequence and involved the performers moving together to create different patterns in the space. Many of the participants are in their seventies with no prior dance experience, so it was a huge step out of their comfort zones, which they could only achieve through the trust they built up with Chrissie during this process.
The performance was supported through the Nannup Flower Festival and Nannup Music Festival as a free event in their programs, and attracted very large audiences. The support for this community performance was marvelous – you could see and feel how joyous it was for the performers and audience to share this experience. The atmosphere it created was electric.
You mentioned “dancing in and for the forest I was born in” – can you explain what that was like?
I grew up on a farm just outside Manjimup which was surrounded by the stunning Karri Forest. It’s a special place as the Karri tree is the second tallest in the world. Now due to climate change, the forest is experiencing massive loss of the magnificent trees due to drought, with the locals telling me there is increasing instances of trees and branches falling on roads, and you may remember the catastrophic fires in Northcliffe a few years ago. The farmers are experiencing changes to crop yields as the weather has become more unpredictable. A big part of this project was creating community resilience and support as they navigate the difficulties the drought has created. 
The performance really did feel like an act of solidarity and camaraderie. It brought together people from three neighbouring towns to share their experiences and move together.
A magical thing happened during the Flower Festival, as a massive storm rolled in during the week intensive and gifted us with the heaviest downpour of rain for the week on the day of the performance. We had to move the performance – which was originally planned to be staged at the Nannup Amphitheatre to the Rec Centre. Even though we performed inside, you could feel everyone reveling in the rain.
I am grateful for every opportunity to work with Chrissie in Nannup. Since my Nonno died in 2021, it is hard to carve out time to travel to the forest. I feel very free creatively when I visit that area and think more people should travel inland to experience the natural beauty in the shires of Nannup and Manjimup.
Anything else you’d like to share? Will the work or collaboration have another iteration? What do you carry with you after this experience?
I have to say, seeing Chrissie perform was a highlight for me. I cried during her solo when we did our first full run with the live musicians. She is an icon, it was breathtaking watching her perform, very emotional and purposeful, as if you could see all her history moving with her. I feel very lucky that she has taken me under her wing and that she has connected me to everyone who worked on this project.
I am unsure if this performance will have another iteration, but I know that through the project the participants have fostered and strengthened relationships with each other, which ultimately was the goal of the project. It is a testament to how dance can connect, inspire and enrich peoples lives.
This project is supported by Southern Forest Arts, with funding partners – Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC), Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR), Regional Arts Fund, Regional Arts WA, Regional Arts Australia and the Shire of Manjimup.
