KING, the current dance production from Shaun Parker and Company is about to tour Europe after a recent successful run at Sydney’s WorldPride. It is hauntingly moody, showcasing a diversity of masculinities and body types moving hypnotically, either naked or in black tie, to the sonorous vocals of Bulgarian-born Ivo Dimchev. One particularly captivating dancer is Joel Fenton.
They talk about the progression of the original mentorship and how it outpaced expectation, while also offering their insights into the dance industry with its certain assumptions of body normativity. This is interlaced with Fenton’s articulation of his unique experience with clediocranial dystosis, which he explains is ‘a genetic condition that means [he] was born without collarbones’. Regarding how it has impacted his artistic practice, he says, ‘This gives me an extra range of mobility in my shoulders and means I need to use more muscle instead of bone structure when doing handstands and similar movements.’ Fenton’s hyper-flexibility, while replete with its challenges, immediately grips audiences, as it allows him to move in ways other dancers cannot.
