Winter in Melbourne marks the informal beginning of the city's dance season. Informal because, unlike a festival setting where everything happens under the one umbrella, a stack of dance companies descend on the town to spruik their wares and compete for bums on seats.

In the mix this year is a restaging of Shaun Parker's popular love story, Blue Love.
The show has been doing the rounds since 2005, with seasons in New Zealand and Singapore. Strangely, it's taken four years to land in Melbourne.

Parker has been combining his love of singing, music and dance for 20 years, performing with Meryl Tankard's Australian Dance Theatre and The Song Company, Chunky Move and the Sydney Theatre Company. There have also been jobs internationally, notably Sasha Waltz in Berlin and Meredith Monk in New York.

In dance circles, Parker is either a contemporary dance messiah or a very naughty boy, depending on who you talk to. As a singer/dancer, his shows straddle boundaries, with theatre and music playing as important a role as dance. It makes for great entertainment, and Parker's shows are proving extremely popular with audiences who wouldn't normally frequent contemporary dance. However, his deconstructionist approach has its critics. Parker himself acknowledges the criticism that is directed at him, largely from dance purists.

"They're always saying there's not enough dance in my work - but it's about other things too," he says.  "A piece of projected text can mean so much more than twenty minutes of people just throwing their bodies around the stage."

Blue Love draws inspiration from the sentimental depiction of heterosexual love. Two characters, Glen (Parker) and Rhonda (Veronica Neave), invite you into their home, with the scene set for a party. It's a set-up that leaves ample room for an hilarious dismantling of the myths surrounding marriage and domestic bliss.

Parker says his work questions the very notion of 'till death do us part'.

"I think it's important to be happy, and then you empower the other person in the relationship - maybe you don't last forever, but that's not such a bad thing. The marriage or relationship shouldn't be judged as a failure if it doesn't last a lifetime," he says.

The show is also heavily influenced by popular music. In one sparkling scene, Glen and Rhonda argue using only song titles as dialogue. Parker trained as a singer before embarking on a career in dance. Surprisingly, considering his playful use of language in his shows, a serious childhood speech impediment kept him from speaking until he was six years old.

"I was not even able to ask questions about what was happening to me because I could not get the words out - but strangely I could sing," he wrote in the production notes for last year's This Show is About People.

by DAREN POPE

Malthouse Theatre
113 Sturt Street, Southbank
June 18 - 28
www.malthhousetheatre.com.au