2002 Grey Panthers
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Darwin Entertainment Centre Studio, Darwin City
Throughout the year, 2002
In the year of 2002, the Grey Panthers concentrated on developing their dance and singing skills through their weekly workshop program and continued with their smaller one off performances: Healthy Heart, Arthritis Breakfast, Vintage Mart (30 years of Brown’s Mart), Jingili Water Gardens - Life Be In it, Council for the Ageing, and Ausdance’s Deluge of Dance.
Kay Brown joined the Tracks cast of Fierce, the Meeting of Olive Pink, and toured to Alice Springs
Creative Team
Program Leaders: David McMicken, Merrilee Mills
Choreographers: David McMicken
Participants
Lucy Aylett, Kath Baldwin , Betty Ballinger, Barby Barclay, Kay Brown, Adie Bruce, Bette Chapman, Beryl Darben, Nora Francis, Audrey Gorring, Jan Hastings, Crena Hemmings, Bobbie Johnstone, Elaine Marlow, Lois Penman, Shirley Somers, Hanna Stamm, Audrey Svara , Punny Vegter, Mavis Waddell, and Jacquie Williams
Tracks 2002
Artistic Directors: David McMicken and Tim Newth
Office Administration /Book-keeper: Heather Richards
Production Manager: James Forest
Multicultural Artist in Residence: Betchay Mondragon
Grey Panthers Coordinator: Merrilee Mills
Publicist: Sue Camilleri
Committee Members: David Taylor (Chair), Jackie Wurm (Vice-Chair), Glenn Bernardin (Treasurer), Kyleigh Hindson (Secretary/Public Officer), Ken Conway, Nicole Cridland, Kay Brown (Ordinary Committee Members), David McMicken and Tim Newth (Ex-Officio Members)
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Responses
"It would be no exaggeration to say that some of the richest and most rewarding experiences of my life as an artist…no, of my life full stop…have been spent in the company of the Grey Panthers.
We think of the Panthers as a dance troupe, and yet, when I think back, I also hear the music. “It’s Not Unusual to Want Sex at Sixty Five” ran the first line of our own special take on Tom Jones, in a song that long became an anthem of this group of women:- a group determined to show that feisty, vibrant womanhood is not diminished by the number of trips one has made around the sun.
That was the Old Spice Club, and the memory of Hanna Stamm wildly roller- skating across the floor of Brown’s Mart remains vivid more than twenty years later.
Other projects followed and the music continued….Superwomen Eat All –Bran and Pop Pink Pills with Brandy, My Hands Tell the Story, Pennies from Heaven, Time after Time, History Repeating…..The Lady is a Tramp!
Ah, Yes….I Remember It Well…..
Over more than two decades, we’ve also travelled the road of life together. When my own children were born, the knitted bootees flowed. Most of the GPs came to Yoris’ and my wedding. We have also been there to mourn the passing of our own and of those dear to us. We are, in short, family.
My most recent experience with the GPs was working on the stage adaptation of Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, a story rich in references to the joy and wisdom to be shared when we are brave enough, open enough to break the barrier that the term ‘generation gap’ seeks to build between us. It was magical.
We’ve lived, we’ve danced, we’ve sung, and we’ve created memories. Golden glomesh bags full of memories." Merrilee Mills