Richard Cilli & Claire Edwardes
Set in the formal world of a music and dance recital, a disturbing shadow of difference and rivalry arises between two performers on stage – a dancer and a percussionist. What they consider to be ‘pieces’ in a concert start to warp and intensify. The tension between them raises to fever pitch, resulting in a mesmerising display. The outcome is unsettling, impressive and wildly ecstatic.
With a range of rare percussion instruments such as the unique aluphone and waterphone, arresting sound and lighting design, and the darkly comedic, directorial touch of Gideon Obarzanek, Recital is an intriguing performance work with dance and music at its core, that takes the skills of the performers to their limits.
Three-time APRA Art Music Award-winning percussionist Claire Edwardes and Helpmann Award-winning dancer Richard Cilli combine forces in a hypnotically alluring exploration of how movement sounds, and how sound moves.
Produced by Erin Milne, Bureau of Works.
“An impressive cohort of Australian talent come together in a challenging, exciting and exhausting performance… A striking and most unusual blend of cutting-edge contemporary dance and music” – ArtsHub
“Exhilarating dance and percussion… The pay-off was brilliant but getting there was delightful.” – Witness
“Combining the impressive talents of percussionist Claire Edwardes and dancer Richard Cilli, it is a perfect fusion of their skills… It is neither dance nor music but a wonderful hybrid, the music seems to dance, and the movement embodies the sound… An exhilarating evening’s entertainment.” – Sydney Morning Herald
Dancer and choreographer Richard Cilli has performed the work of renowned Australian and international choreographers, including Anouk van Dijk, Gideon Obarzanek, William Forsythe, Lucy Guerin, Rafael Bonachela, Alexander Ekman, Jacopo Godani, Emanuel Gat, Kenneth Kvarnström, Alexander Whitley, Gabrielle Nankivell and Kristina Chan. He trained at STEPS Youth Dance Company, and then the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, graduating as Most Outstanding Student. Cilli joined Sydney Dance Company in 2009. He won the Helpmann award for Best Male Dancer in 2010 for his performance in Rafael Bonachela’s we unfold. He has been a member of Sydney Dance Company, K.Kvarnström & Co, Lucy Guerin Inc. and Chunky Move. As a choreographer Cilli has created work for Sydney Dance Company, The Australian Ballet, LINK Dance Company, and WAAPA, as well as independently produced work. Richard is a certified Countertechnique teacher, and continues to perform, teach and make work around Australia.
Internationally acclaimed percussion soloist, chamber musician and artistic director of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes has been described by the press as a ‘sorceress of percussion’ performing with ‘spellbinding intensity’ and ‘graceful virtuosity’. Her award-winning performances combine a theatrical energy with charismatic and original interpretations bringing to life the varied array of music she performs. Claire was the 2005 MCA/Freedman Fellow and she is the three-time winner (2016, 2012, 2007) of the APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Individual for her contribution to Australian music. In 2014 she was granted a prestigious Australia Council Music Fellowship and in 2016 Ensemble Offspring won the APRA Art Music Award for Excellence by an Organisation. Claire has performed concertos with all of the Australian orchestras as well as numerous European orchestras and has premiered works by an array of composers worldwide such as Harrison Birtwistle, Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats-Chernin and Matthew Shlomowitz. In her role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring she programs and performs to the highest level, some of the most innovative and cutting-edge music being presented in the world today. Claire is endorsed by Mike Balter Mallets and Adams Percussion. She teaches percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and maintains a busy concert schedule throughout Australia and abroad.
Erin Milne is an independent producer whose practice, Bureau of Works, is deeply driven by a passion for contemporary and experimental art that speaks to the here and now. Living and working on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation in Melbourne, Australia, Erin is committed to fostering distinctive voices and ambitious ideas both locally and internationally.
The company focuses on creating strategic opportunities for artists, supporting the creation of new work and exploratory form, and developing contexts that foster risk-taking and ambition.
Erin is a sought-after collaborator with some of Australia’s most distinctive and ambitious artists, including: one step at a time like this, Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey, Ridiculusmus, Jodee Mundy Collaborations, All the Queen’s Men, Gold Satino, Lz Dunn, Michaela Gleave, Anna Tregloan, Lemony S Puppet Theatre, Too Close to the Sun, Lara Tumak and Chris Kohn & Collaborators.
She is a producing and curatorial associate of Experimenta Media Arts and Punctum Live Arts, sessional lecturer at Deakin University, and board member of both Chamber Made and Elbow Room Theatre. Erin was recently awarded an Australia Council ISPA Fellowship for 2020-2022 and is an alumnus of the Australia Council’s Arts Leaders Program.
Erin Milne
Executive Producer
erin@bureauofworks.com.au
+61 412 853 220
