There are some new faces amongst the dancers at Sydney Dance Company this year. Daniel Roberts, Chloe Leong and Sam Young-Wright have joined the company's ranks, with Josephine Weise joining as a trainee.
Roberts comes to SDC from West Australian Ballet, which is about to premiere his latest work, Hold the Fourth, as part of the “Ballet at the Quarry Season.” Leong has been dancing in Spain with IT Dansa, a postgraduate training company that is part of the Insititut del Teatre of Barcelona. Young-Wright is no stranger to SDC, having just graduated from its inaugural Pre-Professional Year (PPY). He is the first PPY graduate to be offered a full-time contract with SDC. Weise is also a graduate of the PPY, and is currently dancing in Mira Calix’s art installation Inside There Falls, as part of Sydney Festival.
The company also welcomes new rehearsal director, Lee Johnston and welcomes back dancer Richard Cilli, who spent 2013 and 2014 working independently in Australia and Europe.
Johnston comes to SDC from National Dance Company Wales, where she has been rehearsal director, interim director and house choreographer. She has taught technique and repertoire masterclasses throughout the UK and Sydney including Dartington College of the Arts, Chester University, 2Faced Dance, Howell’s School and Sydney Dance Company’s PPY.
Cilli returns to SDC from K.Kvarnström & Co in Stockholm, Sweden, where he spent 2014. During this year he also choreographed and staged an excerpt of his work Corpus Callosum on the dancers of the Australian Ballet for the ”Bodytorque.DNA” season. During 2013, he danced for London based choreographer Alexander Whitley in The Measures Taken at Sadler's Wells Theatre, restaged Rafael Bonachela’s work The Land of Yes and the Land of No on students of the New Zealand School of Dance, and developed and performed Qualia, a short work in collaboration with Natalie Allen For Perth’s Strut Dance.
You can check out the new (and returned!) dancers on stage for the first time in 2015 in Sydney Dance Company’s Frame of Mind, opening at Sydney Theatre March 6, Canberra Theatre Centre April 31 and Southbank Theatre Centre, Melbourne May 6. Book at www.sydneydancecompany.com.
Clockwise from top left: Josephine Weise, Chloe Leong, Richard Cilli, Daniel Roberts. All photos: Peter Greig, except Richard Cilli - photo: Ben Symons.
