Richard Cilli
Richard Cilli is a contemporary dance practitioner whose experience began with STEPS Youth Dance Company. He has just been offered a contract with Australia's Premier contemporary dance company, Sydney Dance Company under the artistic direction of Raphael Bonacela
From 1999 till the present he has been involved in most projects including two interstate tours to the Australian Youth Dance Festival in 2001 (EDGETEST – Felicity Bott and Sete Tele) and 2006 (Kissxx – Danielle Micich. His connection with STEPS is still very strong, being a member of the board of management. He was also chosen to be choreographic assistant to Artistic Director Danielle Micich for the toured version of Kissxx (2006), he then worked as Emerging Choreographer on the 10th anniversary work of the ‘Boys Can Dance’ project Dash (2007), and was the winner of the 2007 ArtsWA STEPS Youth Dance Scholarship.Cilli, along with Micich, Alice Lee Holland and Shona Erskine, received the 2007 Ausdance WA award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for their work on Dash.
Currently he is completing his final year of a BA (Dance) at WAAPA. His time at the Academy so far has seen him work with choreographers Patrice Smith, Nanette Hassall, Holly Carter, and Umesh Shetty. He performed Carter’s work at the Australian Institute of Classical Dance in Melbourne. Cilli studied his second semester of 2007 on exchange at Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan; where along with classical and modern training, he also studied Chinese Opera Movement, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Mandarin Language. During his time at TNUA he worked with choreographers Huang Yi and Wu Jian-Wei under the supervision of Zhang Xiao-Xiong, and renowned fashion designer Sophie Hong. During his time in Taiwan he also created a work ‘Windhover’ for three dancers. Outside WAAPA and STEPS, Cilli has performed for Buzz Dance Theatre, Oz Concert, and Kompany Kido. He has been a member of the Department of Culture and the Arts’ Young People and the Arts Panel for the past three years. He has completed two years of his Bachelor of Law/Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Studies) at Murdoch University, and has completed his Certificate II in small business management. Cilli writes for DANCEtrain Magazine as the WA correspondent, and has been a contributor to DanceWest Magazine.
In 2008 he will be working with Anton to recreate Gary Stewart’s seminal work for Australian Dance Theatre ‘Birdbrain’. He will also be creating his own short length work, and dancing for renowned choreographers Sue Healy and Shona Erskine.
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