Future Reverie

Future Reverie launches Sydney Dance Company’s 2027 Sydney Season with an ambitious new work; an electric meeting of four choreographic forces: Richard Cilli, Antony Hamilton, Sela Vai and Charmene Yap. Presented at Carriageworks, Future Reverie is a heady ritual of joy; a hypnotic experience that brings together distinct visions, converging in a singular performance.

Driven by a pulsating electronic score by DJ Deepchild (Rick Bull), Future Reverie draws on the interplay between nostalgia, movement and euphoria. Presented in the round, the work features Sydney Dance Company’s full Ensemble alongside eight Pre-Professional Year students. The combination of the music, powerful choreography and striking lightscapes create an exhilarating experience that will make you move.

Save with a 2-Season Subscription or enjoy a premium experience with a Chair’s Evening Subscription.

2-Season Subscription
Secure your seat to both our 2027 productions and enjoy exclusive subscriber benefits. Save 15%, receive priority seating, and enjoy flexible booking — the best value for the full season.

Chair’s Evening Subscription
Elevate your experience by joining our Chair’s Evening. Your subscription includes a pre-performance reception with members of our Board, artistic and creative team.

Opening Night: Wednesday 16 June 2027

Season Dates: 16 – 26 June 2027

Tuesday – Saturdays: 7.30pm

Matinee Performance: Saturday 26 June, 3.00pm

Chair’s Evening: Thursday 17 June, 7.30pm

Secondary School Matinee: Wednesday 23 June 12.00pm

Q&A: Saturday 26 June, 3.00pm (after the performance)

Future Reverie will be performed at Bay 17, Carriageworks.

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Richard Cilli

Richard Cilli brings together his experience as a dancer, rehearsal director and choreographer to support artistic excellence across Sydney Dance Company. In this role, he works closely with dancers, choreographers and creative teams to steward repertoire, nurture ensemble culture and support the ongoing development of artists working at the highest level.

As a performer, Richard has enjoyed an acclaimed career in Australia and internationally. He was awarded the Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer in 2010 for his performance in Rafael Bonachela’s We Unfold, and was also the winner of The Australian Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Ballet Competition in 2012. Across his career he has interpreted works by an exceptional range of choreographers, including Rafael Bonachela, Lloyd Newson, Stephanie Lake, William Forsythe, Anouk van Dijk, Jacopo Godani, Lucy Guerin, Gideon Obarzanek, Alexander Ekman, Adam Linder, Emanuel Gat and Kenneth Kvarnström. Beyond his tenure with Sydney Dance Company, he has performed with Rambert (UK), Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc, Australasian Dance Collective, Dancenorth, and K. Kvarnström & Co (Sweden).

Born on Whadjuk Noongar Country (Perth), Richard trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Taipei National University of the Arts, and later completed studies in Arts and Cultural Management at Deakin University.

As a choreographer, Richard has created work for Sydney Dance Company and its Pre-Professional Year, The Australian Ballet, LINK Dance Company and WAAPA, as well as independent projects. In 2025, he created Throng for Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year.

A certified Countertechnique teacher, he has taught extensively in Australia and internationally, including at Springboard Dance Montreal’s One Body, One Career intensive.

Alongside his artistic practice, Richard contributes to the sector through governance and mentorship. He currently serves on the Board of Quantum Leap, driven by his belief in the creative power of young people, sector sustainability and accessibility to dance in Australia.

Antony Hamilton

Appointed in 2019, Antony Hamilton is presently Artistic Director of Melbourne/Naarm based dance company Chunky Move. His choreographic work examines the body set against intersecting narratives that explore past, present and future. His work is known for its sophisticated approach to integrated design and he works with his collaborators to develop unique and immersive performance environments. Antony has also developed a studio teaching practice and regularly leads dance and choreographic workshops globally.

Antony has been the recipient of major fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, Creative Australia and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria for Melbourne NOW. He was the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018, and a Helsinki Dancehouse SPARKS program mentor in 2020/2021. Antony also writes and has been published in catalogues including for Venice Biennale De Danza.

Antony has created numerous national and international commissions, including Keep Everything and I Like This for Chunky Move, Black Project 3 for The Lyon Opera Ballet (FR) Sentinel for Skanes Dansteater (SE) They Want New Language for La Comète (FR) and Forever and Ever for Sydney Dance Company.

Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2, and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Company). He has won numerous Green Room Awards including Outstanding Technical Design for his internationally acclaimed 2024 Chunky Move work U>N>I>T>E>D. He has also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING.

His most recent work as Artistic Director at Chunky Move Time Remaining, premiered in 2026 as a major commission for Melbourne’s festival of Art, Ideas, Sound and Technology, Now or Never.

Sela Vai

Sela Vai is an Aria award-winning Tongan-Australian creative director and choreographer, celebrated worldwide for her distinctive choreography and empowering presence.

She is currently Creative Director of the TONES AND I’s Australia and New Zealand Headlining Tour, choreographer of Baker Boy’s DJANDJAY Tour in 2026 and performance coach of The 046’s Legacy in Motion Tour in 2026.

With an impressive portfolio of clients and credits, including Pepsi, Apple, Tones and I, Samsung, Hydralyte, The Iconic, MECCA, CADA, Paspaley, Suncorp, QT Hotels, Baker Boy, the A-League, Thelma Plum, The 046, Ngaiire, No Mono, Milan Ring, BloodMoon, and more, Sela Vai has left an indelible mark in the industry.

Sela is an award-winning director, having won an ARIA for Tones and I’s music video Dance With Me; and two FBI Smac Award’s for “Best On Stage” for her directorial debut with RECLAIM and “Best Arts Program” for her work co-choreographing Club Chrome’s debut show. In 2022, her choreography, casting and performance was again recognised for “Best Video” by the FBI Radio Smac Awards for the music video Closer by Ngaiire.

Sela’s works have graced some of the most prestigious platforms, including the Art Gallery of NSW, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, and was commissioned for a dance film by the Powerhouse Museum featured on NOWNESS.

Sela has presented at TEDx Sydney, demonstrating her expertise and leadership in the creative industry. As the founder of HUMXN Company, her passion for creativity and innovation continues to empower the next generation.

Amongst her renowned clientele, Sela’s passion for diversifying the commercial spotlight is championed through her a role as Associate Artist for Black Birds Theatre company.

Charmene Yap

Charmene Yap is a multi-award-winning dancer, choreographer, and movement director. She currently serves as the Rehearsal Associate for Sydney Dance Company, a role she has held since its inception in September 2019 with the support of the Nelson Meers Foundation and Sydney Dance Company’s Dancers Circle. In 2027, Charmene will relocate to Boorloo/Perth to step into her new role as Co-Artistic Director of Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia, collaborating alongside her creative partner, Cass Mortimer Eipper.

Charmene’s acclaimed performance career spans a decade as a core dancer with Sydney Dance Company (joining in 2010), alongside engagements with other premier Australian companies including Chunky Move, Tasdance, Dancenorth, and Lucy Guerin Inc., as well as New York’s Armitage Gone! Dance Company. Throughout her career, she has performed works by landmark choreographers such as Rafael Bonachela, William Forsythe, Alexander Ekman, Lucy Guerin, Gideon Obazarnek, Jacopo Godani, Emanuel Gat, Andonis Foniadakis, Antony Hamilton, Melanie Lane, Stephanie Lake, Prue Lang, Gavin Webber, and the late Tanja Liedtke amongst others. Her distinguished career has been recognized with the Australian Dance Award (2013) and two Helpmann Awards for Best Female Dancer (2012, 2014).

As a versatile choreographer and movement director, Charmene creates across stage, film, music videos, and fashion. Her notable choreographic works include Grey Rhino (co-choreographed with Cass Mortimer Eipper for Sydney Festival 2022), Do We, and Drunk Tank Pink. Her extensive movement direction credits include collaborations with Belvoir St Theatre (Tell Me I’m Here, The Weekend, The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead), Sydney Theatre Company (The Talented Mr Ripley), Opera Australia (Turandot), site-specific works with visual artist Lauren Brincat (When Do I Breathe, Tutti Presto fff), fashion runway choreography for designer Bianca Spender, alongside screen performances in Del Kathryn Barton’s Red and Katie Noonan’s Quicksand.

Deepchild (Rick Bull)
Composer

Deepchild is production alias of Rick Bull, sound designer, DJ and university academic, who’s echo-soaked, sonically dense techno and conceptual electronica has seen him perform live in institutions spanning Berlin club institutions Berghain, Panoramabar and Tresor, to the Sydney Opera House, Detroit “Movement” Festival, and countless club tours from Tokyo to New York, Kiev to Glasgow.

Granular, noise-heavy and smeared with signature vocal fragments, Rick’s work speaks both to an obsession with the uneasy spectrality of 90’s electronica, culture and politics, and an active and enduring position at the forefront of contemporary club culture. At it’s core, Rick’s work seeks to reflect and metabolise questions of temporality, liminality, transformation and possibility, rather than dwelling in the genre revisionism which has marked recent ‘rave’ culture.

Recent works like his acclaimed Fathersong album for German’s Mille Plateaux imprint eschew dancefloor signifiers almost entirely, offering a ‘hauntological’ invitation to reflect on the transformative grace offered through and beyond grief.

Now based in Sydney after years between Berlin and London, Rick has remained a consistently booked resident DJ at Darlinghurst’s Club 77, delivering coveted all-night performances in this hallowed space. His sound design has featured on feature films and broadcast work from SBS and ABC tv and radio, whilst original work has received critical support from journals including The Wire, DJ Mag and Rolling Stone Magazine.

In the artist’s own words:

“For me, electronic music, culture and psychedelic experience were tools to navigate the suffocating homogenic stranglehold of late capitalism. Rather than being broadcast and mediated, my dancefloor moments were transformative because they remained hidden, sonically unfamiliar and impossible to decode. The somatics of dance experience remain pathways to nowness, embodiment, gratitude and perhaps even community. At the helm for me are the voices of Sun Ra, Octavia Butler, Lee ‘Skratch’ Perry, Kowdo Eshun – those who haven’t forsaken the past as much as insist that kinder and wilder fictions are ours to author together.”

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Join us for an intimate reception during each of our Sydney seasons, hosted by Emma-Jane Newton, Chair of the Sydney Dance Company Board. This special event offers a unique opportunity to hear directly from the creative team, connect with the Sydney Dance Company community, and enjoy drinks and canapés with fellow supporters.

Receive a discount when you purchase a Chair’s Evening Subscription.
– Premium seat(s) in the theatre
– Invitation-only function with insights from the creative team over drinks and canapés

Future Reverie Chair’s Evening: Thursday 17 June 2027
Carriageworks
Pre-show reception at 6.30pm
Performance at 7.30pm

Wild Order Chair’s Evening: Friday 22 October 2027
Roslyn Packer Theatre
Pre-show reception at 6.30pm
Performance at 7.30pm

To talk about becoming more involved with the Sydney Dance Company family, please contact philanthropy on +61 2 9258 4882 or via email.

Sydney Dance Company is an affiliate of the NSW Government’s Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care’s Companion Card program. Support persons receive a ticket to performances and public classes when accompanying a Companion Card holder.

Please email boxoffice@sydneydancecompany.com to book a performance ticket.

If you require wheelchair seating, please contact Sydney Dance Company Box Office at:

Phone: +61 2 9221 4811
Email: boxoffice@sydneydancecompany.com

Our school matinees introduce students to cutting-edge contemporary dance with valuable learning opportunities.

– Pre-show talks and demonstrations provide insight into the creative process.
– Post-show panels and Q&As with dancers, creatives, and arts professionals deepen understanding of performance-making and highlight career pathways in the arts.

Secondary School Matinee: Wednesday 23 June, 12pm

For more details, visit our Schools page or complete an Expressions of Interest Form and our Education Team will be in touch.

Future Reverie will be performed at Bay 17, Carriageworks.