RECOVERY

There are two womenNatalie and ShannonThere were othersThey are goneThis is what remains

 Recovery is dance, ceremony, gathering and living

Recovery began six years ago following untimely deaths in each of our families. We initially sought to grab grief by the scruff of its neck and drag it into the now of performance. 

Six years on, following a slow-burn process, Recovery is a dance seeking to question and represent the edges of the human capacity to cope, to keep going, to suffer and to imagine that everything is or isn't OK. Recovery considers how we travel through life in an ‘aftermath’, gathering its audience to see two women coping and living. 

We are engaged in a delicate duel with time – between then, soon and now.  Every time death comes to others, and we are spared, we can say “I am still here”, and in that stillness, here, we are dancing.

– Nat Cursio and Shannon Bott

Choreography and Direction: Shannon Bott, Nat Cursio and Simon EllisPerformance: Shannon Bott and Nat CursioLight: Ben Cobham – Bluebottle Sound: Byron ScullinSound Operation: Atticus BastowContributors to research phases: Pete Brundle, Fiona Bryant, Vanessa Chapple, Ben Cisterne and Paula LevisImages: Kirsty Argyle Cover Sketch: Paula Levis

This project has been supported by The Substation through their artist residency program. Earlier phases of research were supported by The Besen Family Foundation, Arts House, Arts Victoria, The Australia Council for the Arts, Chunky Move and Dancehouse.

Thank you: Jeremy Gaden, Erin Milne, Cassandra Gray, Luke Butler, Paul and Rhonda at The Substation, Tamara Saulwick, Peter Eckersall, Melissa Jones, Ben Shaw, Mark Tracy, Dr. John Ireson, Margaret Brundle, Dianne Reid, Jo Lloyd, Bagryana Popov, Hoang Tran Nguyen, Jason Maling, Elizabeth Boyce, Andrew Binns, Kath Papas, Kara Ward, Paul Summers, Insite Arts, Cobie Orger, Kirsty Argyle, Paea Leach, Chris Maund, Rachel Roberts, Frankie Bott-Maund, Coen Cursio-Brundle and Eileen Bott and Tony Cursio.