Harrison Ritchie-Jones finds the breaking point in ‘R.A.I.N’
Award-winning choreographer Harrison Ritchie-Jones returns to Arts House with the world premiere of R.A.I.N, a new contemporary dance work that uses a familiar mindfulness framework as a springboard into fiction, uncertainty and shifting realities.
R.A.I.N takes its name from the meditation framework Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Nurture, a practice designed to help people move through difficult emotions and cultivate self-compassion. Rather than following the framework as an instruction, Ritchie-Jones and long-time collaborator Michaela Tancheff use it as a provocation, pushing their movement-partnering practice towards the point where it begins to break apart.
The pair previously collaborated on CUDDLE, which was presented at Arts House in 2024. With R.A.I.N, they continue a creative partnership focused on testing the limits of physical collaboration and discovering what might emerge beyond the familiar.
The work follows a reflective state as it is hijacked by fictional histories, or perhaps futures, giving way to uncertainty, invention and new possibilities. Ritchie-Jones describes the work as a layered world in which different realities continually collide.
“Michaela and I have been expanding what we’ve built together, testing what happens when we push past what we know and find the point where it starts to break apart and reveal something entirely new,” said Ritchie-Jones.
Set within the confines of a black box theatre, R.A.I.N strips away the props, tricks and theatrical devices for which Ritchie-Jones is known, creating a performance that is raw, exposed and reflective.
Built around improvisation and shifting performance structures, the work leaves room to change from one night to the next. Moving between hypnotic precision, deadpan absurdity and sudden slapstick, R.A.I.N turns repetition into something strange, funny and unexpectedly suspenseful.
Ritchie-Jones is an award-winning choreographer and dancer whose work is recognised for its eclectic and unconventional approach to contemporary dance, blending technical precision with surreal storytelling. He has received multiple Green Room Awards and the 2025 Melbourne Fringe Director’s Choice Award.
R.A.I.N will have its world premiere at Arts House from 16–20 September. Tickets are on sale from $15 at artshouse.com.au.
R.A.I.N. Image credit Darren Gill