At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

Galleries are closed today. Our exhibitions are always free.

STRUT Dance

Restore 2025

Restore 2025

PICA partners with STRUT Dance to present Restore, a dynamic double bill of new and recent dance works highlighting innovation and cross-regional collaboration. In 2025, Restore features a new choreographic commission from Adelina Larsson Mendoza and the West Australian premiere of CUDDLE by Harrison Ritchie-Jones.   

In CUDDLE, two of Melbourne’s contemporary dance artists on the rise, Harrison Ritchie-Jones and Michaela Tancheff, engage in a difficult and dynamic duel filled with surreal sonic and visual surprises. Weaving contemporary dance with elements from martial arts, figure skating, rodeo barnyard dance and a host of more abstract inspirations, CUDDLE ebbs and flows from the joyful and absurd to the inventive and technically brilliant.

Bell is a new solo performance and the latest instalment in Min Folkdans, an ongoing archival research project and choreographic collection by Adelina Larsson-Mendoza. Drawing from Larsson-Mendoza’s Swedish-Mexican family history, Min Folkdans unfolds as a personal, political, and historical meditation on the folk dances that have shaped her imagination. 

For audiences, the program offers the opportunity to experience dance works that share formal and conceptual threads, creating a dialogue between diverse artistic visions. For the artists, Restore facilitates deeper personal and creative connections across the region, fostering a spirit of exchange and collaboration.  

Now in its second iteration, Restore responds to the growing demand for sustainability in choreographic practices. The initiative emphasises the importance of light production design, supporting independent dance practices with a model that enables greater mobility of works. Restore aims to create sustainable pathways for dance to thrive, evolve and reach a broader audience.  

View the program

Season Dates/ Times
Wednesday 25 June 7:00pm (Industry Preview)
Thursday 26 June 7:00pm (Opening Night)
Friday 27 June 7:00pm (incl. Pre-show talk at 5.30pm)
Saturday 28 June 7:00pm (Closing Night)

Duration
90 minutes (including a 20 minute interval)

Recommended
Ages 15+ 

Content Warning
CUDDLE: Dynamic lighting and video, sound and strobe effects, nudity.

Artist Talk with Adelina Larsson Mendoza
Fresh from her durational solo last summer at The Watermill Center in Long Island, New York, Larsson Mendoza offers a once-only, intimate Artist Talk that reflects on her significant body of work. Audiences are invited to explore the highlights of her recent Min Folkdans archival project through a series of anecdotes, objects and choreographic reflections which form the background to her Restore commission Bell.

Friday 27 June 2025, 5:30pm | PICA Foyer | Free registration
(For the full experience, we recommend you purchase a ticket to the Restore show happening after.)

Register Here

About the Artists

STRUT Dance is a choreographic centre based in Boorloo, Western Australia. STRUT nurtures and sustains a thriving community of diverse dance artists and connects them with audiences to share their work.

Harrison Ritchie-Jones

Harrison Ritchie-Jones is an independent dancer, choreographer and filmmaker based in Naarm/Melbourne. His choreographic practice celebrates dance and is fuelled by a curiosity in techniques from a range of physical practices. Upskilling and blending forms, he uses dance to carve out spaces for absurdity, humour and physical virtuosity to work together in surreal and expressive explorations of storytelling. 

Adelina Larsson Mendoza

Adelina Larsson Mendoza is an award-winning choreographer living in Wadandi Boodja in Wooditjup Margaret River. Her choreographic work has followed an interest in the body as archive, body as place and dance as an ephemeral practice. Her choreographic series In the Rite attempts to embody myths from her dual Mexican and Swedish cultural histories. Absence is persistently present in her process and works. As a diaspora and a dancer attempting to capture or animate ephemerality she is interested in animating the inanimate, choreographing materials and creating installations and sculptures.  

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