One of two premiere works of 2001-2002 season, The Silent Circle featured the operatic voice of world-class opera singer Cheryl Parrish, who has performed on more than 400 of the world's major operatic stages. The original score, composed and performed live by Graham Reynolds and Peter Stopchinski, brings together elegant and tumbling melodies that evolve to electronic experimentations and vibrant percussion pieces. A work about the many facets of passion and human connectivity, the dance moves from luscious tenderness to ecstatic athleticism. Performed in the round, Brandon Ariel's installation, "a mass of metal rods twisted and intertwined into a giant jagged ring that hung suspended over the dancers like a great crown of thorns," was set around a circular screen on which video images were projected.

"Step into love's pure flame, sang soprano Cheryl Parrish with mesmerizing authority as she walked around the center of Ducloux Hall. Within the perimeter of the circle marked out by her steps were six dancers clothed in varying shades of scarlet, their fluid bodies extending and arching, compressing and turning, moving inward and outward in unpredictable patterns, like tongues of fire."

"There is . . .a beauty that was evident in the program that is less easily described: the beauty of collaboration. Something in the this combination of artists, pulled together from various disciplines, seemed to be feeding all of them, leading them to expand their creative limits, to give to the other artists something they could play off of, build off of. The feeling of exchange in the air, exchange among artists, was…beautiful and exhilarating.”

" It was enticing in that enigmatic way that fire is, so bright and intense and somehow not quite of this world, so that you want to be part of it even if doing so is to immolate yourself.”
Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

"The artistic whole-lights, projections, music, motions, costumes, everything working together-seemed entirely unfamiliar. Something in it refused to be specific, and instead became evocative, intelligent, but also intuitive."

"Together they advanced toward something remarkable."
Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman

Performed at Ducloux Hall, Austin Lyric Opera. Video by Colin Lowry, Linedashmedia and Alison White, Railyard Studios / Lighting by Brian Davis / Metal Installation Set by Brandon Ariel / Costume Design by Roxana Ramseur / Space Design by Ann Marie Gordon / Live Music, Quartet: piano, marimba, vibraphone, drums, and electronics. / Photography by Beverly Barrett.

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