He has always been fascinated by the use of mime-signing to represent human archetypes of behaviour, the syncopated rhythm of Latin American dances and the possibility of expressing his being through the power of art, “which takes shape from the heart.”
Emilio Ricciuti, the son of migrants from Abruzzo ― his father from Sant'Eufemia, in the province of Pescara, and his mother from Sulmona, in the province of L'Aquila ― grew up observing the strained gazes of his parents every day, witnessing the immense struggles of those who are forced to abandon an entire life to build a more certain future in an unfamiliar location.
At the end of the Second World War, his paternal grandparents had found their home partially destroyed by bombing. After an initial stop in the United States, his father decided to join an uncle in Australia in 1950. He was only eighteen years old, wanted to work and needed to send his savings to Italy to support the rebuilding of his home town.
A few years later, in the early 1960s, a brief return to the small town in Abruzzo allowed his mother and father to cross paths, and eventually, decide to settle permanently in Melbourne to start their family.
The early days in the new country were very hard and full of challenges, but Emilio Ricciuti still vividly remembers his father's enthusiasm for music, a passion he never abandoned.
"He would perform on the accordion and saxophone at the local town hall every weekend and always encouraged us to play,” he says.
“Soon, I developed a great passion for percussion; my brother for the guitar, and my sister for the piano. My mother, in fact, often remembers how I used to hit pots and pans with a wooden spoon to make music when I was very young.”
And it wasn’t only sounds and melodies Ricciuti had a predilection for, but also theatre.
"I wanted to make people laugh, to entertain my family," he explains.
"I loved Charlie Chaplin and Rowan Atkinson - the famous Mr Bean - and I loved how they communicated through mimicry alone; they really inspired me.”
For a short period of his life, Ricciuti tried to follow the expectations of society at the time, earning a degree in nutrition and working as a dietician:
“Five years later, I was diagnosed with blood cancer. It was a wake-up call; I left everything, and departed, driven by an artistic urge,” he says.
Ricciuti then began travelling the globe, truly immersing himself in the world of dance and theatre: from Brazil for carnival and samba to Argentina for tango, from Spain for flamenco to Italy for folk dances.
"When I returned to Melbourne, remarkably, my tumour had disappeared. I think it was because I had finally abandoned labels and was doing what I was really passionate about,” the artist continues.
An unexpected victory in the 2006 Latin American dance competition in Victoria prompted Ricciuti to follow a childhood dream, expressed through “a drawing of an art studio in the middle of a city.”
A degree in Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne and a successful tour of Australia, with the musical Ciao Italy Show, inspired by his father's journey as a migrant, were only the beginning of the realisation of his dreams.
The Ella Rose Studios theatre in Fairfield with the piazzetta at its entrance. (Photo provided)
"I had seen an old warehouse for sale in Fairfield: it was just as I had imagined my theatre to be, but I could not afford it. I nevertheless sent my offer to the owner who, of course, rejected it because it did not match his expectations,” he says.
Half an hour later, however, the estate agent called me back to ask me my parents' names: the owner of the building was originally from the same town in Abruzzo and had lived a few hundred metres away from my paternal grandparents. At the end of the Second World War, his house had been destroyed, but my father and grandparents had taken him and his family into their home to help them. He said: 'I have never forgotten what they did for us', and extraordinarily, he decided to accept my offer for the warehouse."
Opened in 2018, the Ela Rose Studios arts centre is in the heart of Fairfield; a workshop of ideas, creativity and music, even boasting a small Italian-style piazza, to honour that distant friendship and the small town in Abruzzo that tied his story to his father's.
There are dance lessons, theatre seminars, cultural experiences for students and the Ciao Italy Show, which will be staged again next March 25 ― the space intends to open its doors to anyone who wants to follow a dream.
“I will always be grateful to have trusted my instinct,” Ricciuti adds.
“I am proud of my family and, above all, moved by the opportunities that the world can offer, if you really believe.”
