|
The current darling of the UK dance scene, resident company at the Brighton Dome on the south coast, the Hofesh Shechter Company makes its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October.
Shechter’s works are supremely physical and charged with engaging ideas. He touches the fine line between the magnitude and the fragility of human life, expressing humanity in bold statements and poignant moments alike.
Born in Israel, Shechter graduated from the Jerusalem Academy of Dance in 1993 and joined Batsheva Dance Company under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin. He remained a member of the company for nearly 10 years before leaving Israel for the UK to join Israeli-in-exile Jasmin Vardimon in 2002.
Whilst in Tel Aviv, Hofesh began drum and percussion studies and continued later in Paris at the Agostiny College of Rhythm. Subsequently, he began experimenting and developing his own music while participating in various projects in Europe involving dance, theatre and body-percussion and continues to use his own music as an integral part of his choreographic works.
His choreographic debut, Fragments, for which he also created the score, toured both nationally and internationally to Finland, Italy, Portugal, Korea and Poland, where the piece won first place in the 3rd Serge Diaghilev choreography competition. In 2004 Hofesh was commissioned by The Place Prize to create the sextet, Cult. The work was one of five selected finalists and received the Audience Choice Award. From 2004 to 2006 Shechter was Associate Artist at The Place and was commissioned by the Robin Howard Foundation to create Uprising, his ever-popular work for seven men. Fragments, Cult and Uprising form the triple bill deGENERATION, Hofesh’s first full evening of work.
A unique commission by the three main London dance houses - Sadler’s Wells, Southbank and The Place - in 2007 resulted in In Your Rooms, which was nominated for a South Bank Show Award and won the Critics Circle Award for Best Choreography (modern) in 2008.
Hofesh has been commissioned by dance companies throughout Europe and, for the 2009-10 season, the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York.
Hofesh worked as choreographer at The Royal Court Theatre, London for Motortown by Simon Stephens (2006) and The Arsonists (2007), as well as the Royal National Theatre’s award-winning production of Saint Joan (2007).
He formed the Hofesh Shechter Company in 2008.
The piece is named In Your Rooms and it’s probably the most important new dance-work to be created in Britain since the millennium. The Observer
Melbourne International Arts Festival 2009
9-12 October
the Arts Centre, Playhouse
St Kilda Rd,
Melbourne
Bookings: 1300 182 183 or the Arts Centre
|
