Hofesh Shechter

Hofesh Shechter

Choreographer

Photo: Hugo Glendinning

British-Israelian Hofesh Shechter (Jerusalem, 1975) is one of the UK’s most exciting artists, recognized as both a choreographer and composer. He set up his own international touring company, the Hofesh Shechter Company in 2008 and he is linked to Sadler’s Wells in London as an associate artist. His works have been taken into the repertory of many UK and international dance companies including Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York), Carte Blanche Dance Company (Norway), Bern Ballett (Switzerland), Scottish Dance Theatre (UK) and CandoCo (UK). In season 2013-2014 NDT 1 performed his double bill Uprising/In your rooms (2009). Shechter created his first work Clowns for the company of NDT 1 in season 2015-2016.

Shechter graduated from the Jerusalem Academy for Dance and Music before moving to Tel Aviv to join the Batsheva Dance Company. Here he worked with artistic director Ohad Naharin. Shechter began drum and percussion studies whilst in Tel Aviv and subsequently, he began experimenting and developing his own music while participating in various projects in Europe involving dance, theatre and body-percussion. In 2002 Shechter arrived in the UK.

Here, his choreographic debut, Fragments, immediately attracted international attention and in 2004 his work Cult was announced winner of 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. The three works together formed the triple bill deGENERATION, Shechter’s first full evening of work.

Shechter’s In your rooms was nominated for a South Bank Show Award and won the Critics’ Circle Award for best modern choreography in 2008. He adjusted his acclaimed double bill Uprising/In your rooms to feature a band of 20 musicians alongside a company of 17 dancers. In 2010 his first full-length work Political Mother premiered at the Brighton Festival, winning 5 star reviews and subsequently embarking on an extensive international tour. In 2013 Shechter cooperated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 2014 and 2015 Shechter created a trilogy, Barbarians.