DIALOGUES. Mats Ek | Emma Portner | Sasha Waltz | Jiri Kylian | Crystal Pite

DIALOGUES. Mats Ek | Emma Portner | Sasha Waltz | Jiri Kylian | Crystal Pite | Ohad Naharin

16/11/2021 20:00

Александринский театр

DIALOGUES. Mats Ek | Emma Portner | Sasha Waltz | Jiri Kylian | Crystal Pite | Ohad Naharin

JULIET & ROMEO
Mats Ek | Choreography
Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski | Music
Mariko Kida | Dancer
Johnny McMillan | Dancer of the Staastballett Berlin

ISLANDS
Emma Portner | Choreography
Forest Swords | Music
Whitney Jensen, Samantha Lynch |Dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet

IMPROMPTUS
Sasha Waltz | Choreography
Franz Schubert | Music
Claudia de Serpa Soares, Gyung Moo Kim |Dancers of the Sasha Waltz & Guests

14’20’’
Jirí Kylián | Choreography
Dirk Haubrich | Music
Samantha Lynch/Whitney Jensen, Douwe Dekkers/Lucas Lima |Dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet

NEW PIECE
Crystal Pite | Choreography
Gregory Lau, Renée Sigouin | Dancers of the Kidd Pivot Company

B/OLERO
Ohad Naharin | Choreography
Maurice Ravel / Isao Tomita | Music
Maayan Shienfeld, Rani Labzelter | Dancers

Produced by Productions Sarfati with the support of Den Norske Opera & Ballett

ABOUT DIALOGUES

A dream evening for lovers of modern dance with no less than six of the world’s leading choreographers, each exploring in their own way the human soul in all its richness and diversity of language. The doyen Mats Ek will open the evening with an extract from his ballet Juliet and Romeo, a subtle work that plays on all registers of emotion. Canadian choreographer Emma Portner, spotted for her successful collaborations with Apple, Netflix, the Guggenheim Museum and several American music stars will follow with her ballet Islands. Berlin-based Sasha Waltz will explore the intimacy of body-to-body contact and the versatility of moods to the sublime music of Schubert. Jirí Kylián will continue to question this theme of the human soul through his piece 14’20’‘ while Ohad Naharin will deliver his powerful and committed version of Ravel’s Bolero in an arrangement by electronic music composer Isao Tomita. Finally, the icing on the cake is a creation by the Canadian Crystal Pite, a choreographer who claims the heritage of Forsythe, Kylián and Mats Ek and who shook audiences at the Palais Garnier alight in 2019 with her piece Body and soul. Six strong contemporary dance figures exploring a spectrum of feelings for a unique evening.

« Communication is a word defining a growing range of meanings. Today often connected to new medias as f i internet. But there is a much older form for interaction; stage-art. Ancient, some would say old-fashioned,but still the most direct way of sharing the living moment with an audience. In doing so this program wants to perform not only 6 pas-de-deuxes by 6 choreographers, but also emphasise the dialogue within the DIALOGUES »

MATS EK

ABOUT THE PIECES

JULIET & ROMEO
Pas de deux

Verona is a city captured by clan fights, failed conspirations and street violence. In the heart of this turmoil two youngsters from enemy families fall in love. An unstoppable love, a love that must not prevail, but a love that with its ruin brings enmity to an end.

«Why not Romeo and Juliet?
Faithful to his habits Shakespeare built his world-famous play on an existing source; the Italian tale named Julietta e Romeo. In the same order are the names ending his own version of the drama. Rightly so! It is in Julias family that the conflict in-between the two Veronese houses deepens, spreading its deadly result.
Why not Sergey Prokofievs music?
After dancing in two different versions and watching many more, I needed a new start. Tchaikovsky not only offered a great variety of sentiments – among them the expression for unrestrained love – but also dark shadows linked to the light within.»
Mats Ek

ISLANDS
Choreographer notes : TBC

IMPROMPTUS

For the first time in 2004 Sasha Waltz developed a dance piece based on the structure of a classical music composition. The music is performed live on stage together with vocal accompaniment of four »Schubert-Lieder«. The dance like the music creates in a subtle way emotional states between weightless floating and being off balance. Sasha Waltz researches in her work the existential questions of the human body with its vulnerability and beauty. Dance at its most riveting, at once unmasking, manipulating, and ultimately exalting in the innumerable aspects that make us human.

A production of Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin presented by Sasha Waltz & Guests. A coproduction with the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara. Sasha Waltz & Guests is funded by the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe.

14’20’’
excerpt/extended duet from the work 27’52”
Choreography Jiří Kylián
Music Dirk Haubrich (new composition, based upon 2 themes by Gustav Mahler)
Décor design Jiří Kylián
Costume design Joke Visser
Light design Kees Tjebbes
World première 27’52’’ 21 February 2002, Lucent Danstheater, Den Haag (NL)
Nederlands Dans Theater 2
Première 14’20’’ January 16, 2007, Reggio Emilia Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia (IT)
During the Gala dei Ritorni

The title 14’20” simply derives from the duration of this piece….

In fact it is a segment of the original work entitled 27’52”
Our life seems to be determined by time – But “time” is a very abstract term! We do not know what time is.
We have made machines which measure time more accurately than ever before….
This is surely very important, but many philosophers tell us, that there is no such thing as “time” – They teach us that “time”is only an invention of human beings….!
All this is possible, but one thing us sure: our time is determined by two minuscule moments:
The moment in which we are born and the moment in which we die.
The work I made is not only about “time”. It is also about “speed”, about “love” and about “aging”.
In fact it is all very simple but also incredibly complicated and for sure totally inexplicable!

Jiří Kylián, The Hague 22. July 2013

NEW PIECE FROM CRYSTAL PITE
Choreographer notes : TBC
Piece in creation.

Crystal Pite is developing an exciting new creation that will be performed by Gregory Lau and Renee Sigouin, two dancers from her Vancouver-based dance company, Kidd Pivot. The piece will be set to an original score by celebrated composer, Owen Belton, as well as music by The Cinematic Orchestra. The creative team also includes costume designer, Nancy Bryant and lighting designer, Eric Chad.

B/OLERO
Choreographer notes : TBC

ABOUT THE CHOREOGRAPHERS

MATS EK

Mats Ek was born in 1945 in Malmö, Sweden and is the son of the famous choreographer Birgit Cullberg and the actor Anders Ek. Trained in dance at a young age, he first set his sights on the world of theatre. Mats Ek was 21 years old when he created his first stage work, Kagekiyo, a Noh play which was performed at the Marionetteatern, Stockholm’s puppet theatre. In 1973, he joined the Cullberg Ballet as a dancer and was introduced to choreography by Maurice Béjart and Jiří Kylián. His first choreographed work The Officer’s Servant (1976), created for the Cullberg Ballet was a blend of theatre and dance. After that, his attention was primarily focused on dance. In 1982, he reinterpreted the ballet Giselle, offering audiences a radically new work. From 1985 to 1993, Mats Ek took over as artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet and served up other reinterpretations of the classics: Swan Lake (1987), Carmen (1992), and Sleeping Beauty (1996). He also created his own pieces, characterized by parallel narratives and humour. His works are performed the world over, including the Paris Opera: Giselle (1993), Appartement (world premiere, 2000), A Sort of… (2008), and The House of Bernada Alba (2008). Juliet & Romeo was created in 2013 for the Royal Swedish Ballet

EMMA PORTNER

As one of the most prominent young voices in the movement industry, Emma Portner has become widely known for her inimitable quality, gender fluidity, and dedicated passion to dance. The dancer and choreographer has been recognized for her unique ability to shift the space around her since she was a teenager. In 2012 Portner moved to New York City to study at The Ailey School and quickly became the youngest woman in history to choreograph a musical on London’s West End. Before she was 20 years old, she had already garnered millions of international views through dance on film and worked with the Music Industry’s biggest names. The New York Times calls her “beguiling,” and Paper magazine listed Portner in “PAPER Predictions; 100 people to watch in 2019”. Dance Magazine writes, “anyone who has seen her dance can recognize the ferocity with which she throws her body and seemingly her soul”. Dance Spirit declares Emma is “changing the dance world”. Capezio affirms that Emma is “challenging the standard of mediocrity” and has given her the title of Capezio Athlete. Her most recent work includes collaborations with Apple, Netflix, The Guggenheim Museum, Vogue, Jacobs Pillow, The Norwegian National Ballet, Sony Studios, and indie music stars, Maggie Rogers, Blood Orange, and Sylvan Esso. She is highly sought after by renowned companies, training facilities, and fellow artists in various fields within and beyond dance alone. Portner is currently on hiatus from public teaching but continues to act, dance, direct, and choreograph. Now an environmental studies student at the University of Toronto, she looks forward to utilizing the intersections of her knowledge through dance.

SASHA WALTZ

Sasha Waltz is a choreographer, dancer and director. After her first studies at the School of New Dance Development in Amsterdam she joined the postmodern oriented New York City dance scene that worked in interdisciplinary exchange with the other arts. In 1986 and 1987 she danced in the New York based companies of Pooh Kaye, Yoshiko Chumo & School of Hard Knocks and Lisa Kraus & Dancers. Following her return to Europe in 1988 she began an intensive phase of collaborations with several choreographers, artists and musicians. In 1992 she came to Berlin with a grant by the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, where she developed the improvisational format “Dialoge” driven by the spirit of her interdisciplinary and international work. Together with Jochen Sandig she founded the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests in 1993 and in 1996 the Sophiensaele as a venue for dance and more, nowadays a center of the independent dance and theatre scene not only in Germany. From 2000-2004 she was one of the directors of the Schaubühne at Lehniner Platz. In the season 2019/20 Sasha Waltz was director of the Berlin State Ballet together with Johannes Öhman.

During her first decade in Berlin she created internationally renowned and influential dance pieces such as the trilogies “Travelogue” and “Körper” as well as the immersive dance installation “insideout”. In the following years, she applied the language and strategies of contemporary dance to vitalize and explore historical and new operas and ballets. With »Dido & Aeneas« (2005), »Medea« (2007) and »Matsukaze« (2011) she realized three pieces about women and at the same time established the genre of the choreographic opera. In 2007 she directed

»Romeo et Juliette«, interpreting the dramatic symphony of Hector Berlioz, for the Opéra national de Paris. From this followed “Sacre” in 2013 set to the Music of Strawinsky commissioned by the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and in 2014 “Tannhäuser” at the Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. In her present choreographic work, Waltz is focusing on the intensification of collaborative processes, such as the synchronic development of choreography and music. In 2020 Sasha Waltz reacted to the challenges of the Corona pandemic with different projects on- and offline. From March to June 2020 the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests published an online »dance diary« in which dancers presented their interpretations of solos from choreographies by Sasha Waltz from the security of their homes. In August 2020 Sasha Waltz developed the open-air project “Dialoge 2020 – Relevante System”«, which was performed at the Berlin radial system. For this evening Waltz developed an adaptation of her choreography “Sacre” creatively dealing with the limiting conditions and circumstances of our current situation, and premiered a choreography to Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro” as well as solos to Georg Friedrich Haas‘ “I can’t breathe”. In September Waltz opened the festival Romaeuropa with the open-air project “Dialoge Roma 2020 – Terra Sacra”. In December the choreographer concluded the year 2020 with a series of improvisations with the title “Dialoge 2020 – Relevante Systeme II”, streamed live from the radialsystem in Berlin. In March 2021 Sasha Waltz’ latest choreographic work “In C” to the composition by the same name of Terry Riley also received its online premiere in a livestream from the radialsystem Berlin.

In 2009 the choreographer was awarded the French cultural order “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. For her special services in 2011 Sasha Waltz was granted the German Federal Cross of Merit. Since 2013 she is a member of the Academy of Arts Berlin.

JIRI KYLIÁN

Jirí Kylián was born in Prague in 1947, the son of a banker and a dancer. He began studying dance at the age of nine and at the age of fifteen he entered the Conservatory in the Czech capital, where, in addition to his classical lessons (given by Zora Semberová), he took modern dance (the Graham technique) as well as folk dancing. He also studied the piano. In 1967, he received a grant from the British Council and went to the Royal Ballet School in London. The choreographer John Cranko urged him to join his company in Stuttgart some day. In the summer of 1968, Kylián left Prague and he found fitting refuge in Germany at the Stuttgart Ballet. Once there, he quickly became a soloist and made his first forays into choreographing for the Noverre Society Matinées (it was a career path similar to John Neumeier who also had been noticed by Cranko a few years earlier). A guest choreographer at the Nederlands Dans Theater in The Haig in 1973, he joined the team of the artistic director (with Hans Knill), ultimately becoming the NDT’s the director in 1978. He was just 28 years old. His incredible aptitude for choreography and his talents as an artist generated the enthusiasm and loyalty of the NDT’s members and made the company a unique enterprise in terms of its productions and its triple-strand structure. Even though Jirí Kylián chose to step down as general director of the NDT in June 1999, he still remains the Company’s choreographer and artistic advisor. He has created some sixty choreographic works—works that are charmingly engaging, musical, sometimes tinged with a scathing humour and often interspersed with strange images which skirt the borders of dream and reality, but always infused with a gravity which bears witness to his unceasing ability to question our era. Jirí Kylián has received the Carina Ari Medal in Stockholm, the West End Theatres Award in London, the Sonia Gaskell Prize in Amsterdam, the Andersen Prize for Choreography in Copenhagen, the International Grand Prize for video-dance in Nîmes (1988), the coveted Prix Benois de la Danse on two occasions (first in Moscow in 1993, and then in Berlin in 1999 for One of a Kind), and the Critics’ Prize at the Edinburgh Festival in 1996 and 1997. In 1995, he was made an Officer of the Royal Order of Orange-Nassau. He is also an Officier des Arts et Lettres (courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture), and a Doctor Honoris Causa of the Juilliard School in New York. In February 2000, the choreographer and the company as a whole received the Laurence Olivier Award for their “exceptional service”. The production Arcimboldo 2000 also earned The Hague’s City Prize.

CRYSTAL PITE

In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created more than fifty works for companies such as The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, and the National Ballet of Canada. She is an Associate Artist at three institutions: Nederlands Dans Theater, Sadler’s Wells, London, and Canada’s National Arts Centre. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University and is a Member of the Order of Canada.

In 2002, she formed her company Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with works such as Betroffenheit and Revisor, both co-created with playwright Jonathon Young, as well as The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action, and The You Show.

Pite’s many awards include the Benois de la Danse for her creation The Seasons’ Canon (2016) at the Paris Opera Ballet, the Governor General of Canada’s Performing Arts Award: Mentorship Program (2008), and the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal (2018). She is the recipient of three Sir Laurence Olivier awards for creations with Kidd Pivot and The Royal Ballet.

OHAD NAHARIN

Ohad Naharin is a choreographer, the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company, and creator of the Gaga movement language.

Born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel, he joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little training. During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York, where Naharin later made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio in 1980. For the next decade, he presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater. Naharin worked closely with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, until she died from cancer in 2001.

In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble. He has since created over thirty works for both companies and set pieces on many others. He has also collaborated with musicians including The Tractor’s Revenge, Avi Balleli and Dan Makov, Ivri Lider, and Grischa Lichtenberger. Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed, edited, and mixed many of his own soundtracks. Naharin’s work has been featured in several films, including Tomer Heymann’s Out of Focus (2007) and the Heymann Brothers’ Mr. Gaga (2015).

In addition to his stagework, Naharin also developed GAGA, the innovative movement research and daily training of Batsheva’s dancers that has spread internationally among both dancers and non-dancers.

A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and their daughter, Noga.

ABOUT THE DANCERS

MATS EK / JULIET & ROMEO

PERFORMED by MARIKO KIDA, JOHNNY MCMILLAN

Johnny McMillan

Johnny McMillan (CAN) is a dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. Graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, he began dancing with Hubbard Street 2 (2010) and was later promoted to the main company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (2012). During that time, he co-founded an interdisciplinary performance arts collective, The Rainbow Body Project, that focused on transformative experience through personal excavation. Leaving Chicago, McMillan joined The Royal Swedish Ballet (2015), as part of the contemporary division and made a similar move to Staatsballett Berlin (2018), where he resides currently. Freelancing, he worked with Gleich Dances (2008), Sasha Waltz and Guests (2018), and Jefta van Dinther (2020). As well as, touring with Alessandra Ferri during the “Evolution” gala in Italy. Through out his time performing, he was able to work with artists such as Sharon Eyal, Wim Vandekeybus, William Forsythe, Alejandro Cerrudo, Alonzo King, Robyn Mineko Williams, Ohad Naharin, David Dawson, and Alexander Ekman. As a choreographer, McMillan has created work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street 2, Visceral Dance Chicago, The Juilliard School (senior showcase), The Royal Swedish Ballet, Stockholm 59 North, Staatsballett Berlin and has produced his own independent work. His collaboration with the band Niki and the Dove (2019) for their show “Tigern och Svanen” served as a catalyst for his current explorations on the physical body, working with notions of submission, repetition, empathy, dizziness, vocalisation, collectivity, and inherent individuality. His latest work Parliament (2020), further solidified his approach not only to the physical body but as well to sound and light, deepening his practice as an abstract minimal artist.

Mariko Kida

Originally from Osaka, Japan. Mariko completed her ballet training at San Francisco Ballet School after winning the scholarship prize at Prix de Lausanne in 2000. In her career, she joined the dance companies such as Alberta Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, GöteborgsOperan Danskompani, Royal Swedish Ballet and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

Mariko was promoted to a principal dancer with the Royal Swedish Ballet after she danced the title role in the world premiere of Mats Ek’s “Juliet and Romeo” in 2013.

In May 2014, Mariko received Prix Benois de la Danse (Moscow, Russia). And in September, she also won 42th Premio Positano Danza Léonide Massine (Positano, Italy). In August 2014, She was awarded by Commissioner of Cultural Affairs in Japan for her international achievement in Arts.

Since summer 2016, Mariko became a freelance artist. She had been dancing as a guest artist at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in between 2016 and 2019. Recently, she has been teaching dance as an associated professor at Professional College of Art and Tourism in Hyogo, Japan.

EMMA PORTNER / ISLANDS

PERFORMED BY DANCERS OF THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL BALLET

SAMANTHA LYNCH and WHITHNEY JENSEN

Whitney Jensen

American Whitney Jensen was appointed Principal Dancer after dancing the role of Kitri in Don Quixote in the spring of 2017, one year after joining the Norwegian National Ballet. She made her debut as Odette and Odile in Holmes’ Swan Lake in 2018 and has since danced the roles of Nikiya and Gamzatti in Makarova’s La Bayadère, Kitty in Spuck’s Anna Karenina, Clara in Boyadjiev’s The Nutcracker, the lead role in Balanchine’s Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and Allegro Brillante and Juliet in the balcony duet from Corder’s Romeo and Juliet. She was part of the Norwegian premiere of McGregor’s Chroma and the world premiere of Portner’s islands and has danced prominent parts in Kylián’s One of a Kind and Ekman’s Cacti. As a choreographer, Jensen made her debut on the Main Stage with Afternoon of a Faun, co-created with Anaïs Touret in 2021. She has created dance to RAW and also created the duet To Fly in 2020. She is a member of the workshop company, a part of the Norwegian National Ballet’s choreography initiative. Jensen joined the Norwegian National Ballet after being a member of the Boston Ballet, where she began in 2009 and was appointed Soloist in 2011 and Principal Dancer in 2014. She has danced as Michaëla in Scarlett’s Carmen, in Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, as well as Kylián’s Falling Angels, Sweet Dreams, Tiger Lily and Petite Mort. She has also danced in such classical ballets as Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and in works choreographed by Ekman, Clerc and Robbins. Jensen moved from Salt Lake City to New York at the age of twelve to train with the Russian-American ballerina Valentina Kozlova. During her training, she participated in the 23rd Varna International Ballet Competition, where she was the first female American dancer to win the junior prize.

Samantha Lynch

«Samantha Lynch does an outstanding main role. From balancing onto the stage, where she stays throughout the entire performance, she demonstrates a deep understanding of Jiří Kylián’s quaint and enigmatic movements.» Thus wrote the Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land about Lynch’s debut in Kylián’s One of a Kind in 2021. Lynch also played a key role in Moum Aune’s biographic dance performance We are better now? in 2020, and in 2017, she contributed to the choreography of her role as Aunt Julle in Moum Aune’s critically acclaimed ballet Hedda Gabler. She has danced prominent roles in Kylián’s Soldiers’ Mass, Forgotten Land, Falling Angels and Symphony of Psalms, the Winter Fairy in Cinderella and the Snow Queen and the Arabic dance in The Nutcracker. Furthermore, she has danced in Portner’s world premiere islands, Haagenrud’s world premiere The Commoners, in Proietto’s solo Cygne, Johannesen’s Scheherazade, and in such ballets as Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, MacMillan’s Manon, Scarlett’s Carmen, Nureyev’s Don Quixote and Ekman’s A Swan Lake and ROOMS. Lynch is the initiator behind and, for several years, has run the dancers’ choreography workshop NNB RAW. Together with Douwe Dekkers, she has created several works, including for: jake, which was selected for the International Draft Works with the Royal Ballet in London. In the autumn of 2020, she created the work C aura for the performance of Chamber Dance and has since 2020 been part of the workshop company, part of the Norwegian National Ballet’s choreographic undertaking.
Originally from Melbourne, Lynch studied at the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet. She has been a trainee with the San Francisco Ballet and danced for six years with the Houston Ballet before joining the Norwegian National Ballet, where she has danced in such works as Hush and Grinning in your face by Christopher Bruce.

SASHA WALTZ: IMPROMTUS

PERFORMED BY DANCERS OF THE SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS
CLAUDIA DE SERPA SOARES, GYUNG MOO KIM

Сlaudia de Serpa Soares

Claudia De Serpa Soares is a dancer, performer and choreographer from Lisbon, Portugal currently living in Berlin. She trained at the National Conservatory and the Superior Dance School in Lisbon, and at the Centre National de Dance Contemporaine d’Angers. Claudia danced with Iztok Kovac (Slovenia) and Paulo Ribeiro (Lisbon) before in 1999 she joined the dance ensemble of the »Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz«, Berlin under the artistic direction of Sasha Waltz, with whose company she has worked since then. She has also served as rehearsal master for Sasha Waltz & Guests’ creations.

Meanwhile, Claudia has collaborated with a wide range of visual, theatrical, and musical artists including Lilo Baur, Daniel Pennac, Julian Rosefeldt, Jonathan Bepler, Junko Wada, Ronald Kukulies, Grayson Millwood, Nuno Cera, Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation, Jochen Sandig and the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Companhia Utero, and Knowbotiq. She has assisted Lilo Bauer at the Opera de Dijon, signing the choreography of Dido and Aeneas. Claudia’s performance installation More Up A Tree, a collaboration with artist Eve Sussman (USA) and drummer Jim White (AUS), premiered at the Grand Theatre Luxembourg and was presented at BAM/Performa NYC and at the Melbourne Festival.

Gyung Moo Kim

Gyung Moo Kim is a dancer, performer and choreographer with a history in street and commercial dance from Seoul, South Korea, currently living in Berlin. He received his training at the Ailey School and worked with Sidra Bell, Gallimdance, NYTB, Ramon Oller, Jennis Brenner, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Fabien Prioville, Helena Waldmann, Minako Seki, Ana Borralho & João Galante, Company Mouvoir, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Laurent Chetouane, Neon Dance and Sergiu Matis. In #year he was awarded 1st prize in Dance at the Stuttgart Solo Festival, and made a few pieces of his own, performed in dirty bars and cold galleries. Gyung Moo Kim began working with Sasha Waltz & Guests in 2015, and has since performed in »Romeo and Juliette«, »Dido & Aeneas«, »Körper«, »Matsukaze« and »Continu«.

JIRI KYLIAN / 14’20”

PERFORMED BY DANCERS OF THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL BALLET
SAMANTHA LYNCH/WHITNEY JENSEN, DOUWE DEKKERS/LUCAS LIMA

Samantha Lynch

Douwe Dekkers

After Dutchman Douwe Dekkers joined the Norwegian National Ballet in 2011, he has danced roles such as Lensky in Cranko’s Onegin, the Prince in Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, Benvolio in Corder’s Romeo and Juliet, Don José in Scarlett’s Carmen, Basilio in Don Quixote, Des Grieux in MacMillan’s Manon and Count Vronsky in Spuck’s Anna Karenina. He was appointed Principal Dancer in 2017, after his role as Don José.
«In Sleight of Hand, Maiko Nishino and Douwe Dekkers prove themselves as almost otherwordly dancers,» wrote the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen about their acchievement in A Night of Dance with León and Lightfoot in 2016. Dekkers has also danced prominent parts in Giselle, Scarlett’s Firebird and Vespertine, Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Agon, Allegro Brillante and Theme and Variations, Tetley’s The Rite of Spring, Ekman’s Cacti and in Kylián’s Petite Mort, Sarabande, Sechs Tänze and Sweet Dreams. In 2020, he danced the Norwegian premiere of McGregor’s Chroma and in the new creations Gomennasai (Øyen) and C aura (Lynch). Dekkers studied at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in his home country, and at the Royal Ballet School in London, where he graduated in spring 2011. His collaboration with Samantha Lynch has, among other works, resulted in the duet for: jake, which in 2019 was selected for Royal Ballet’s international

CRYSTAL PITE / NEW PIECE

PERFORMED BY DANCERS OF THE KIDD PIVOT COMPANY
GREGORY LAU AND RENEE SIGOUIN

Gregory Lau

Gregory Lau was born in Honolulu, Hawaii where he began his training at Mid-Pacific Institute School of the Arts. After attending The Juilliard School, Gregory joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in 2013 and went on to join Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 2016. In 2019 he joined Kidd Pivot for the production of Revisor. He has been a recipient of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts 1st Award in Modern Dance and Ballet. He has worked with choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Marco Goecke, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Hans Van Manen, Johan Inger, Edward Clug, Medhi Walerski, Alexander Ekman, Camille A.Brown and more. Gregory was recently featured in Doja Cat’s 2021 VMAS Performance.

Renée Sigouin

Renée was born in Saskatchewan and moved to Vancouver in 2008. Since graduating from Modus Operandi contemporary dance program in 2012, she has performed in several works with Out Innerspace Dance Theatre, Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY, Company 605, Wen Wei Dance, Mascall Dance, Kinesis Somatheatro & EDAM. She joined Kidd Pivot in 2018.

OHAD NAHARIN/ B/olero

PERFORMED BY DANCERS MAAYAN SHIENFELD, RANI LABZELTER

Rani lebzelter,

1989, Israel.

Rani started dancing with ballet and contemporary at the age of 14. After completing her national service at the age of 19, Rani trained professionally for 2 years with various teachers and choreographers in Israel. In 2011 Rani started working with Batsheva Dance Company – The Young Ensemble, continuing in 2014 to the main company. Rani danced with Batsheva for 8 years, working with Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Roy Assaf and Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Since 2017 Rani has taught Gaga to people and professional dancers. She worked with Yaniv Avraham and Guy Shomroni, former dancers of the Batsheva Dance Company, on an original creation for the Israeli “Curtain Up” Festival in November 2019.In 2020 Rani became a main teacher at the Batsheva School.

Maayan Sheinfeld

Maayan Sheinfeld was born in Israel in 1992. As a young student, she trained in the RAD method of ballet. She graduated from the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts in 2010. During that time she was awarded the Eli Leon Scholarship for Excellence, scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (2007-2010), and the Jeannette Ordman scholarship. Maayan took part in various courses and residencies in the Czech Republic, Austria (Peter Bruer, director of Salzburg Ballet), and New York City (The Juilliard School). In 2010 Maayan joined Batsheva Dance company, where she danced for ten years. She participated in two original creations by Sharon Eyal: Petrushka (2010) in collaboration with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra (Conducted by Zubin Mehta) and Lost Cause (2012) and Creations of Ohad Naharin: The Hole (2013), Last Work (2015), Venezuela (2017), and 2019 (2019). She also participated in the creation process of Roy Assaf’s Adam (2016) and of Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ Canine Jaunatre 3 (2018).

In 2016 she was awarded the Outstanding Teacher prize for her work with students in the semi finals of the YAGP (Youth American Grand Prix) competition. She received the Yair Shapira award for Excellent Dancer In 2018. Maayan teaches Gaga, improvisation, and stages Naharin’s repertoire at dance schools. She is currently studying for a B.A in psychology at Reichman University and is a member of the council association of Batsheva Dance Company.

Program 2021