Political Mother Unplugged

POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED

MARKETING PACK Company Shechter esh

Hof Image: Image: CONTENTS

COMPANY INFORMATION ...... 3 MARKETING ASSETS ...... 4 BROCHURE COPY ...... 5 SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE ...... 6 PRESS QUOTES ...... 7 KEY AUDIENCES, MESSAGES, FRONT OF HOUSE AND BOX OFFICE GUIDANCE FOR POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED ...... 8 BOX OFFICE BRIEFING NOTES ...... 10 CREDITS ...... 11 FOR HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY ...... 12 ABOUT THE COMPANY ...... 13 BIOGRAPHIES ...... 14

COMPANY INFORMATION

Address: Hofesh Shechter Company, Somerset House, New Wing, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA Telephone: +44 (0) 20 37017490 Email: [email protected] Website: www.hofesh.co.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.co.uk/hofeshco @HofeshCo Facebook: www.facebook.com/hofeshco Instagram: www.instagram.com/hofeshco Youtube: www.youtube.com/hofeshshechterco

Hashtag: #PMU

Registered Company no. 6737326 VAT no. 946132427 Hofesh Shechter Company is a registered charity in England and Wales. Registered no. 1130255

COMPANY APPROVAL The Company must sign-off on all marketing materials created. This includes print (brochures, posters, flyers, programmes etc), venue websites and video.

PRESS CALLS & INTERVIEWS, FILMING AND PHOTOGRAPHY Please note that all press calls and press interviews must be agreed with the company. Filming and photography of any rehearsals, technical work or performances is not allowed without prior written agreement from the company.

POST-SHOW TALKS & PARTICIPATION WORK Post-show talks and workshops with the company’s dancers can be arranged by contacting [email protected]

COMPANY MERCHANDISE We have hand printed Hofesh t-shirts and the Political Mother album available for purchase from our Ebay store: http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/hofeshco

UK Press Contact International Press Marketing Clióna Roberts [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] T: +44 (0) 20 7704 6224

MARKETING ASSETS

Production Images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c801w81c1yoygy6/AADc2fKSL_2MNS4lcBYYDJi_a?dl=0 Photo Credits are contained within the Dropbox.

Rehearsal Images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wa68tfcciy3wwti/AACW-ih_VmQ-NVmUxhNQQKpia?dl=0 Photo Credits are contained within the Dropbox.

Animation Stills: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ewqao5v5gun2k87/AABb7LGEPnKTI98XYfu9KWPLa?dl=0 Photo Credits are contained within the Dropbox.

Production trailer: https://vimeo.com/413047418

Headshots of Hofesh Shechter: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sg1rdik5k7q8vw1/AAC2_yL-FGQjYzbn16oQCgmqa?dl=0 Photo Credits are contained within the Dropbox.

HSC logos and branding guide: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hik9u5qo79rs1os/AACWmdqW9W4HqUUoPPSOg5G2a?dl=0

For full programme information please contact: [email protected]

Tour Dates 2021

Tour dates to be announced

Agathe Poupeney Agathe Image: Image:

BROCHURE COPY

HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY PRESENTS POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED CHOREOGRAPHY & MUSIC BY HOFESH SHECHTER PERFORMED BY SHECHTER II

In 2020, Hofesh Shechter celebrated the 10th anniversary of his iconic masterpiece Political Mother with a powerful new version for Shechter II. POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED will invoke the ferocity and spirit of the original in a new era and for a new generation of dancers, selected from the most inspiring young artists across the globe. POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED will draw you into a world of raw emotion and intense sensations, driven by Shechter’s contagious tribal movement, a new landscape of digital, animated projections and the dancers’ extraordinary skill and honesty. Danced to a bespoke, new recording of Shechter’s music this will be a dance experience like no other.

★★★★★ ‘... as ambitious and as heads-down, hair-prickingly exhilarating as modern dance gets …’ (Mark Monahan, The Telegraph, on Political Mother, 2010)

Choreography and Music Hofesh Shechter Original Lighting Design Lee Curran Original Costume Design Merle Hensel Video Projection Designer Shay Hamias

Musical Collaborators Nell Catchpole, Yaron Engler Percussion Arrangements by Hofesh Shechter, Yaron Engler

Additional Music: J.S. Bach, Cliff Martinez, Joni Mitchell, Giuseppe Verdi

On soundtrack: Christopher Allan (cello), Rebekah Allan (viola), Laura Anstee (cello), Nell Catchpole (viola), Tim Harries (double bass), Andrew Maddick (viola), Kai West (double bass), Yaron Engler (drums), Dom Goundar (drums), Joseph Ashwin (guitar), Joel Harries (guitar)

Please note our co-commissioner credits must be included in venue brochures and on venue websites:

POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED is produced by Hofesh Shechter Company and co-commissioned by Théâtre de la Ville Paris, HOME Manchester, düsseldorf festival! with production support from Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia and a production residency at DanceEast, Ipswich.

Hofesh Shechter Company gratefully receives support towards the delivery of Shechter II 2020, which includes project funding from The Foyle Foundation, The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation and the International Music and Art Foundation, and core funding from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

Hofesh Shechter Company is supported using public funding through Arts Council England and benefits from the support of BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects.

Political Mother premiered on 20 May 2010, at the Brighton Festival, UK. 5

SAMPLE PRESS RELEASE

POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED Hofesh Shechter’s acclaimed production celebrates its 10th anniversary

Choreography and Music Hofesh Shechter Original Lighting Design Lee Curran Original Costume Design Merle Hensel Video Projection Designer Shay Hamias

Musical Collaborators Nell Catchpole, Yaron Engler Percussion Arrangements by Hofesh Shechter, Yaron Engler

2020 marked the 10th anniversary of the universally acclaimed classic Political Mother. To celebrate this iconic masterpiece, Hofesh Shechter Company created POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED, a potent new version performed by Shechter II, their renowned apprentice company.

Danced to a bespoke, new recording of Shechter’s music and accompanied by a landscape of designed, digital animated projections, POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED will invoke the ferocity and spirit of the original for a new era.

The Shechter II programme continues to build on the company’s commitment to developing young artists. Few up-and-coming dancers have the chance to perform in different spaces to different audiences supported by an experienced creative and technical team. Shechter II provides the next generation of world-class dancers the opportunity to create new work; be mentored by long- standing HSC members and perform at world-renowned venues - providing a springboard into the world of professional dance.

PRESS QUOTES

ABOUT HOFESH SHECHTER

‘The mighty contemporary choreographer – a combination of dance-maker and rock-star, but with film-director sensibilities.’ – The Times

‘One of the British dance scene’s hottest properties, the creator of works that are full of raw, visceral energy, set to blasting percussive scores that he composes himself.’ – New York Times

“There is no sitting in thoughtful contemplation at a Shechter gig. For pure, heart-pounding excitement, there is simply no one to touch him.” – Daily Express

ABOUT POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED

‘The choreographer could have added Reloaded because he has cut and reassembled the show, and added a superb set design by introducing black and white video projections, that are often abstract but occasionally figurative, superbly produced by Shay Hamias.’

‘Political Mother has not aged a bit. It even finds a new modernity with these young performers, who are all excellent.’ – Jean-Frédéric Saumont, Danses avec la plume

‘Getting goose bumps is the very least you can expect from a Hofesh Shechter show’

‘ Originally created with live music, it is now danced to recorded music, alongside previously unseen video design that gives the piece a new colour. The artists of the junior company Shechter II appear in this version that is more “rock n roll”.

- Le Monde

ABOUT POLITICAL MOTHER

★★★★★ ‘… as ambitious and as heads-down, hair-prickingly exhilarating as modern dance gets' – Mark Monahan, The Telegraph

★★★★ ‘In terms of this single image Shechter dares us to rethink the history of the world.’

‘Hofesh Shechter's latest work detonates on stage in a scattershot of shattering political imagery ... Shechter has created a work of galvanising challenging power …’

‘In Political Mother, Shechter returns to his most characteristic theme, puzzling over the mechanisms of state and society, but his focus here is on the ways in which ideals of camaraderie, duty and service can be annexed and brutalised by a repressive power.’ – Judith Mackrell, The Guardian

‘… a noisy, brutal, no-holds-barred attack on power and its destructive, abusive agenda ... delivered like a roar of defiance in the face of an omnipotent, malevolent force. It’s visceral, painful and very, very exciting … even in the dark void at its centre there is humanity and tenderness, never quite extinguished.’ – Debra Craine, The Times

KEY AUDIENCES, MESSAGES, FRONT OF HOUSE AND BOX OFFICE GUIDANCE FOR POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED

Target audiences for this production include those interested in dance, theatre, music, film and visual arts, and the generally curious.

KEY AUDIENCES & MESSAGES

EXPERIENCED DANCE AUDIENCES Hofesh Shechter is acknowledged as one of the most exciting artists making stage work today, and his distinctive dance style is recognised by dance lovers all over the world. Political Mother is one of his most iconic creations and we are excited to celebrate its 10th anniversary with fans around the world with this new creation. POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED will be danced to a bespoke, new recording of Shechter’s music and accompanied by a landscape of designed, digital animated projections, invoking the ferocity and spirit of the original for a new era.

MUSIC AUDIENCES Hofesh Shechter is both a choreographer and a composer, who creates the music for all his creations. Before coming to London, he studied music in Paris and was the drummer in a rock band called The Human Beings. His scores are atmospheric and driving, creating a symbiotic relationship of music and movement affecting and inspiring each other. Attending a Hofesh Shechter performance has been compared with attending a rock gig, with his works having been performed at the Brixton Academy and The Roundhouse.

THEATRE AND FILM AUDIENCES Hofesh Shechter’s works react to and comment on the world we live in through the use of powerful and emotionally affecting scenes and imagery, created by a compelling fusion of movement, music and lighting. Self-confessed Stanley Kubrick fan Shechter takes a lot of inspiration staging dance from films, clearly demonstrating ‘film director sensibilities’ (The Times). In 2018, he produced his first dance film, Clowns, which was commissioned by the BBC. For POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED, he is working with video projection designer Shay Hamias to create unique digital animated projections. Shay has worked on projects as diverse as the Royal Opera House pointe shoe appeal and the title sequence to Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd.

AUDIENCES NEW TO DANCE No prior knowledge of dance, or any of Hofesh Shechter’s previous works, is necessary to have an exhilarating experience at this production. His work is about instinctive, emotional reactions and enjoyment of dance and music. Every member of the audience is empowered to create their own, personal interpretation of what they experience.

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION

We work with an audience segmentation tool called Audience Spectrum, developed by The Audience Agency (www.theaudienceagency.org). Based on the engagement with and attitudes towards culture, Audience Spectrum segments the UK population into 10 different audience profiles with high, medium and low engagement in the arts.

Even though Audience Spectrum was specifically developed based on UK population data, the detailed description of each profile and suggestions how to best engage with them is generally useful to create ideas of how to promote the production to different groups.

Political Mother Based on data from our 2015/16 performances of Political Mother in Bristol and Birmingham, the most prominent audience segments were:  Experience Seekers (25%)  Metroculturals (18%)  Commuterland Culturebuffs & Dormitory Dependables (13% each)

Shechter II (SHOW) The most prominent segments for Shechter II’s 2018 tour with SHOW, based on 9 UK venues in and outside London, were:  Metroculturals (25%)  Experience Seekers (19%)  Commuterland Culturebuffs & Dormitory Dependables (15% each)

Metroculturals are a highly engaged, but also very localised segment, most of which (85%) live in London and the South. Metroculturals are the best prospects for arts attendance, confident in their own knowledge and represent the best prospects for new work and cultural innovation, but competition for their attention is high, and many tend towards their own preferred artform or style.

Experience Seekers are highly active, diverse, social and ambitious singles and couples and younger people who engage with the arts on a regular basis. Living close to city centres, they tend to be digitally savvy and are often students, recent graduates and in the early to mid-stages of their careers. They are an ideal segment to target for POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED, a production that keeps a finger on the pulse with its mixture of driving beats, political commenting, club inspired moves and high-quality digital animation technology.

More information about Audience Spectrum and how to engage with the different segments can be found here: www.theaudienceagency.org/off-the-shelf/audience-spectrum.

WHAT IS THE RUNNING TIME? 68 minutes no interval

AGE GUIDANCE 13 +

THE PERFORMANCE CONTAINS LOUD MUSIC, HAZE AND 30 SECONDS OF MILD STROBE EFFECT

FRONT OF HOUSE BRIEFING INFORMATION: Due to sound levels in the show, we recommend that you provide foyer signage signalling loud music in POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED and make earplugs available to audience prior to the performance.

BOX OFFICE BRIEFING NOTES

POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED is a powerful, intoxicating live dance show with unique digital animated projections – a dance experience like no other. UK-based Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter has created POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED. It requires no prior dance knowledge and is suitable for anyone with an open mind or a love of live performance or a sense of adventure. POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED will be performed by Shechter II, a company of young, extremely talented professional dancers, who have been selected from almost 1000 international applicants last summer. Hofesh Shechter’s movement style is fluid and organic, comes deep from within and is influenced by folk dance and freestyle elements. It has been described as ‘tribal’ and is emotionally powerful. Hofesh has been described as ‘a combination of dance-maker and rock-star’ as he also composes the scores for his performances. His trademark musical style is percussion-based, and watching a Hofesh Shechter performance has been compared to being at a rock concert. POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED celebrates the 10th anniversary of Political Mother, one of Hofesh Shechter’s most successful creations, which has been seen by over 100,000 people worldwide. Customer: "I have already seen Political Mother, is this the same show?” There are new elements in POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED, additional to a new cast:  a new and bespoke recording of Hofesh Shechter’s music

 specifically designed digital, animated projections

CREDITS

HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY PRESENTS POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED CHOREOGRAPHY & MUSIC BY HOFESH SHECHTER PERFORMED BY SHECHTER II

CREATIVE TEAM

Choreography and Music Hofesh Shechter Original Lighting Design Lee Curran Original Costume Design Merle Hensel Video Projection Designer Shay Hamias

Musical Collaborators Nell Catchpole, Yaron Engler Percussion Arrangements by Hofesh Shechter, Yaron Engler

SHECHTER II

Jared Brown, Jack Butler, Chieh-Hann Chang, Evelyn Hart, Charles Heinrich, Evelien Jansen, Rosalia Panepinto, Jill Goh Su-Jen, Niek Wagenaar

MUSIC

Score Hofesh Shechter Musical Collaborators Nell Catchpole, Yaron Engler Percussion Arrangements by Hofesh Shechter, Yaron Engler Additional Music J.S. Bach, Cliff Martinez, Joni Mitchell, Giuseppe Verdi

The score for Political Mother was created in collaboration with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and barbicanbite09, with research supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells.

The use of Solaris by Cliff Martinez is by arrangement with EMI Music Publishing Limited.

PRODUCTION TEAM

VARIES VENUE TO VENUE – please contact [email protected]

If you are interested in programming the company, please contact [email protected] for more information.

COMMISSIONERS & PARTNERS

Hofesh Shechter Company is supported using public funding through Arts Council England and benefits from the support of BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects.

Political Mother premiered on 20 May 2010, at the Brighton Festival, UK.

For full programme notes and credits, please contact: [email protected] 11

FOR HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY

Board of Directors: Gerard Lemos (Chair), Theresa Beattie, Steven Fogel, Jason Gonsalves, Jonny Kanagasooriam, Martine Simmonds

Patron: Georgia Rosengarten Founding Patrons: Angela Bernstein CBE, Robin Pauley, Bruno Wang

Artistic Director Hofesh Shechter OBE Executive Producer Colette Hansford Associate Artistic Director Bruno Guillore Head of Operations Becky Ruffell Head of Development Claire Lee Head of Production and Touring Adam Hooper Learning Associate David Steele Executive Assistant Melanie Clark Producer – Artist Development Lucy Moelwyn-Hughes Administrator Lia Deans Finance Officer Denise Middleton Publicist (UK) Clióna Roberts for CRPR crpr.co.uk www.hofesh.co.uk

Hofesh Shechter is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells and Hofesh Shechter Company is Resident Company at Brighton Dome.

Agathe Poupeney Agathe Image: Image:

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Hofesh Shechter Company is a boundary-breaking dance company, producing exceptional work created by Hofesh Shechter, with an extraordinary company of internationally diverse dancers at its core.

Based in the UK, but playing on major stages throughout the world, our work celebrates and inspires the freedom of the human spirit.

We believe that dance has the ability to prod and poke and tap into our deepest emotions; an instinctive, deep-rooted part of ourselves that we rarely access in modern life.

We dance to know what it feels like, not just to live, but to be alive. In all our work, we strive to move ourselves, and our audiences, beyond reason.

In 2018, the apprentice company of Hofesh Shechter Company, Shechter II, was established to provide young artists at the beginning of their performance careers with the opportunity of salaried work within a professional company context.

The eight dancers of Shechter II 2018 successfully performed Hofesh Shechter’s SHOW to audiences worldwide, for which they received the 2017 / 2018 Prix de la critique award for Meilleurs Interprètes – Best Performers at Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, where they had 29 sold-out performances over two seasons.

They also took part in East Wall, a large-scale spectacle of dance and live music at the Tower of London, in partnership with East London Dance, Historic Royal Palaces and LIFT, which was rated as one of the best dance moments of the 21st Century by The Guardian.

In 2020 the ten international dancers of Shechter II, who were selected from nearly one thousand applicants, worked together with Hofesh to create a potent new version of his iconic masterpiece Political Mother, POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED. New online audiences were reached through live streams of POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED from Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris. In 2021, Shechter II plans a return to live theatre audiences and will feature in a new short dance film for summer release.

For more details of forthcoming work, to access our learning resources and to join our mailing list, please visit www.hofesh.co.uk.

Agathe Poupeney Agathe Image: Image:

BIOGRAPHIES

HOFESH SHECHTER ̶ CHOREOGRAPHY & MUSIC ̶ FULL BIOGRAPHY

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter OBE is recognised as one of the most exciting artists making stage work today. Inspired by influences as diverse as Israeli folkdance, rock-gigs, installation art and film, his immersive and high-energy dance work is performed to percussive, cinematic musical scores that he composes himself. Since 2008 his eponymous company has performed at leading festivals and on major stages from Rio to Sydney, Shanghai to New York, winning him a passionate worldwide following.

Following his choreographic debut, Fragments, in 2003, Hofesh was commissioned by The Place Prize in 2004 to create Cult, winning the Audience Choice Award. This was followed in 2006 by Uprising, a work for seven men that has since been staged on companies around the world.

In 2007, The Place, Southbank Centre and Sadler’s Wells Theatre commissioned Hofesh to create In your rooms, which earned him the Critics’ Circle Award for Best Choreography (Modern). In 2008, Hofesh formed Hofesh Shechter Company, which rapidly established an international reputation. Sadler’s Wells subsequently commissioned him to create Uprising/In your rooms: The Choreographer’s Cut (2009), which was performed at London’s iconic Roundhouse. That same year Hofesh was commissioned by Brighton Festival to create The Art of Not Looking Back for six female dancers.

His first full-length work Political Mother – commissioned by venues in Paris, Lyon, Rome, London and Barcelona – also had its premiere at Brighton Festival in 2010, and a year later, he re-visited the work to create Political Mother: The Choreographer’s Cut, which toured rock venues in Berlin, Montpellier, London, Paris and Hong Kong. Hofesh collaborated with Antony Gormley in 2012 to create Survivor for the Barbican Centre. His 2013 work Sun toured extensively after opening at Melbourne Festival. July 2015 saw the premiere of his trilogy, barbarians, at Berliner Festspiele. As part of #Hofest (2015), a 4-week season showcasing a range of Hofesh’s work across four iconic London venues, he premiered Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, co-directed with John Fulljames, at the Royal Opera House.

Grand Finale, his current full-length work with live musicians, which premiered at La Villette / Théâtre de la Ville in Paris on 14 June 2017, continues to tour worldwide to critical acclaim. In 2018, Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and for Outstanding Production in the Bessies. It was also named Production of the Year by tanz magazine. In 2019, Grand Finale won a Dora Award for Outstanding Touring Production. It was nominated for Best Dance Production in the 2019 Helpmann Awards, while Hofesh himself received a nomination in the category ‘Best Choreography in a Ballet, Dance or Physical Theatre Production’ for Grand Finale.

His work with young emerging artists remains a core passion and in 2018, the company’s biennial, one year apprentice programme was formed with a cohort of 8 dancers who performed SHOW and received the Prix de la critique award for Meilleurs Interprètes - Best Performers – at Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris. In 2020, a new cohort of dancers premiered POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED online at Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris – a reworked revival of Political Mother, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this iconic production.

LIGHT: Bach Dances, winner of the Fedora – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet, will see Hofesh unite again with co-director John Fulljames in a co-production with Royal Danish Opera, premiering on 8 May 2021. In this same year his new full-length creation Double Murder will premiere with his own company.

Hofesh has also worked as a choreographer in theatre, television and opera notably at The Royal Court Theatre for Motortown by Simon Stephens (2006), The Arsonists (2007), and for the National Theatre’s award winning production of Saint Joan (2007). In television Hofesh choreographed the hit dance sequence ‘Maxxie’s Dance’ for the opening of the second series of Channel 4’s popular drama Skins. In 2013 Hofesh created the choreography for Nico Mulhy’s opera Two Boys at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Hofesh was Guest Director of Brighton Festival in 2014. He premiered a new work Untouchable (2015) for the Royal Ballet, at the Royal Opera House performed to a score co-composed by Hofesh and long-time collaborator, Nell Catchpole. He choreographed Bartlett Sher’s new version of Fiddler On The Roof (2015) on Broadway, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. He continues to create new work with Nederlands Dans Theater - Clowns (2016), Vladimir (2018) and From England with Love (2021). He also created a special version of his iconic all- female production, The Art of Not Looking Back, with Paris Opera Ballet (2018), and the company's first dance film, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns, was broadcast by the BBC in September 2018 to great acclaim.

Hofesh Shechter is an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Hofesh Shechter Company are a Resident Company at Brighton Dome. In 2018, he was awarded an honorary OBE for Services to Dance.

HOFESH SHECHTER ̶ CHOREOGRAPHY & MUSIC ̶ SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter OBE is recognised as one of the most exciting artists making stage work today, renowned for composing atmospheric musical scores to compliment the unique physicality of his movement. He is Artistic Director of the UK-based Hofesh Shechter Company, formed in 2008. The company are resident at Brighton Dome and Shechter is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells.

Hofesh Shechter’s repertoire for the company includes Uprising (2006), In your rooms (2007), The Art of Not Looking Back (2009), Political Mother (2010), Political Mother: The Choreographer’s Cut (2011), Sun (2013), barbarians (2015), Grand Finale (2017), SHOW (2018) and POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED (2020). Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.

Shechter has also staged and choreographed works on leading international dance companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Batsheva Ensemble, Candoco Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 1, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet Flanders.

He has choreographed for theatre, television and opera, notably at the Metropolitan Opera (New York) for Nico Mulhy’s Two Boys, the Royal Court on Motortown and The Arsonists, the National Theatre on Saint Joan and for the Channel 4 series Skins. As part of #HOFEST, a 4 week festival celebrating Shechter’s work across 4 iconic London venues, he co-directed Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with John Fulljames at the Royal Opera House. In 2016 he received a Tony Award nomination for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

In 2018 Hofesh Shechter was awarded an honorary OBE for Services to Dance and the company's first dance film, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns, was broadcast by the BBC in September to great acclaim.

In 2020, Hofesh Shechter Company was named the winner of the Fedora – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet for LIGHT: Bach Dances, in collaboration with Royal Danish Opera and co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and John Fulljames.

Hofesh Shechter’s new creation Double Murder will premiere in autumn 2021.

SHAY HAMIAS – VIDEO PROJECTION

Shay Hamias is video designer and animation director.

Shay graduated from the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in London with a First-Class degree in animation, a medium that combines his passions for movement, dance and visual arts.

It was at NFTS that Shay undertook his first collaborations with choreographer Hofesh Shechter: an MTV Art Break ident and an experiment in the meeting point of dance and video projection funded by a research grant from The Place For Dance, London.

In his practice, Shay merges his design knowledge and past dancer experience to realise the visual possibilities lying between design, motion and narrative, to craft unique and compelling stories. He has worked in many styles and techniques from digital to hand-drawn and stop-motion.

In 2018, Shay was appointed artist in residence at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he worked with medievalist professor Anthony Bale on a Leverhulme Trust-funded project to develop a new interface between contemporary digital animation and medieval manuscript studies. This resulted in projection work for two exhibitions at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Peltz Gallery, London.

Other awards include a British Animation Award and a DA&D wood pencil, both in 2014.

Other defining moments in Shay’s creative career include animating, directing and designing the title sequence of Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd; working on film titles for HBO and the BBC; Animation directing and designing the Royal Opera House’s “100 Dancers” a short film about Ballet Shoes, and creating animation for the Prince of Egypt musical at the Dominion theatre in London’s West End. http://www.shayhamias.com/

LEE CURRAN ̶ LIGHTING DESIGNER

Lee’s work with Hofesh includes Orpheé et Eurydice (ROH & Teatro Alla Scala), Untouchable (Royal Ballet), Sun, Political Mother, The Art of Not Looking Back, In Your Rooms, and Uprising.

Other dance includes: Blak Whyte Gray (Boy Blue Entertainment); Rosalind, Within Her Eyes, Everything & Nothing (James Cousins); Tomorrow, Frames, Curious Conscience (Rambert).

Theatre credits include Constellations (Royal Court/West End/Broadway/UK tour); Jesus Christ Superstar (Regent’s Park Open Air); Gundog, Road, Nuclear War, a profoundly affectionate passionate devotion to someone (-noun), X, Linda (Royal Court); Summer & Smoke (Almeida); The Lady From The Sea, Splendour (Donmar Warehouse); Jubilee (Royal Exchange, Manchester & Lyric Hammersmith); Cover My Tracks (Old Vic); Hamlet, Blindsided (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Doctor Faustus, Love’s Sacrifice (RSC); Imogen (Globe); The Weir (ETT); The Spoils (West End); Black Men Walking (Eclipse/touring); A Number (Nuffield/Young Vic); Mametz (National Theatre Wales); Protest Song (National); Depart (LIFT); Boys Will Be Boys (Headlong/Bush); Kissing the Shotgun Goodnight (UK Tour).

MERLE HENSEL ̶ COSTUME DESIGNER

Merle Hensel works internationally in a wide variety of styles and genres.

Dance includes: Hofesh Shechter Company: Political Mother (costume), Sun (set); Ballett am Rhein: Tenebre; Frantic Assembly: Lovesong; Shobana Jeyasingh Dance: Contagion; Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre: The Bull, James Son of James, Flowerbed; Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company: Park, Justitia

Theater includes: National Theatre: Protest Song, Top Girls (costume); Royal Court: Mistress Contract, X, a profoundly affectionate...someone, ear for eye; National Theatre of China: Green Snake (international touring); National Theatre of Scotland: 27, The Wheel, Macbeth (Tramway, Tokyo, Broadway), Glasgow Girls; Young Vic: Macbeth, The Shawl; Royal Shakespeare Company: Arden of Faversham; Complicite: Shun-kin (Barbican, Tokyo); Guthrie Theater: Enemy of the People; Sophiensaele Berlin: Ippolit (Schauspielhaus Zürich; Münchner Kammerspiele), Royal Exchange: Much Ado about Nothing, Sophiensaele Berlin: Der Verlorene; Deutsches Theater Gottingen: Kupsch

Opera includes: Oper Graz: Der Vetter aus Dingsta; Vereinigte Bühnen Mönchengladbach: Maria Stuarda; Kunstfest Weimar: Lunatics. Film includes: Morituri Te Salutant; Baby

Merle is a lecturer at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London.

NELL CATCHPOLE ̶ MUSIC COLLABORATOR

Nell studied classical violin and holds an MA in Social Anthropology. She specialises in exploring and creating new work and processes across art forms.

In 1995, she co-founded music theatre company, The Gogmagogs with theatre director, Lucy Bailey, who have toured extensively worldwide. Nell has since composed music for several of Lucy’s theatre productions.

Nell has worked as a creative partner and musical director with choreographer Hofesh Shechter since 2007. In 2015, she co-composed the music for Untouchable with Hofesh, a new piece commissioned by the Royal Ballet and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

She has worked extensively with Brian Eno, arranging and recording strings on his solo albums as well as with John Cale and U2. Other recording credits include string arrangements for Mumford and Sons on their first two albums. In 2012, she composed and devised the music for the live band in Kate Tempest’s Brand New Ancients which won a Herald Angel at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Nell is Course Leader on the Masters in Leadership Programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

YARON ENGLER ̶ MUSIC COLLABORATOR

Yaron Engler is a drummer, speaker and educator. He has been involved in artistic and educational projects across Europe, USA, Asia and Australia and was a featured speaker at TEDxJaffa.

He is a long-time collaborator with Hofesh and played a leading role in the creation of some of the company’s major productions and tours around the world.

He was involved in the creation and tours of Akram Khan’s piece Until The Lions (2016). Yaron composed the music for the 2016 Open Theatre Production of Shakespeare’s play Henry V and the opening piece of the 2014 Walled City Tattoo in Derry.

He is the founder of UpBeat where he uses music, drums and rhythms as tools to help organisations create long lasting transformation in the areas of Leadership, Teamwork and Communication.

Yaron is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Berklee College of Music and holds a certificate in Body Mind Healing.