Hofesh Shechter

Israeli dancer and choreographer Hofesh Shechter first trained in folk dance, then at the Rubin Academy of Dance and Music in Jerusalem. He began his professional dance career with Batsheva Dance Company, before working with choreographers Wim Vandekeybus, Paul Selwyn Norton, Tero Saarinen, and Inbal Pinto. He moved to London in 2002, where he directed his first piece, Fragments (2003). Appointed Resident Artist in 2004 at The Place in London, he then created Cult (2004, Audience Choice Award) in partnership with Sadler’s Wells Theatre); Uprising (2006); and In your rooms (2007, Critics Circle Award). In 2008, he founded the Hofesh Shechter Company, based in-residence at the Brighton Dome. In 2014, Shechter was appointed Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London, as well as Guest Director of the Brighton Festival. Since then, he has continued to enrich his company’s repertoire with new works, which he has presented on international tours: The Art of Not Looking Back (2009), Political Mother (2010), Survivor (2012), Sun (2013), Barbarians (2015), C.W. Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice (2015, #HOFEST festival, Royal Opera House), Grand Finale (2017), Double Murder (2021), and Theatre of Dreams (2024). Shechter also choreographs for international dance companies, including the Royal Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 1, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Bern Ballet, and Ensemble Batsheva. He has collaborated on projects for theater, television, and opera, creating, among others, Two Boys, with composer Nico Mulhy (2013, Metropolitan Opera, New York); his own version of Fiddler on the Roof (2015, Broadway and London’s West End); and Oedipus, an Old Vic production in partnership with the Hofesh Shechter Company. Shechter has directed two dance films for the BBC: Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns (2018) and Political Mother: The Final Cut (2021). In 2018, The Art of Not Looking Back entered the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet, followed by Uprising and In your rooms in 2022. Shechter is the winner of the 2020 Fedora–Van Cleef & Arpels Prize for Ballet for his project LIGHT: Bach dances.