Hofesh Shechter thinks we are confused by modern dance. “People are wrong,” he says. “The English public, in particular, expects to enter, understand it and have a good conversation on this subject.”
The neo -Israeli choreographer and soon British would prefer that people approach contemporary dance “more like a concert” – something that you live “through your senses”. He adds: “You never go to a classic concert thought, I will draw a conclusion at the end and then I will say an intelligent sentence to the person next to me.” “”
Since the explosion of the British scene almost two decades ago with pieces like Uprising (which plays with male identity) and the political mother (on indoctrination and totalitarianism), Shechter, 49, rocked modern dance. His shows, renowned for their booming soundtracks, which he often composes, can feel like a rock concert, although his last artistic collaboration saw him co -edit a play.
At Oedipus of the former Vic, with Matthew Warchus, his dancers made a Greek choir without word and electrifying, punctuating the drama of Sophocles as an excess of exclamation brands. Their contribution was exhilarating and visceral, the words Shechter uses again and again to describe his work, while we are talking about tea (a soothing lemon and ginger with honey for his sore throat) in the London Groucho club.
“A great challenge”: the recent ancient production of Oedipus – Manuel Harlan
Shechter's contribution was a huge success, annihilating a strangely stowed production which included a critical mutilated Rami Malek as Oedipus. Experience was “a bit of a suicide mission,” he said about doing something new with such well known text. “How did I feel?” It was a very good challenge! I was frustrated! People have really done their best with a mass of curiosity and love for art forms, ”he adds.
I wonder if the British public, with our love for classical ballet and musicals, fights with contemporary dance.
Shechter blames terminology. “People watch dance in a theater, which is a deceptive word here because a theater is a place where stories are told and stories are given and people have the impression of understanding something.” It is more useful, he adds, to think of contemporary dance in terms of “night dream”, which at the same time and does not explain why his new creation, which was presented to Sadler's Wells in the fall, is called, is called Theater of dreams.
Not that Shechter is explaining a lot about his productions. “I always prefer people to know nothing,” he says. With the second outing in the United Kingdom for Theater of Dreams to come at Brighton Festival, the public can expect to get lost in a thrilling dream world that ricoche between fantasy and nightmare, animated by improved “jump cuts” without lighting, something of a Shechter brand. It is folk dance meets Cubling, with a partition co-written by Shechter and his regular collaborator Yaron Engler. Or in her words: “It's like Alice falling into the burrow of the rabbit. It will play with your mind, it will play with your heart, it will play with your thoughts. Leave it. Show the wave and let it go,” he says, his melodious accent a sweet fusion of Israel, French and the little American (“Galg”).
A Dreamworld Pulsating: Theafesh Shechter's Theater of Dreams – Tom Visse
It is difficult to understand the speed of Shechter's success while looking back. Five years after his arrival in London by Eurostar to work as a work drummer at the end of 2002, his emerging company was head of the poster of Sadler's Wells. The Internet boom helped – he downloaded the uprising on YouTube – as well as generous funding from the Arts Council. “I think that the visceral nature of work, the honesty, the brutality of it is what people have connected,” he said.
Born in Jerusalem in 1975, Shechter was raised by his father after his parents' divorce. He did folk dance at school but discovered the ballet at the age of 15. “It's very late. I was horrible, ”he said. He stayed with dance, joining the Junior Company of Batsheva, based in Tel Aviv, the main contemporary dance company of Israel. Dance gave him a special status, so he “did not really serve” with the Israeli defense forces, which is compulsory for Israeli citizens: “I was this kind of religious in a high school.” In any case, he quickly left, leaving both Batsheva and Israel. “I didn't want to be there. Politics is far too strong, and it's a small place. ” He has not visited for a while. “Not since the start of the war. I have two little girls (aged 10 and 12) and all of this is very painful for them.”
Shechter, who is flexible and tall and could pass for one of his own dancers, looks intense of someone who fulfills his fate. “What interests me is to make people feel connected by music and dance. I think it is an important mission that can melt the problematic nature of politics, which is polarizing, “he said, never less than serious. He compares the power to dance with an audience to “a ceremony … like the high priests, thousands of years ago”. The “oddity” of the dance obsessed him. “For me, it's a place to really explore big strangers. Dance is an excellent medium to look at things like death we can talk about, but we never understand.”
The dance is also fun, something that turns out to be well in the film in 2022 in body (Rise, in English), a love letter to the contemporary dance of the French filmmaker Cédric Klapisch who presents both his company and Shechter himself; He persuades a young, injured Parisian ballerina, Marion Barbeau (a main dancer from Paris Opera) to exchange the ballet for a role in his company after having injured the ankle. He did not obtain a British version (“English, right?”) But is a must.
In reality, it is rare for classical dancers to go to contemporary. “They are very straight and my work concerns the flow and (being) sticky,” explains Shechter, who is back from the theater of dreams in Korea. In Great Britain, dancers come to contemporary dance “very late”, which disadvantages them compared to their European, Asian or American contemporaries. He adds: “The culture here is very traditional – it encourages classical ballet or musical theater, but contemporary dance is (considered) a little too arty.” More young people should dance, complete stop, he thinks. “I think young people could be lost for purposes and I think dance is great to concentrate people to your body, life, simple things.”
In Days: Shechter in Uprizing (2008) – Andrew Lang
In England with love, a recent article for his junior company, Shechter II, his subject was the fractured state of his adopted homeland (he will soon become a British citizen; “I want to be able to vote.”) He has no plan for a similar sister element on Israel. “There are too many nuances, there are too many arguments, there is too much disagreement. I don't interest me as an artist to go, ”he says. Despite having something reputation to work with a political folding, he insists that this “happens in the dust of politics … He examines people in the shadow of the social structures we have created. We have done our best and they are always quite Sh-Tty. ”
He wants to resume his previous creations. “I reworked them a little, but would bring them back. Many of this work is unfortunately always relevant. I unfortunately say because all these works deal with the oppression and survival of human beings in the wonderful and pathetic structures that we have created for ourselves. ”
Remember: it's good not to understand what you are looking at.
The Théâtre des Rêves is at Brighton Festival on Saturday May 3 and Sunday May 4; Brightonfestival.org. In the fall, he visited Sadler's Wells (October 15-18; Sadlerswells.com) and The Lowry Salford (October 24-25; Thelowry.com)
