Lording it at the dance

Feb 1 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

As dancers from around the world gather in Liverpool, Philip Key talks to the choreographer of one of the newest and most exciting groups

THEY have arrived in Liverpool from across the world, dance promoters, performers, choreographers, administrators and supporters. Across the city, dance has been taking place in every available venue, from theatres to arts centres.

The event that has attracted them, British Dance Edition 2008, is a regular gathering of British dance companies who go through their paces for bookers and others.

Because of the very nature of the event, much of what is happening is away from the public. But last night, three companies performed in public at the Liverpool Empire.

And tomorrow, three more will show just what they can do in front of a regular dance audience.

For the select six, it is an opportunity to show their skills not only to dance fans but to fellow dancers and others in the business.

Last night, the Russell Maliphant Dance Company, Scottish Dance Theatre and the Henri Oguike Dance Company went on stage.

Tomorrow, the Shobana Jeyasingh and Richard Alston dance companies will perform alongside Hofesh Shechter and his dancers.

Of tomorrow’s three, Hofesh Shechter is one of the newest companies, and for many the most promising group to appear on the British dance scene in years.

Shechter is an intriguing character, an Israeli-born dancer and choreographer who cut his dancing teeth at the Jerusalem Academy of Dance before joining the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv.

But Shechter had another string to his creative bow. “I played drums in a rock band,” he tells me. “It’s that which initially brought me to England.

“The other members in the band were very keen to perform in London. But really there were a variety of reasons I came. I wanted to work in Europe, although I did discover that England is not really Europe.”

A girlfriend at the time who wanted to study in England also featured in the decision.

The band came over, they did play. “But eventually it disintegrated as such bands do.”

So he went back to his first love, dance, and by 2004 was appointed associate artist at London’s leading dance venue, The Place, thanks partly to a duet he had created, Fragments.

That piece had toured Britain and internationally to Italy, Switzerland, Korea and New York, among other places. In Poland, it won the first prize in a choreography competition.

In Israel, he had taught dance and done some choreography with his students. “But I had not choreographed professionally until I came to Britain,“ he admits.

He was soon being asked to choreograph for other groups, including the Bare Bones company in Birmingham and Edge, the post- graduate school of the London Contemporary Dance School.

Three years ago, he created his company, or – at least – the com- pany name – his own. There were no regular dancers, just dancers he got together for individual projects. “It really was project-based at that time,” he says. “But I was looking at creating a proper company.”

Commissioned to create a new work by the Robin Howard Foundation, he came up with Uprising, the work he will showcase tomorrow.

His fingerprints are all over it. He not only choreographed the piece for seven male dancers, but helped with the costume design and created the sound score that accompanies it.