Choreographer Hillel Kogan danced with Batsheva Ensemble from 1995 to 1996. Ever since, his ongoing relationship with Batsheva has been multifaceted – he continued to dance Naharin’s choreographies even while working in other companies around the world, and later returned to Batsheva as rehearsal manager and educational activity director.
In recent years, Kogan has emerged as one of the most intriguing independent dancemakers in Israeli dance, whose works wish to be a “danced dialogue,” as he puts it. His attitude towards the art industry is simultaneously critical and infatuated. With poignant wit he slays sacred cows on stage – conventions of age, gender, and ethnicity – to expose the ideological construction of the aesthetic.
Kogan returns to Batsheva Dance Company as a choreographer, with a reflexive exploration of the human body in contemporary culture, our relationship with our body and the bodies of others, with individual bodies and collective bodies, the desired and even failing body, and the dancer as an unattainable object of observation, virtuosity, youth, and coolness.
Performed by the dancers of the Batsheva Ensemble season 2023-2024
Gili Yaniv Amodai, Emil Brukman, Holden Cole, Victor Duval, Lounes Landri, Maya Marom, Bo Matthews, Mermoz Melchior, Celia Merai, Kylie Miller, Sofiia Pikalova, Leann Reizer, Kelis Robinson, Adi Schwarz, Annika Verplancke, Jian Hui Wang.
Apprentices: Zoe Bayliss Nagar, Shira Kestenboum, Noga Senna, Yarden Zana
Dramaturgy: Sharon Zuckerman Weiser
Lighting Desig: Nadav Barnea
Costume Design: Evelyn Terdiman
Art Direction: Laetitia Boulud
Photo: Laetitia Boulud