Hofesh Shechter Awarded An OBE For Services To Dance

Internationally celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter was today awarded an honorary OBE for Services to Dance.

Hofesh Shechter is recognised as one of 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.

Hofesh Shechter said 'Being an immigrant in this country, I was always in awe of Britain's generosity and inclusivity. My work has been supported here for many years by partners and the Arts Council and I was hoping that it gives back in return through the best of efforts and the highest possible quality art work that engages, challenges, questions and inspires. I am humbled, and, in all honesty, touched by this generous gesture of appreciation and recognition of this work we have done - for all these years I was surrounded with many others that worked tirelessly, with trust and belief, and this recognition is theirs just as much'.

Born in Jerusalem, Hofesh studied at the Jerusalem Academy for Dance and Music, graduating into the Batsheva Dance Company. He studied drum and percussion in Tel Aviv and Paris and moved to the UK in 2002

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 for companies around the world.

Hofesh Shechter's repertoire for the company includes 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) and SHOW (2018) with his apprentice company, Shechter II.

Shechter has also staged and choreographed works for 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 for 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.

His latest full-length work, the internationally acclaimed Grand Finale premiered at La Villette with Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. The production makes a welcome return in a limited run at Sadler's Wells in July. Hofesh is also creating at this time, the boldly ambitious East Wall, a large-scale spectacle of dance and music in partnership with East London Dance and LIFT which will take place in the magnificent surroundings of the Tower of London. His 2016 work Clowns will be broadcast on BBC 2 this Autumn. Clowns was performed as part of SHOW by his apprentice company Shechter II throughout 2018.

Hofesh Shechter was Guest Director of Brighton Festival in 2014 and is an associate artist of Sadler's Wells Theatre. Hofesh Shechter Company are a Resident Company at Brighton Dome.