Double Murder: Clowns/The Fix
Hofesh Shechter Company (UK)
A thrilling new double bill by internationally celebrated UK-based Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter, with two contrasting pieces for our times.
The evening begins with Clowns, a sarcastic nod to our ever-growing indifference to violence; originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and later produced as a film and broadcast by the BBC. In a macabre comedy of murder and desire, Clowns unleashes a whirlwind of choreographed anarchy, testing how far we are willing to go in the name of entertainment.
As an antidote to the murderous, poisonous energy of Clowns, Shechter’s new creation, The Fix, brings a tender, fragile energy to the stage. It offers a raw and compassionate moment to balance the forces of aggression that press on us daily. A shield to protect us from the noise of life outside, and a place that allows the performers to be fragile, be seen for their utmost human qualities. Violence, tenderness, and hope are all laid bare through Shechter’s achingly beautiful, cinematic lens.
Performed by his inimitable dancers and accompanied by the epic sounds of a Shechter-composed score, Double Murder explores painful truths and delves into our deepest emotions.
Double Murder is produced by Hofesh Shechter Company.
Commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. Co-commissioned by Shanghai International Dance Center Theater (SIDCT), Hong Kong – New Vision Arts Festival, National Performing Arts Center, by Taiwan R.O.C. – National Taichung Theater, Festival d’Avignon, Danse Danse Montréal, Scène Nationale d’Albi, Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Marche Teatro / Inteatro Festival, Opéra de Dijon and HOME Manchester. Developed in part at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Double Murder is supported by the International Music and Art Foundation. Hofesh Shechter Company benefits from the support of BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects and is supported using public funding through Arts Council England.
Top image: Hofesh Shechter Company, Double Murder – Clowns © Todd MacDonald.
October 21 & 22, 2022 | 8pm
Vancouver Playhouse
600 Hamilton Street
Running time: 95 minutes, including one intermission
Pre-show Talk 7:15pm each night in the Vancouver Playhouse Upper Lobby.
Host: Barb Clausen, DanceHouse Co-founder
Guests: Executive Producer Colette Hansford (Friday) and Associate Artistic Director Bruno Guillore (Saturday)
"The mighty contemporary choreographer – a combination of dance-maker and rock-star, but with film-director sensibilities."
The Times
“Hofesh Shechter and his company are absolutely at the top of their game. ... If you love contemporary dance, then this is an absolute must-see!”
North West End
“you leave refreshed, alive and a little changed”
Richard Maguire, The Reviews Hub
Hofesh Shechter Company is a boundary-breaking dance company, producing exceptional work created by Hofesh Shechter, with an extraordinary company of internationally diverse dancers at its core.
Based in the UK, but playing on major stages throughout the world, our work celebrates and inspires the freedom of the human spirit.
We believe that dance has the ability to prod and poke and tap into our deepest emotions; an instinctive, deep-rooted part of ourselves that we rarely access in modern life.
We dance to know what it feels like, not just to live, but to be alive. In all our work, we strive to move ourselves, and our audiences, beyond reason.
Founded in 2008, our repertoire includes Uprising (2006), 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) and Grand Finale (2017), with SHOW (2018) and POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED (2020) performed by Shechter II, our apprentice programme. We have played in cities around the world including Paris, New York, Melbourne, Tokyo, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Rome, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro and many more.
Our touring show Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier Award (2018) and Helpmann Award (2019) for Best Dance Production and won a Dora Award for Outstanding Touring Production (2019).
We collaborate on exceptional, large-scale projects of the highest quality to world-leading venues within the UK as well as internationally and create digital projects with global reach. Recent projects include a revival of Hofesh’s production of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at La Scala, Milan (2018), co-directed with John Fulljames, East Wall (2018), our four year talent development project, culminated in a large-scale spectacle of dance and live music at the Tower of London, in partnership with East London Dance, Historic Royal Palaces and LIFT, and BBC Two presented our first dance film, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns (2018), which was broadcast as part of the Performance Live strand.
In 2020, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns was presented globally online and won Best International Short Dance Film at CHOREOSCOPE – The International Dance Film Festival of Barcelona. Our World premiere of Double Murder, a thrilling new double bill presenting two distinctly contrasting pieces of contemporary dance for our times, was postponed due to Covid-19 and new online audiences were reached through live streams of POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED from Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris, zoom streams of Hofesh Shechter’s Untitled, in addition to a hybrid learning programme. Hofesh Shechter Company was also named the winner of the FEDORA – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2020 for LIGHT: Bach Dances, co-produced with Royal Danish Opera and co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and John Fulljames.
In 2021, Shechter II featured in a new short dance film POLITICAL MOTHER: The Final Cut and returns to live theatre audiences with POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED.
Choreographer Hofesh Shechter OBE is recognised as one of the most exciting artists making stage work today, renowned for composing atmospheric musical scores to compliment the unique physicality of his movement. He is Artistic Director of the UK-based Hofesh Shechter Company, formed in 2008. The company are resident at Brighton Dome and Shechter is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells.
Hofesh Shechter’s repertoire for the company includes Uprising (2006), 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), SHOW (2018) and POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED (2020). Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
Shechter has also staged and choreographed works on 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 on 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 codirected 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.
In 2018 Hofesh Shechter was awarded an honorary OBE for Services to Dance and the company’s first dance film, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns, was broadcast by the BBC in September to great acclaim. Shechter’s follow up short dance film POLITICAL MOTHER: The Final Cut premiered in the UK in July 2021.
In 2020, Hofesh Shechter Company was named the winner of the Fedora – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet for LIGHT: Bach Dances, in collaboration with Royal Danish Opera and co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and John Fulljames.
Hofesh Shechter’s new creation Double Murder premiered on 14 September 2021 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London.
