Hofesh Shechter Company - London, Great Britain

Double Murder

Clowns           
The Fix

choreography, music: Hofesh Shechter
lighting design (The Fix): Tom Visser
costume design (The Fix): Peter Todd
lighting design (Clowns): Lee Curran
additional lighting design (Clowns): Richard Godin
based on costume design (Clowns): Christina Cunningham
additional music (Clowns): Can Can by Jacques Offenbach - published by BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited, a BMG Company © used with permission. All rights reserved. The Sun - performed by Kim Jung Mi, written by Shin Joong Hyun (KOMCA), published by Shin Joong Hyun MVD (KOMCA). Courtesy of Light in the Attic Records
additional music (The Fix): Le Roi Renaud (instrumental version) by Pierre Bensusan (Sacem, Paris, France) Album: Pierre Bensusan #2 (Dadgad Music – DM1002) 

duration: 95’ (including interval)
premiere: Sadler’s Wells, London, 2021

production:  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.

A thrilling new double bill by internationally celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter, presenting two distinctly contrasting pieces for our times. With a sarcastic nod to our ever-growing indifference to violence, “Clowns”, originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and later produced as a film for the BBC, unleashes a whirlwind of choreographed anarchy, asking, “How far are we willing to go in the name of entertainment?” In stark contrast, Shechter’s new creation, “The Fix”, brings a tender, fragile energy to the stage. It offers a human, raw and compassionate moment where violence, tenderness and hope are all laid bare through Shechter’s achingly beautiful, cinematic lens. Performed 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.

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter is recognized 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, while 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), “Double Murder” (2021) and for Shechter II “Show” (2018), “Political Mother Unplugged” (2020) and “Contemporary Dance 2.0” (2022). His “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 New York’s Metropolitan Opera and 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, 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. Hofesh Shechter is an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Artist in Residence of Gauthier Dance (2021-2023). The works of Hofesh Shechter were performed at the Belgrade Dance Festival by his company (“Political Mother” and “Sun”), as well as by other dance companies.

Founded in 2008, Hofesh Shechter Company is a boundary-breaking dance company, producing exceptional work created by Hofesh Shechter, with an extraordinary team of internationally diverse dancers at its core. Based in the UK, Company is performing on major stages throughout the world. 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 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.

It’s heartwarming and beautiful, an antidote to the suffering of the world.

© The Observer

The mighty contemporary choreographer – a combination of dance-maker and rock-star, but with film-director sensibilities.

© The Times

He has a rare talent for channeling raw dance energy into patterns of shimmering, rhythmic intricacy; the knotted, gnarly grace of his signature style is purely his own.

© The Guardian