Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns is a dance film that plays out a macabre comedy of murder and desire, asking how far will we go in the name of entertainment. Directed, choreographed and composed by Hofesh Shechter, it combines bold, exhilarating and tribal movement by 10 dancers with a percussive, cinematic score.

Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns was commissioned by the BBC as part of the Performance Live strand – a partnership between BBC Arts, Arts Council England and Battersea Arts Centre, showcasing some of the most exciting artists working in performance today. Produced by Hofesh Shechter Company and Illuminations. 

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 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.

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.

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 will premiere in 2021.

More information: hofesh.co.uk

Artistic direction: Hofesh Shechter

Creation: 2008

Hofesh Shechter Company is one of the world’s leading dance companies.
 

“We’re in the business of inspiring people. I want to change lives, like my life was changed.”
– Hofesh Shechter

We celebrate and inspire the freedom of the human spirit through dance. We travel the world with our extraordinary company of internationally diverse dancers, breaking boundaries and releasing the visceral power that lies beyond the conscious mind.

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.

We are based in the UK and create our work here and in Europe. Our  work can be seen in the UK, major European cities, Canada, USA and  beyond.

“I want audiences to be awakened, to experience  my work from the gut. Trusting the gut is to me like trusting nature, or  God, or a sense of purpose; a source, a spark. Trusting a higher and  better force than our limited oppressed cultured minds.”
– Hofesh Shechter

More information: hofesh.co.uk

EuroArts  Music is one of the worldwide leading independent producers and rights  owners of audio-visual classical music programs for TV and DVD.
EuroArts Music International was founded in 1979 by Bernd Hellthaler.  Soon, the company became internationally renowned for the production  and distribution of audio-visual classical music recordings, acclaimed  documentaries, Opera and Ballet films, jazz as well as other music and  art programs for TV and home video.
Today, the company sells the catalogues of EuroArts Music, Stingray,  Montréal and London, Idéale Audience, Paris and Loft, Munich. EuroArts  Music also distributes programs of various independent producers. It is  active in TV licensing to more than 150 clients in 40 countries around  the world, in DVD as well as in digital distribution on several  platforms. The current TV broadcast catalogue contains about 1800 titles  or more than 2500 hours of music material that includes all noteworthy  artists in classical and contemporary music of the past five decades.  The EuroArts label distributes its catalogue with more than 700 titles  on Blu-ray Disc and DVD worldwide through distribution partners Warner  Classics (worldwide exclusive Japan and South Korea), King Records,  Japan and Aulos, Korea.
Our Berlin-based production team have – over a period of more than 30  years – built a reputation for meeting the highest artistic standards,  as well as for a never ending innovative spirit. Multi-camera music  events have been produced in countries all over the world, amongst them  China, Japan, Russia, USA, Israel, Palestine, Turkey and Argentina.  EuroArts Music was the first company to produce a live concert, which  was broadcast in 50 cinemas all over Europe.
Since 1990, EuroArts Music has a close cooperation with the Berliner  Philharmoniker on prestigious regular concert events, such as the annual  Europakonzert, the famous open air concerts at the Waldbühne, Berlin  and the annual New Year’s Eve concerts.
It has relations to prestigious festivals like the Verbier Festival,  and to several opera houses like San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera,  Berliner Staatsoper, Teatro Real or Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.
Owing to long lasting relationships with artists and conductors like  Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, the late Claudio Abbado, Daniel  Barenboim, Valery Gergiev, with renowned directors Bruno Monsaingeon and  Peter Rosen and world-class performers such as Martha Argerich,  Anne-Sophie Mutter, Grigory Sokolov and András Schiff or, from the  younger generation, Lang Lang, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Sol Gabetta,  Gustavo Dudamel, Leonidas Kavakos and the ever young Menahem Pressler -  the company has become one of the few big names in the classical music  industry.
Innovation and quality characterize the company’s business. The  achievements include numerous awards such as a Peabody Award and Grammy®  Award Nomination (for “Blue Note – A Story of Modern Jazz”), Emmy  Awards (for “Robbie Robertson" and “Knowledge is the Beginning”), the  Grammy® Award (for “Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of  Mahagonny”), the National Education Award (USA), three German ECHOs, a  Dance Screen Award (for “C(h)oeurs”) and the Grand Prix at the Golden  Prague Festival 2015 for “Menahem Pressler - The life I love”.
EuroArts Music always strives to spearhead innovation: for instance  with impressive 3D productions and new sound productions, such as the  first HD Audio on Blu-ray Disc or the first-ever 4k opera release on  Ultra HD Blu-ray.

More information: euroarts.com