GALILI DANCE / DANSGROEP AMSTERDAM

BIOGRAPHIES

Dansgroep Amsterdam

Choreographers Krisztina de Châtel and Itzik Galili have decided to launch a new dance company in Amsterdam from 1 January 2009 onwards.
Dansgroep Amsterdam presents itself as an urban dance company which on the one hand focuses on the artistic development and continuation of the work of the two choreographers, and on the other hand aims to develop and perform new dance productions and projects by the artistic directors, guest choreographers and young creators.
Premiere on March 26 in Amsterdam with choreographies by Krisztina de Châtel, Itzik Galili, Monique Duurvoort, Yasmeen Godder


NND/GALILI DANCE

NND/GALILI DANCE began in 1997 when the Dutch Ministry of Culture appointed Galili as the artistic director of the Dance Foundation of the Northern Netherlands. Based in Groningen, the company tours nationally, as well as internationally and performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Israel, Denmark and Russia.
Galili has a breath and scope of creative vision which integrates dance with film, theatre and original musical composition. His work has the ability to “appeal to a broader public, while… treating movement and issues with enough integrity to rustle minds”(Michelle Mann, Dance Europe). Galili’s movement is fiercely physical, the “degree of strength, daring and intensity displayed by his dancers literally has the audience on the edge of their seats”(Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Yet Galili possesses a striking talent to harness the physical capabilities of dancers without losing their sensuous emotional qualities. He succeeds in creating worlds in which “physical aggression and infinite tenderness go hand in hand” (Eddie Vetter, The Telegraph).

ITZIK GALILI artistic director

recipient of the Dutch Choreography Award 2002

born in Tel Aviv, had his only exposure to dance in it’s traditional folk form. His interest grew, and when he joined the Bat Dor Company and later the Batsheva Dance Company, Itzik Galili was unaware that he was embarking on a career that would lead him ultimately out of Israel and around the world. He had entered a professional art world in which he would later be described as a “master architect of space and timing of bodies” (Michelle Mann, Dance Europe).

Itzik Galili, autodidact, choreographed his first piece, Double Time (1990), out of curiosity over whether or not he could craft his own work. Later that year his efforts earned him the originality prize in the Gvanim International Choreographers Competition, for his creation The Old Cartoon. Galili emerged internationally in 1992, when The Butterfly Effect won the public’s prize at the International Competition for Choreographers in the Netherlands. In 1994, after only four years of choreographic experience, Galili was honoured with the Phillip Morris Art Price for his Contribution to Dutch Culture. These three achievements were only the beginning of a choreographic career which would eventually entail the creation of over forty original works, such as Between L…. (1995), Until with/out Enough (1998), The Drunken Garden (1999), Beautiful You (1999), Things I told Nobody (2000), For Heaven's Sake (2001), See Under X (2003).

Galili’s highly acclaimed pieces have been performed by prominent dance companies throughout the world, including: The Dutch National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Gulbenkian Ballet, Ballet du Grand Théater de Geneve, Batsheva Dance Company, Stuttgarter Ballett and Les Grand Ballet Canadiens.

Itzik Galili received the prestigious bi-annual Dutch Choreography Award 2002 for his important long time contribution to dance in the Netherlands. With this award Itzik Galili joins the list of previous winners which include: Hans van Manen, Jirí Kylían and Krisztina de Châtel.

Itzik Galili continues to choreograph because he has not yet found a reason to stop. He claims that “we are all lunatics but we think we are not”. Perhaps choreography is Galili’s method of channelling his own lunacy, and is therefore a means of survival. Whatever the reason, his journey continues. In his description of See under X, Galili refers to a language of an old mystery;
“adventavit asinus
pulcher et fortissimus”
(the donkey arrives, beautiful and strong)

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