Prague Chamber Ballet’s World Premiere of BEAT by Choreographic Duo Ivgi&Greben

On 16 April 2014, The New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague will see the world premiere of the full-length dance piece called BEAT. It was created exclusively for the Prague Chamber Ballet by the choreographic duo Uri Ivgi (Israel) and Johan Greben (the Netherlands). A dynamic, highly physical, passionate and ecstatic choreography is, after Occama’s Razor, the second premiere of the PCB in this season. BEAT attempts to show the real condition of today’s world. In the 21^st century, life is so hectic and depersonalized that the sense of belonging and living in community, something that human beings have always needed for their existence, is slowly fading out. Although people can make use of the most advanced technologies nowadays, they miss eye-to-eye communication and human contact. Therefore, they are confused and search for their roots – often through rituals which enable them to share things with others. And a ritual is the phenomenon that became one of the key subjects of the new piece. “By the choreography, we don’t tell any story, we don’t follow any plot, we rather try to transmit emotions and convey ideas,” admits Johan Greben. “From time to time, we all ask ourselves such existential questions. We often wonder why we are here and where we come from; we simply search for our roots.” “We’ve been working together as a creative duo for eleven years,” says Uri Ivgi. “It took some time to polish our own movement vocabulary, to coordinate and find common ground. Over the years, our collaboration has developed into a relationship which is based on trust, understanding, inspiration and mutual respect.” “We are like black and white,” adds Johan Greben. “We have many diverse ideas and conceptions and that can be both negative and positive for the creative process. The more points of view and opinions, the more creative options we can produce.” The two foreign choreographers spent several weeks rehearsing intensively in Prague. For the last three days of preparations they were joined by Tom Parkinson, British independent composer, musician and sound designer, who is the author of the original music score for the piece. Parkinson is the choreographers’ well-established creative partner as he has collaborated with the Ivgi & Greben duo in several successful projects. BEAT is danced by six soloists of the Prague Chamber Ballet. “Our style is surely demanding for the dancers, not only because it is very physical but also because it requires absolute concentration. But PCB is a company of fresh, young, open and truly hard-working dancers,” says Johan Greben. “Its artistic director, Hana Polanská Turečková, has good and ambitious artistic views and she leads the ensemble in the right direction. We love to work with her and her dancers.” Johan Greben started his professional dance career in 1985 as a member of the Dutch National Ballet. He danced in pieces by famous choreographers: George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Martha Graham, Hans van Manen and many others. His first choreography Later from 1989 was awarded the Encouragement Prize for Choreography from the Amsterdam Foundation for the Arts and afterwards he created many works for various dance companies, festivals and schools throughout Europe. Since 1995 he has been working as an independent choreographer. Besides choreography, he also attends to coaching young dancers. He wonders all the time “How to extract dance from its esthetic vacuum wrapping and expose ideas to the audience?” Uri Ivgi from Israel is also interested in the searching process. It is no surprise that the two artists get along so well and that they have formed an inseparable artistic duo since 2003. Ivgi only began to dance full-time in 1987 after finishing his drama and sculpture studies.  In 1990 – 1997 he was a member of Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, performing in pieces by Mats Ek, Jiri Kylian, Rami Be’er and others. The year 1998 was a turning point in Ivgi’s career. He won many international as well as Israeli awards for dance and choreography and he moved to the Netherlands to concentrate fully on his choreographic work. With Greben, they have choreographed pieces for dance ensembles in Spain. Sweden, Hungary, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Russia etc. Prague Chamber Ballet is the biggest Czech independent professional dance body, its foundation dating back to 1964, when it represented the first contemporary tendencies in modern dance in the then Czechoslovakia. Over the more than half-century of its existence and artistic activity, the company has undergone an ambitious and successful yet complicated evolution. This season’s program is fully dedicated to the celebration of the PCB’s 50^th anniversary. Besides new performances, the company will present the personality of Pavel Šmok who is the founder of PCB and who is one of the best-known modern dance protagonists in our country. Further information available on www.prazskykomornibalet.cz. Premiere also as a Facebook event on www.facebook.com/events/1406452006283741/. Source: PCB