For a man who has become one of the leading lights of the English contemporary dance scene, Hofesh Shechter’s first experience of his adopted country wasn’t exactly auspicious.

The Israeli born choreographer arrived at London’s Euston station at 8am on New Year’s Day, 2002. The annual holiday meant that most people were away, leaving a city that was like a ghost town.

Hofesh was in London because his then girlfriend had wanted to move there. He was going with the flow with no great expectations.
“I didn’t have the money for a taxi to go to a friend’s apartment so we walked from the station with our suitcases,” he laughs.

Eight years later, the Hofesh Shechter Dance Company has been lauded for Political Mother the show that was created and choreographed by its founder for this year’s annual Brighton Festival.
Since its premiere in May it has toured as far away as Asia and Australia and is currently in London’s Sadler’s Wells.

This is a dance show that comes with the warning “noise levels may exceed 100 decibels” and begins with a lone warrior committing hara-kiri, so it’s not one for the faint hearted.

It also has a live eight-piece band that provide the music for the 10 dancers in Political Mother. These appear to be at the mercy of a dictator as Shechter creates “a noisy, brutal, no-holds-barred attack on power and its destructive, abusive agenda”, according to the UK Times.

It’s the first full-length piece from Hofesh, who received his initial training at the Jerusalem Academy of Dance and Music before moving to Tel Aviv to join the Batsheva Dance Company. He subsequently studied music in Israel and Paris and has since written scores for his own work.

Initially he worked as a freelance choreographer and In Your Rooms, the show he created for London’s three main dance venues in 2007, was nominated for a South Bank Show award and won the Critics Circle Award for Best Choreography (modern) in 2008.

He set up his own company almost three years ago and has been going from strength to strength since.

“I had a hope for many years to be brave enough to start to create,” he says of his move to choreography. “I had fear but I had to move beyond it.”

And he has. The response to this full-on show has been fantastic, but it was a risk, something he was aware of when he started.
“I was a bit nervous, because it could have gone either way. It’s not just about giving a good time to the audience but if the audience is in the right mood – and hopefully the show puts them in the right mood – they will enjoy the energy.

“Maybe people want a show that’s loud and angry, he feels. He certainly has aimed to explore the tension between people’s private lives and the “very well-oiled public system around us”.

As with all of his works, Hofesh began Political Mother by drawing on his own notions and things that were going on in his life.
“It has to be as honest and as real as possible.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.