ZVIDANCE
ZviDance exists to share with audiences the choreographic vision and movement vocabulary of Israeli-born Artistic Director, Zvi Gotheiner. Each piece defines a unique set of relationships and experiences, boldly addressing the depths of the human experience. ZviDance also exists to engage students in enriching their appreciation of the art form.
ZviDance brings its audiences a passionate vision of community in a modern age. A collaborative alliance among artists, the company’s stirring work celebrates diversity by melding movement genres into the distinct dance vocabulary constantly evolving and refusing to succumb to dialectics of the medium. The company is shaped by a collaborative model of creation, involving the ensemble and designers from the initial research phase, so as to constantly push the methodology and ethics of a creation process within an inter-disciplinary format.
In the last 33 years of existence, ZviDance has received critical praise and stable funding for its artistic projects, a work that fearlessly refuses to be bound to specific thematic or aesthetic dogma. The company performs frequently at home in such New York venues as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. ZviDance has toured across North America to festivals such as Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and The American Dance Festival, and abroad to Germany, Poland, Russia, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Japan.
Zvi Gotheiner, Artistic Director
Internationally acclaimed choreographer Zvi Gotheiner is the Artistic Director of ZviDance. Praised for a signature innovative style and fascinating melding of artistic mediums, his work is recognized as radical, contemporary dance theater, ground-breaking, thoughtful yet passionate, with lush movement. Zvi is also a renowned ballet teacher with a devoted following throughout the world, hailed by the New York Times as The Zen Dance Master of New York.
His work frequently touches upon relevant issues and themes around relationships and community. He has been described “as much sociologist as dance-maker” (Alastair Macaulay, New York Times),
A prolific choreographer with over 35 works in the last 30 years, Zvi integrates exciting original musical scores, evocative lighting designs, with edgy multi-media and video projections. The ZviDance renowned creative team includes composers Scott Killian and Jukka Rintamak; visual designers Josh Higgason and Herzog Nadler; and lighting designer Mark London. His collaborative approach extends to the dancers and is infused with deep regard for the individual and their creative, aesthetic role within the ensemble. His company is admired for its elasticity, athleticism, and emotional expressivity.
Zvi has created numerous commissioned works for prestigious companies, institutions and universities around the world, including Repertory Dance Theatre Utah, GroundWorks Dance Theatre, Juilliard Dance New Dances, Princeton, NYU, Ohio State University, University of Washington, Bard College, Vassar College.
Born in Israel, the musically gifted young Zvi encountered a performance of the Batsheva Dance Company that forever changed his life, inviting him “into a world of fantasy and self-definition”. As a young dancer/choreographer, he was discovered by the legendary Gertrud Kraus, who took him under her wing. Following a dance scholarship with the America-Israeli Cultural Foundation, he began dancing throughout the world with Batsheva Dance Company, Joyce Trisler, Eliot Feld, among others.
He founded the Tamar Ramle Dance Company, a herald of the Israel dance fringe movement, and later directed the Tamar Jerusalem Dance Company. Increasingly drawn to New York City, he moved in 1988, and in 1989 founded ZviDance.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT – From Zvi……
“In these increasingly tumultuous and volatile times, the creative process is the most powerful force in my life. I aspire to make my work reflect on the “now”. While making new movement phrases, I shed sequences imprinted in my memory, such as those in ballet, folk dance, and numerous contemporary genres, and research the invention of new ones with my collaborators.
I’ll have the sense there’s a piece in me, maybe not in verbal form but in my consciousness, a sculpture in the stone. There is research and a process but, in the end, I’m always surprised by how it comes together. It’s richer and more interesting when I don’t know where I’m going.
My starting point is the body. I allow for greater collaboration with the dancers and project designers. I have shifted my role from a “knowing” director to a collaborator seeking to discover the evolution of ideas. I have incorporated a system of critical response and feedback that are now essential for me in the creation of new movement vocabulary and the overall shape of a given work. This loose system allows me to invent a new creative process tailored to each work, and a flow of creative intelligence from an entire team. The more deeply I observe the creative process, the more mysterious making something from nothing becomes. I feel lucky to have these opportunities to immerse in invention, and a remarkable group of collaborators that brings it all together.”
COllaborators
SCOTT KILLIAN (Composer) has composed scores for Zvi Gotheiner (over 30 works), Shapiro & Smith Dance, Cherylyn Lavagnino, David Dorfman, Susan Marshall, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis. His works have been performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the Limón Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, PACT Dance (South Africa), et al. As a composer and sound designer for theater, Scott has created works for over 120 professional productions in NYC and at many regional theaters. NYC theatrical venues include Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, MCC, Red Bull Theatre, Primary Stages and Rattlestick Theatre. Regional theatres include George Street Playhouse (over 25 productions); Berkshire Theatre Festival (Resident Composer–over 40 productions), Alley Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare and Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival.
MARK LONDON (Lighting Designer) Newly retired from 24 years in broadcast lighting, Mark happily continues his even longer collaboration with ZviDance which started in 1989. Some of his international lighting credits include Noche Flamenca de Madrid, Stars of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet and the Chinese Opera of Taipei. NY based companies include Jeanette Stoner, Muna Tseng and ISO Dance as well as theatre productions at the Public Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music along with many other intimate downtown venues. Mark credits his wife Gail and children Rachel and Ian as a constant source of inspiration.
Board & Staff
Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner
Administrative Staff Janet Charleston
Board of Directors Florence Packman, Paul Calendrillo, Wayne Adams, Heidi Gutman, Don Christiansen, Douglas Hamilton, Ayala Marcktell, and Catherine Javech
Marketing Associate Loganne Bond
Fiscal Administrator Mara Greenberg – Pentacle
Director of Sponsor Relationships Paul Calendrillo
Technical Director Mark London
Publicity Michelle Tabnick, Director, Michelle Tabnick Communications
Accounting Chris Yeboa, CPA, Yeboa & Lawrence