Koresh Dance Company takes the stage at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre for its 2010 spring season featuring the world premiere of Sense of Human, by Ronen (Roni) Koresh and the company premiere of Passomezzo by Ohad Naharin, artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company.

Passomezzo, set to the Baroque melodies of Greensleeves and The Beggar’s Opera, is a highly theatrical pas de deux depicting the intimate dialogue between a man and a woman.  Ohad describes Passomezzo as a duet about tough love and opposition that explores the tempestuous shifts of balance in a relationship.  The commissioning of Passomezzo was made possible through a generous grant award from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.

Roni’s new work, Sense of Human, depicts life in its purest, rawest, most guttural state. We walk through life wearing carefully chosen facades that disguise, redirect, and hide the basic yearnings by which we exist. What are we hiding? Are we really concealing anything? Can others see right through us? Can others know us better than we know ourselves? This work delves beneath our desired self images to discover our true sense of humanity.  In collaboration with Roni, Greg Smith has created an original score for Sense of Human.

Ohad Naharin began his training as a dancer with the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, Israel. One year later, at the invitation of Martha Graham, Naharin came to New York where he also trained as a scholarship student at the School of American Ballet. After a year with the Martha Graham Dance Company, he continued his studies at The Juilliard School of Music and with Maggie Black and David Howard. He then joined the Maurice Bejart Company in Brussels for one season before making his choreographic debut in 1980 at the Kazuko Hirabayashi studio in New York.   From 1980 to 1990, Naharin performed and worked in New York. In 1990 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company. Naharin is one of the most celebrated choreographers in the world and has been the recipient of many awards and honors including: the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1998, two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards (for Naharin’s Virus at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2002 and for Anaphaza at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2003), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa  by the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2004, the prestigious Israel Prize for dance in 2005 and a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Hebrew University in 2008. This is the first time Naharin has set a work on a Philadelphia dance company and it is an honor to have his work added to Koresh Dance Company’s repertory.

In 1992, Ronen (Roni) Koresh fulfilled a lifelong dream with the help of his brother Alon Koresh and founded the Koresh Dance Company. Known for its engaging performances and technically superb dancers, the company is a leading force on both the national and international scene.  Roni has developed a repertory of work that ranges from explosive and passionate, to intimate and restrained. The company’s repertory also includes work by Robert Battle, Donald Byrd, Itzik Galili and Paul Selwyn Norton. The company tours nationally and internationally putting on up to 50 performances per year, with at least two performances in Philadelphia. The company’s home in Philadelphia is the Koresh School of Dance which has become a mecca for dancers throughout the Philadelphia community. Along with touring and rehearsing his company, Roni remains dedicated to teaching not only at his studio, but also at The University of the Arts, where he has been a professor of dance since 1986. Roni’s work has been commissioned by Derryl Yeager’s Odyssey Dance Theater in Utah, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, Brandywine Ballet Company in West Chester, PA, Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle, and Dance Celebration, a co-presentation of Dance Affiliates and Penn Presents, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. For his choreography, Roni has received fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts.

KORESH DANCE COMPANY’S SPRING SEASON
Thurs, Apr 29 at 8pm
Fri, April 30 at 8pm
Sat, May 1 at 2pm and 8pm
Sun, May 2 at 7pm
The Suzanne Roberts Theatre,  480 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia

Tickets are $20, $25 and $30. Senior citizens and students with ID get $5 off.
Tickets on sale at Philadelphia Theatre Company’s box office, 215-985-0420, and Koresh Dance Company, 215-751-0959