Uri Ivgi (Israel) started his dancing career with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in 1990 and performed pieces by Rami Be’er, Mats Ek, Daniel Ezralow, Jiri Kylian, Suzanna Linke, Inbal Pinto and many others. Ivgi created his first choreography ‚Ischa-Ischa‘ in 1993 and was repeatedly invited to create for the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Israel. In 1998 Ivgi received the first prize for best dancer during the International Competition for Choreographers as well as an award for Upcoming Choreographic Talent from the Ministry of Culture in Israel. In that same year he moved to The Netherlands to fully focus on his career as a choreographer and created a number of works for various companies, festivals, and schools in Europe. In 2001 he won the Public Award with his duet ‚Longing‘ during the International Competetion for Choreographers in Groningen, NL and the second prize during the Choreographers Competition in Hannover in Germany in 2002.
“I am fascinated by situations involving people in defined spaces. I like to create on the basis of physical communication, working through feelings, intuition and visual ability. I show by example, motivating dancers to take it one step further by adding their own personal touch.”
Johan Greben (The Netherlands) started his dancing career with the Dutch National Ballet in 1985 and performed pieces by George Balanchine, Carolyn Carlson, Nils Christe, Rudi van Dantzig, William Forsythe, Martha Graham, Edouard Lock, Hans van Manen and many others. In 1989 Greben created his first choreography ‚Straks‘ for the Dutch National Ballet, which awarded him both the Encouragements Prize for Choreography from the Amsterdam Foundation for the Arts as well as the Wim Barry Perspective Award. Since 1995 Greben worked as a independant choreographer and created a number of works for various companies, festivals and schools in Europe. In 1996 Greben won the third prize with his duet ‚610‘ during the Choreographers Competition in Gelsenkirchen in Germany.
“Over the years I have had a growing interest in communicating with the observer: my audience. How to extract dance from its esthetic vacuum wrapping and expose ideas to the audience? What should I leave out in order to make movement significant? Through movement I look for forms and mechanisms of meaning with which I can arouse feelings in the audience.”