Gods and Dogs

Jiří Kylián (Czechoslovakia, 1947) began his dance career at the age of nine at the school of the National Ballet in Prague. In 1962 he was admitted as a student at the Prague Conservatory. He left Prague when he received a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London in 1967. He then joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of John Cranko. Here Kylián made his debut as a choreographer with "Paradox" for the Noverre Society. After creating three ballets for the Nederlands Dans Theater ("Viewers", "Stoolgame" and "La Cathédrale Engloutie"), he became Artistic Director of the ensemble in 1975. In 1978 he brought the Nederlands Dans Theater to international fame with "Sinfonietta". In the same year, together with Carel Birnie, he founded NDT II, which was intended to serve as a bridge between school and professional ensemble. In 1991 he also initiated NDT III, an ensemble for older dancers over forty years of age. In 1999 Kylián handed over the artistic direction, but remained associated with NDT as a house choreographer until December 2009. Jiří Kylián has created almost 100 works, many of which are performed worldwide. Kylián has choreographed not only for the Nederlands Dans Theater, but also for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, Swedish Television and the Tokyo Ballet. Kylián has collaborated with many creative personalities of international stature – composers: Arne Nordheim ("Ariadne" 1979), Toru Takemitsu ("Dream Time", 1983) – stage designers: Walter Nobbe ("Sinfonietta", 1978), Bill Katz ("Symphony of Psalms", 1978), John Macfarlane ("Forgotten Land", 1980), Michael Simon ("Stepping Stones", 1991), Atsushi Kitagawara ("One of a Kind", 1998), Susumu Shingu ("Toss of a Dice" 2005), Yoshiki Hishinuma ("Zugvögel" 2009). In 2006, the film "Car-Men" was created on Czech brown coal open-cast mines together with film director Boris Paval Conen. In 2010 Kylián served as a dance mentor as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2013 he created the film "Between Entrance & Exit" together with Boris Paval Conen and NTR, which was nominated for the "Gouden Kalf" award at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. For the Aichi Triennale 2013 in Nagoya, Japan, he created the full-length dance/film production "East Shadow", which was dedicated to the victims of the tsunami in Japan. Together with Czech film director Jan Maliř he made the films "Schwarzfahrer" (2014) and his most recent film "Scalamare" (2017), which was filmed on the steps of the Monumento ai Caduti in Ancona, Italy. Over the course of his career, Kylián has received numerous international awards and honours. He is an Officer of the Orange Order, Commander of the Legion d'honneur and honorary doctorate of the Juilliard School in New York. He received three Nijinsky Awards in Monte Carlo (Best Choreographer, Best Company and Best Production), the Prix Benois de la Danse, the Honorary Medal of the President of the Czech Republic as well as the Medal of the Order for Arts and Science of the House of Orange. He was also awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Television Award for the documentary film "Forgotten Memories". During the festival "Celebrating Kylian!" the choreographer was awarded honorary citizenship of The Hague. In 2017 Kylián was awarded the lifetime achievement award "Positano Premia La Danza Léonide Massine Award". In 2019 Kylián was admitted as a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In connection with this honor, a seat for the field of "Dance" was established at the academy. In 2021 Kylián received the Gratias Agit Award and in 2024 the Order of the White Lion, the highest award of the Czech Republic.

Jiří Kylián (Czechoslovakia, 1947) began his dance career at the age of nine at the school of the National Ballet in Prague. In 1962 he was admitted as a student at the Prague Conservatory. He left Prague when he received a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London in 1967. He then joined the Stuttgart Ballet under the direction of John Cranko. Here Kylián made his debut as a choreographer with "Paradox" for the Noverre Society. After creating three ballets for the Nederlands Dans Theater ("Viewers", "Stoolgame" and "La Cathédrale Engloutie"), he became Artistic Director of the ensemble in 1975. In 1978 he brought the Nederlands Dans Theater to international fame with "Sinfonietta". In the same year, together with Carel Birnie, he founded NDT II, which was intended to serve as a bridge between school and professional ensemble. In 1991 he also initiated NDT III, an ensemble for older dancers over forty years of age. In 1999 Kylián handed over the artistic direction, but remained associated with NDT as a house choreographer until December 2009. Jiří Kylián has created almost 100 works, many of which are performed worldwide. Kylián has choreographed not only for the Nederlands Dans Theater, but also for the Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bavarian State Opera Munich, Swedish Television and the Tokyo Ballet. Kylián has collaborated with many creative personalities of international stature – composers: Arne Nordheim ("Ariadne" 1979), Toru Takemitsu ("Dream Time", 1983) – stage designers: Walter Nobbe ("Sinfonietta", 1978), Bill Katz ("Symphony of Psalms", 1978), John Macfarlane ("Forgotten Land", 1980), Michael Simon ("Stepping Stones", 1991), Atsushi Kitagawara ("One of a Kind", 1998), Susumu Shingu ("Toss of a Dice" 2005), Yoshiki Hishinuma ("Zugvögel" 2009). In 2006, the film "Car-Men" was created on Czech brown coal open-cast mines together with film director Boris Paval Conen. In 2010 Kylián served as a dance mentor as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2013 he created the film "Between Entrance & Exit" together with Boris Paval Conen and NTR, which was nominated for the "Gouden Kalf" award at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. For the Aichi Triennale 2013 in Nagoya, Japan, he created the full-length dance/film production "East Shadow", which was dedicated to the victims of the tsunami in Japan. Together with Czech film director Jan Maliř he made the films "Schwarzfahrer" (2014) and his most recent film "Scalamare" (2017), which was filmed on the steps of the Monumento ai Caduti in Ancona, Italy. Over the course of his career, Kylián has received numerous international awards and honours. He is an Officer of the Orange Order, Commander of the Legion d'honneur and honorary doctorate of the Juilliard School in New York. He received three Nijinsky Awards in Monte Carlo (Best Choreographer, Best Company and Best Production), the Prix Benois de la Danse, the Honorary Medal of the President of the Czech Republic as well as the Medal of the Order for Arts and Science of the House of Orange. He was also awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Television Award for the documentary film "Forgotten Memories". During the festival "Celebrating Kylian!" the choreographer was awarded honorary citizenship of The Hague. In 2017 Kylián was awarded the lifetime achievement award "Positano Premia La Danza Léonide Massine Award". In 2019 Kylián was admitted as a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In connection with this honor, a seat for the field of "Dance" was established at the academy. In 2021 Kylián received the Gratias Agit Award and in 2024 the Order of the White Lion, the highest award of the Czech Republic.

Joke Visser arbeitete zehn Jahre als freischaffende Kostümdesignerin für das Holländische Nationalballett, das Nederlands Dans The­a­ter und die Holländische Opernvereinigung, bevor sie 1987 fest beim Nederlands Dans Theater angestellt wurde. Bereits zwei Jahre später übernahm sie die Leitung der dortigen Kostümabteilung. Seitdem hat sie alle Kostüme für Jirí Kyliáns Produktionen geschaffen. In den vergangenen Jahren kreierte sie die Kostüme für Bella Figura, Wings of Wax,  A Way A Lone, One of a Kind, Indigo Rose, Half Past, Doux Mensonges», Arcimboldo 2000, Click-Pause-Silence, Birth-Day, 27’52˝, Claude Pascal, When Time Takes Time, Far too close, Last Touch, Sleepless, Toss of a Dice, Chapeau, Tar and Feathers, Vanishing Twin, Gods and Dogs und Mémoires d’oubliettes. Neben ihrer Arbeit für weitere Choreografen betreut sie die Kostümausstattung der Kylián-Ballette weltweit.

Nach seinem Studium an der Kunstakademie Brüssel arbeitete Kees Tjebbes mit verschiedenen Theatern und Compagnien zusammen, darunter das Toneelgroep Theater, Introdans, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam und Nederlands Dans Theater. Bei Introdans und dem Scapino Ballet Rotterdam kreierte er das Lichtdesign für Neuproduktionen von Ed Wubbe, Nils Christe und Itzik Galili. Ausserdem arbeitete er mit Choreografen wie Mats Ek, William Forsythe und Ohad Naharin zusammen. Seit er 2000 für Jiří Kyliáns Click – Pause - Silence das Licht gestaltete, wirkt er bei fast allen Tanzproduktionen des Choreografen mit, u. a. bei 27’52’’, Claude Pascal, When Time Takes Time, Far too close, Last Touch, Sleepless, Toss of a Dice, Chapeau, Tar and Feathers, Vanishing Twin, Gods and Dogs und Mémoires d’oubliettes für das Nederlands Dans Theater sowie Il faut qu’une porte für das Ballett der Opéra de Paris. Er ist zudem als Lichtdesigner für sämtliche weltweit neu- oder wiederaufgeführten Kylián-Produktionen verantwortlich, arbeitet aber auch mit Choreografen wie Ken Ossola, Stephan Thoss, Crystal Pite, Yuri Possokhof und Didy Veldman zusammen.

Ohad Naharin wurde im Kibbuz Mizra in Israel geboren. Seine Ausbildung begann er 1974 bei der Batsheva Dance Company, bevor Martha Graham ihn entdeckte und nach New York einlud. Hier studierte er an der School of American Ballet und an der Juillard School. Engagements führten ihn anschliessend an die Bat-Dor Dance Company und zu Maurice Béjarts Ballet du XXe Siècle nach Brüssel. 1980 debütierte er als Choreograf und gründete die Ohad Naharin Dance Company. Seitdem schuf Ohad Naharin viele Choreografien unter anderem für das Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt und für die Compañía Nacional de Danza in Madrid. Seit 1990 ist er Künstlerischer Direktor der Batsheva Dance Company. Für die Company entwickelte Ohad Naharin mehr als 20 Stücke. Seine eigens entwickelte Bewegungssprache «Gaga» ist mittlerweile Trainingsmethode nicht nur für die Batsheva Dance Company, sondern für viele Tänzer weltweit geworden. Ohad Naharin wurde unter anderem mit dem Israel Prize for Dance (2005), New York Dance and Performance Award (2002, 2003) und dem Dance Magazine Award (2009) ausgezeichnet.

Ohad Naharin wurde im Kibbuz Mizra in Israel geboren. Seine Ausbildung begann er 1974 bei der Batsheva Dance Company, bevor Martha Graham ihn entdeckte und nach New York einlud. Hier studierte er an der School of American Ballet und an der Juillard School. Engagements führten ihn anschliessend an die Bat-Dor Dance Company und zu Maurice Béjarts Ballet du XXe Siècle nach Brüssel. 1980 debütierte er als Choreograf und gründete die Ohad Naharin Dance Company. Seitdem schuf Ohad Naharin viele Choreografien unter anderem für das Nederlands Dans Theater, Ballett Frankfurt und für die Compañía Nacional de Danza in Madrid. Seit 1990 ist er Künstlerischer Direktor der Batsheva Dance Company. Für die Company entwickelte Ohad Naharin mehr als 20 Stücke. Seine eigens entwickelte Bewegungssprache «Gaga» ist mittlerweile Trainingsmethode nicht nur für die Batsheva Dance Company, sondern für viele Tänzer weltweit geworden. Ohad Naharin wurde unter anderem mit dem Israel Prize for Dance (2005), New York Dance and Performance Award (2002, 2003) und dem Dance Magazine Award (2009) ausgezeichnet.

Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi) startete seine Karriere als Lichtdesigner für Rockkonzerte zunächst in Israel, in den 80er Jahren in London und auf Europatourneen für Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, The Cure, Roger Waters, David Gilmour und Dizzy Gillespie. Seit seiner Rückkehr nach Israel vor 25 Jahren ist er dort einer der führenden Lichtdesigner. Seine Arbeiten finden sich in Produktionen für die grossen Theater Israels und die Opernhäuser von Tokio, Amsterdam, Bilbao und Nizza. Er war Lichtdesigner beim Nederlands Dans Theater, beim Ballett Frankfurt, beim Ballet Nacional de España, dem Cullberg Ballet und den Grands Ballets de Montreal. Für seine Arbeiten wurde Bambi mit zahlreichen Preisen ausgezeichnet, darunter mit acht „Best Lighting Design of the Year“ Awards der Israeli Theatre Academy. Als Lichtdesigner der Batsheva Dance Company arbeitet er seit über zwanzig Jahren mit Ohad Naharin zusammen.