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Grand Finale

Grand Finale

Grand final

"Grand Finale was quite simply one of the most astonishing performances of dance I have seen in the last 30 years."(Audience member)
Part gig, part dance, part theatre and wholly original – there is no better way to describe Grand Finale, the latest work of internationally celebrated choreographer Hofesh Shechter.
Spectacularly bold and ambitious, Grand Finale  is at once comic, bleak and beautiful, evoking a world at odds with  itself, full of anarchic energy and violent comedy. Filtering this  irrepressible spirit, Shechter creates a vision of a world in freefall,  featuring an exceptional ensemble of dancers and a live band of  musicians.
Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier award  for Best New Dance Production and has been nominated for Outstanding  Production in the Bessies 2018.

Source: Hofesh Shechter Company

Shechter, Hofesh

Choreographer Hofesh Shechter OBE is recognised as one of the most  exciting artists making stage work today, renowned for composing  atmospheric musical scores to compliment the unique physicality of his  movement. He is Artistic Director of the UK-based Hofesh Shechter  Company, formed in 2008. The company are resident at Brighton Dome and  Shechter is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells.

Hofesh Shechter’s repertoire for the company includes Uprising (2006), In your rooms (2007), The Art of Not Looking Back (2009), Political Mother (2010), Political Mother: The Choreographer’s Cut (2011), Sun (2013), barbarians (2015), Grand Finale (2017), SHOW (2018) and POLITICAL MOTHER UNPLUGGED (2020). Grand Finale was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.

Shechter has also staged and choreographed works on leading  international dance companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance  Theater, Batsheva Ensemble, Candoco Dance Company, Cedar Lake  Contemporary Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater 1, Paris Opera Ballet,  Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet Flanders.

He has choreographed for theatre, television and opera, notably at the Metropolitan Opera (New York) for Nico Mulhy’s Two Boys, the Royal Court on Motortown and The Arsonists, the National Theatre on Saint Joan and for the Channel 4 series Skins. As part of #HOFEST, a 4 week festival celebrating Shechter’s work across 4 iconic London venues, he co-directed Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice  with John Fulljames at the Royal Opera House. In 2016 he received a  Tony Award nomination for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

In 2018 Hofesh Shechter was awarded an honorary OBE for Services to Dance and the company's first dance film, Hofesh Shechter’s Clowns, was broadcast by the BBC in September to great acclaim.

In 2020, Hofesh Shechter Company was named the winner of the Fedora – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet for LIGHT: Bach Dances, in collaboration with Royal Danish Opera and co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and John Fulljames.

Hofesh Shechter’s new creation Double Murder will premiere in 2021.

More information: hofesh.co.uk

Hofesh Shechter Company

Artistic direction: Hofesh Shechter

Creation: 2008

Hofesh Shechter Company is one of the world’s leading dance companies.
 

“We’re in the business of inspiring people. I want to change lives, like my life was changed.”
– Hofesh Shechter

We celebrate and inspire the freedom of the human spirit through dance. We travel the world with our extraordinary company of internationally diverse dancers, breaking boundaries and releasing the visceral power that lies beyond the conscious mind.

We believe that dance has the ability to prod and poke and tap into  our deepest emotions; an instinctive, deep-rooted part of ourselves that  we rarely access in modern life. We dance to know what it feels  like, not just to live, but to be alive.

In all our work, we strive to move ourselves, and our audiences, beyond reason.

We are based in the UK and create our work here and in Europe. Our  work can be seen in the UK, major European cities, Canada, USA and  beyond.

“I want audiences to be awakened, to experience  my work from the gut. Trusting the gut is to me like trusting nature, or  God, or a sense of purpose; a source, a spark. Trusting a higher and  better force than our limited oppressed cultured minds.”
– Hofesh Shechter


More information: hofesh.co.uk

Grand final

Artistic direction / Conception : Hofesh Shechter

Artistic direction assistance / Conception : Bruno Guillore

Choreography assistance : Rosie Elnile

Set design : Tom Scutt

Original music : Hofesh Shechter

Lights : Tom Visser

Costumes : Tom Scutt

Duration : 1h15

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