L-E-V Dance Company

Sharon Eyal was born in Jerusalem. She danced with the Batsheva Dance Company between 1990 to 2008 and started choreographing within the framework of the company’s Batsheva Dancers Create project. 

Eyal served as associate Artistic Director for Batsheva between 2003-2004, and as a house choreographer for the company from 2005 to 2012. 

During 2009 Eyal began creating pieces for other dance companies around the world: 

• Killer Pig (2009) and Corps de Walk (2011) for Carte Blanche Dance of Norway

• Too Beaucoup (2011) for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 

• Plafona (2012) for Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg, Germany. 

In 2013 Eyal launched L-E-V with her long-time collaborator Gai Behar. 

L-E-V’s repertoire consists of 6 creations, their latest piece Love Chapter 2, premiered at the Montpellier Dance Festival in July 2017. 

Love Chapter 2 was a co-production alongside Montpellier Danse Festival, MIGROS Culture Percentage - Dance Festival STEPS, the RomaEuropa Festival and Theater Freiburg. 

Over the past 5 years since L-E-V was founded, the company had more than 200 performances some in the most exclusive venues and festivals around the world such as: The Joyce Theatre – NYC; Jacob's Pillow; Sadler's Wells - London, UK ; The Montpellier Danse Festival – France; Julidans – Amsterdam. 

The name of the Israeli dance company includes the Hebrew word for heart (lev). 

The theme of the L-E-V creation 'OCD Love' is the complex emotions of the heart. The work also deals with OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, which repeatedly poses challenges for love and for life, depicting the painful struggle to reach out and connect with others. 

It was inspired by a poem called OCD by American slam poet Neil Hilborn, which became a sensation on YouTube. It is a powerful piece, danced to techno beats created by DJ Ori Lichtik. The score shifts from an initial ticking beat to washes of lush strings that warp and build into a relentless and repetitive techno beat.It's about love that always misses, or lovers who keep missing each other. They are out of sync.

 Sharon Eyal's explains:

“I see everything in the piece very dark, and in shadows, you and your shadow dancing” 

The choreography is intriguing, intense, dark and beautiful. Eyal’s choreography plays with repetition. The dancers weave around each other twitching and convulsing. They reach out and then withdraw back into themselves, they grab at each other, they use the body of one to push and prod another, they cover their eyes and slap their chests. The dancer’s movement is sometimes synchronised, while at other times it is subtly different and out of sync.

When reflecting on her choreography Sharon Eyal describes:

 “It is the first time that the core of the piece is shaped in my head, and so figurative, before we have even begun working. I know the way it feels and smells. Like the end of the world, without mercy. A smell of flowers, but very dark. Like falling into a hole and not coming back. A lot of noise, but desperation for quiet. It's not coming from a place that I want to make something sad, but something that I need to take out of myself, like a dark stone I have in my chest.”

Research some examples from Sharon Eyal's choreographic body of work and discuss them with your class. 

The following 4 videos have been provided as examples to spark conversation and provide ideas to students.