Ballet BC

Medhi Walerski became Artistic Director of Ballet BC in July 2020. He initially trained in Normandy before joining the Conservatoire Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Walerski danced at the Paris Opera Ballet and the Ballet du Rhin before joining the Nederlands Dans Theater in 2001. For more than a decade at NDT, he was an integral part of the company. He participated in the creation of numerous new works and danced in the company’s repertoire. He was awarded the most important Dutch dance prize, VSCD Zwaan in 2013 for the most impressive dance performance.

He has worked closely alongside the creative forces of internationally established choreographers, creating and performing works by Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, and many more.

Walerski’s professional choreographic debut was in 2008 for NDT 2, he has since then developed a close relation with NDT and Ballet BC, as well as Bern Ballet, Goteborg Ballet, the Ballet State of Georgia, StaatBallet Hannover, Staattheater Wiesbaden and Charlotte ballet.

He is regularly invited to lecture and give workshops at Dance Conservatories and Dance Festivals in the Netherlands, The United States, China and Italy.

Canadian choreographer and director Crystal Pite is a former company member of Ballet BC and William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt.

Ms. Pite’s professional choreographic debut was in 1990, at Ballet British Columbia. Since then, she has created more than fifty works for companies such as The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal (Resident Choreographer, 2001–04), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Ballet British Columbia. She has also collaborated with Electric Company Theatre and Robert Lepage. Ms.Pite is Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University.

In 2002, she formed her company Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Integrating movement, original music, text and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. The company’s distinct choreographic language is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention. Kidd Pivot tours nationally and internationally, performing critically acclaimed works such as Revisor, Betroffenheit, The Tempest Replica, Dark Matters, Lost Action, and The You Show.

Ms. Pite is the recipient of the 2008 Governor General of Canada’s Performing Arts Award, Mentorship Program, the 2011 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, the 2012 Lola Award, the Canada Council’s 2012 Jacqueline Lemieux Prize and the UK Critic’s Circle Dance Award in 2015 and 2018. In 2017, she received the Benois de la Danse for her creation The Seasons’ Canon at the Paris Opera Ballet. In 2018, she received the Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal. She is the recipient of three Sir Laurence Olivier awards, including one in 2017 for Flight Pattern.

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

Eyal served as Associate Artistic Director for Batsheva between 2003-2004, and as a House Choreographer for the company between 2005-2012.

In 2005, Eyal started to collaborate with Gai Behar on her creations and the L-E-V company and different projects.

From 2009 Eyal created over 30 new creations for dance companies around the world such as the Nederland Dance Theatre; the Royal Swedish Ballet; GoteborgsOperans Danskompan, Sweden; Carte Blanche Dance of Norway, and more.

In 2013, Eyal launched L-E-V. In the past 8 years since L-E-V was founded, the company had more than 200 performances some in the most exclusive venues around the world such as The Joyce Theater – NYC; Jacob's Pillow - Becket, Massachusetts; Sadler's Wells - London, UK; The Montpellier Danse Festival – France; Edinburgh International Festival; Julidans – Amsterdam.

Gai Behar (Tel-Aviv, 1977) has been of wide influence of Tel Aviv’s live music, art and nightlife scenes from 1999 to 2005. He produced live music, underground artistic events and techno raves.

Between 1999-2005 Behar also curated and produced the events Man Without a Shirt in Tel Aviv. The event was co-curated by Uri Katzenstein, and among other included works by Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal. Gai produced the second round of Ohad Naharin’s Playback.

In October 2012, Eyal and Behar premiered Untitled Black in collaboration with the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani in Gothenburg, Sweden. In May 2013, they created the ethereal piece Sara for NDT 2. The same year, they launched their dance company L-E-V.

Since L-E-V was founded, the company had more than 180 performances some in the most exclusive venues around the world such as: The Joyce Theatre – NYC; Jacob’s Pillow – Becket, Massachusetts; Sadler’s Wells – London, UK ; The Montpellier Danse Festival – France; Julidans – Amsterdam.

Alongside their work with L-E-V, Eyal and Behar had also been commissioned to create for external companies: the Nederland Dance Theatre’s Sara (2013); Bedroom Folk (2015); Salt Womb (2016), Half-Life for the Royal Swedish Ballet and more.