Biography
Yuval Pick was born in 1970 in Israel, where he trained at the Bat-Dor Dance School in Tel Aviv. Aged 21, he joined the Batsheva Dance Company, which he left in 1995 to embark on an international career, working with artists such as Tero Saarinen, Carolyn Carlson and Russell Maliphant. In 1999 he joined the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon before founding his own company, The Guests, in 2002. He composed pieces characterised by elaborately scored movement, coupled with potent musical collaborations; in a kind of ritual, his dance offered a constantly challenged equilibrium between the individual and the group. After a long career as a performer, educator and choreographer, he was appointed in August 2011 to head the National Choreography Centre (CCN) of Rillieux-la-Pape, where he has created many pieces: No play hero (2012),; based on the music of David Lang; Folks (2012); Loom (2014), to music by Nico Muhly; Ply (2014), with composer Ashley Fure; Apnée (2015); and Are friends electric? (2015) based on Kraftwerk’s music. In 2016, in response to a request by the Monuments Nationaux heritage agency, Yuval Pick create the site-specific project Hydre at the Royal Monastery of Brou, as part of the Monuments en Mouvement #2 programme. In 2018, he staged Acta est fabula at Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse, which he adapted a year later into a version for children’s audiences: Lil’Acta. In January 2020, he staged Vocabulary of need before accepting two commissions from the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon: Terrone (premiered in September 2020) and There’s a blue bird in my heart (March 2022). In 2021, Yuval Pick created FutureNow, for those who are still children at heart. In just a few short years, he has asserted a unique style of choreographic composition, discrete from his previous artistic influences. From one work to the next, he further deepens his exploration of the relationship between movement and music. He devises unexpected dialogues, intertwines rhythmic elements, redefines spaces. In his approach, no single material dominates or ignores any other. “My choreographic research,” he says, “is guided by the idea that each human being has an innate knowledge that dance has the power to unveil.”