®Rahi Rezvani – Grand Finale 

 

NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL

World-renowned choreographer Hofesh Schechter is no stranger to ground-breaking work and his latest Olivier Award-nominated piece Grand Finale is no exception. It heads to Norwich Theatre Royal on May 15 as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and he tells Sarah Crompton more about what is in store.

Sarah: “What message are you aiming to convey in Grand Finale?”
Hofesh Schechter: “Many times people want to know what I mean in a particular dance piece and I don’t think that really matters. What matters is what happens on stage more than if something happens to the audience when they watch it – or not. When someone sits and watches the performance, it is about what is happening to them in their head and how they feel. It doesn’t matter that they get it right in some way”.
“It aims to reflect the troubled times we live in but does it also look at how we respond to these difficult events?”
“Everybody’s an observer these days. None of us feel personally responsible even though all of us are equally responsible. It is a funny place we are in”.
“How different was it for you to create Grand Finale with its mix of choreography, dance and music?”
“I think I get bored quite easily. I am quite aware that I could more or less reproduce my earlier work and probably survive but I don’t know why I would do that. I have a style, a taste and things that excite me but I want to set myself new challenges”.
“The designs are inspired by a dream you had about a city made out of Japanese paper giving the piece a flexible look. I guess the band is also very important to the piece?”
“I was craving to come back to live music because of the urgency it creates in performance and I didn’t want to do something I had done before so I imagined the dancers keeping the human flame around. Regardless of what happens around them, they keep on going and they don’t panic. They just keep the love together, and the harmony”.
“You have said in the past that you find the process of choreography quite difficult. How was this?”
“There is a place deep inside me that is quite dark. When I go into creation, people who are close to me know that I disappear and apparently I am not much fun in those periods. It is like soul-searching. After this, the work comes out. This can feel exposing but I stand behind the idea of going with what happens and not being too careful because it is all part of the process and part of the growing and pushing yourself. Part of the scary thing about being a choreographer is that you don’t have a script but you have to be confident. Even if you are not confident, you have to keep working”.

 

Listing:

Grand Finale, Tuesday 15 May at 7.30pm. Tickets £8-£26. Discounts for Friends.

To book, log onto www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk or call the box office on01603 630000.