Into the Hairy

Sharon Eyal was born in Jerusalem. She danced with the Batsheva Dance Company between 1990-2008 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 between 2005-2012.

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 7 creations.

Their latest piece Chapter 3: The Brutal Journey of the Heart, premiered at RuhrTriennale in Bochum, Germany in September 2019. For the third time L-E-V’s creation is co-produced with two of the leading dance venues around the globe: Sadler’s Wells – London and Julidans – Amsterdam. For this creation, also joined for the co-producers: Ruhrtriennale, Christian Dior Couture, Montpellier Danse, Torinodanza Festival, Carolina Performing Arts, Bold Tendencies, Young Turks.

Love Chapter 2, premiered at the Montpellier Dance Festival in July 2017. For the second time L-E-V’s creation is co-produced with two of the leading dance venues around the globe: Sadler’s Wells – London and Julidans – Amsterdam and for Love Chapter 2, also joined for the co-production: Montpellier Danse Festival, MIGROS Culture Percentage – Dance Festival STEPS, the RomaEuropa Festival and Theater Freiburg.

Winner of the FEDORA – Van Cleef & Arpels Prize for Ballet.

Over the past 12 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. Alongside their work with L-E-V, Eyal and Behar had also been commissioned to create for external companies: the Nederland Dance Theatre- Sara (2013); Bedroom Folk (2015); Feelings (2016); Salt Womb (2016); Half-Life for the Royal Swedish Ballet, and more.

Eyal received several awards: the French Professional Association of Dance & Theater Critiques at the Chaillot National Theater in Paris (2017), the prestigious Fedora Prize (2017), the 12th Belgrade Dance Festival’s Jovan Ćirilov Award (2017) and the Landau Prize for the Performing Arts in the dance category (2009). Eyal was named Chosen Artist, by the Israeli Cultural Excellence Foundation (2008) and the Ministry of Culture Award for Young Dance Creators (2004).

Co-Founder, Co-Artistic director & creator

As a party producer, Gai was taking a big part of Tel Aviv nightlife scene as well as a curator of multidisciplinary art events from 1999 till 2005. Gai joined Sharon in co-creating Bertolina in 2005 and has collaborated on the creation of Sharon Eyal ever since.

Darren Devaney

Born in Edmonton, Canada where he attended Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts. Continuing his studies at The Boston Conservatory, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance and performed works by Jose Limon, Anthony Tudor, and Anna Sokolow. Upon the completion of his education, he moved to San Francisco where he freelanced with Zhukov Dance Theatre and Robert Moses’ Kin. After four seasons, he recently left Ballet BC where he had the opportunity to perform works by Medhi Walerski, Johan Inger, Jorma Elo, Gustavo Ramirez, Cayetano Soto, Emily Molnar, and William Forsythe.

Guido Dutilh

Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1995. Guido trained at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam between 2010 and 2014. After he worked with NDT2 from August 2014-2018 and with NDT 1 from August 2018 until December 2019. In 2018 he received the Dutch Swan Award for his performance in Wir Sagen Uns Dunkles by Marco Goecke. Guido joined L-E-V in February 2020.

Juan Gil

Born in Valencia, Spain and trained at London Studio Centre.
He danced with Sarasota Ballet from 2011-2016. Whilst there he performed in works by Ashton, Balanchine, Nijinsky, Wheeldon, Christopher Bruce, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Dominic Walsh. He then danced with Rambert from 2016-2022 where he performed works by choreographers including Christopher Bruce, Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter, Wim Vandeykeybus, Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar, Imre & Marne van Opstal, Marion Motin, Andonis Foniadakis, Didy Veldman, Itzik Galili and Ben Duke. Juan joined L-E-V in September 2022.

Alice Godfrey

Born in Windhoek Namibia, grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. She began performing with the Cape Dance Company at age 14, under the directorship of Debbie Turner. Upon finishing high school she left for Toronto to spend two years training at the Canadian National Ballet School. Following immediately she began working with The Netherlands Dance Theatre under the directorship of Paul Lightfoot. It was also in the house of The Netherlands Dance Theatre that she met Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar for the first time. Alice spent three years dancing for NDT2 and two years with NDT1. She joined L-E-V in July 2019.

Dana Pajarillaga

Queer, Filipina-American dance artist living in Berlin. She has danced as a contemporary demi-soloist at Staatsballett Berlin, performing works by Sharon Eyal, Emanuel Gat, and Jefta van Dinther. As a BFA Graduate of The Juilliard School, she has performed the works of Mercy Cunningham, Nacho Duato, Jerome Robbins, Andrew Tay, Christoph Winkler, and RUBBERBAND; in Montreal, New York, Toronto, and Berlin. As a choreographer and teacher, her movement practice deals with unpacking emotional history in the body. In these times, she is working to dismantle the systemic racism that is inherent in contemporary art and the dance world at large. Dana joined L-E-V in December 2021.

Keren Lurie Pardes

Born in the USA in 1991, Keren attended the Arts High School in Jerusalem. She is a graduate of the “Maslool” – Professional Dance Program of Tel-Aviv, directed by Naomi Perlov and Offir Dagan. Keren joined the Batsheva Ensemble as a trainee (2010-11), where she participated in a project by Idan Sharabi. Later as a member of the Batsheva Ensemble (2011-13) she took part in the works of Ohad Naharin, and Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar in “Lost Cause” among others. As an independent dancer, Keren worked with Ella Rothschild, Talia Beck and Bosmat Nossan.

Nitzan Ressler

Born in Jerusalem in 1992. During her younger years she danced with Hora Jerusalem and studied at the Jerusalem Academy for Music and Dance High School. Nitzan is the recipient of the 2008-2010 America-Israel Cultural Foundation education scholarship and the Yair Shapira award (2017). She danced at the Batsheva Ensemble in 2010 and Batsheva Dance Company in 2012-2022. Nitzan joined L-E-V in November 2022.