UT Dallas Presents International Choreographer

The School of Arts and Humanities presents an appearance by award-winning Israeli choreographer Renana Raz, who will cap her 11-week residency at the University with performances on Dec. 4 and 5.

The two-part show, titled “Bach, Britney, BIGGER, Banjo,” was created in collaboration with University dance students and will be performed with the UT Dallas Dance Ensemble.

Raz is the artistic director of the Renana Raz Dance Group in Tel Aviv, and her works have been staged in Israel, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Holland, Japan, Denmark and the U.S. She began creating dance works independently in 1999 and received the Israeli Ministry of Culture award for young choreographers in 2002 and 2003.

Raz’s works are theatrical explorations of physical expression, investigating the ways that people come together through dance.

Part One of “Bach, Britney, BIGGER, Banjo” grew out of Raz’s idea to interpret Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard composition, The Well-Tempered Clavier, as a dance work. The dance has seemingly random episodes, mixed images and energies that ultimately reveal their own unique logic.

Raz references the act of surfing the Web — searches lead to new thoughts, which lead to new searches — to describe the flow of logic in her new work. “It’s like wandering around someone’s mind,” she said.

Guest dancers from the Dallas area and Southern Methodist University will perform with the UT Dallas dancers.

Part two of “Bach, Britney, BIGGER, Banjo” is a glimpse into the “back stage” of the creative process, where ideas, images and sensations blend and mix into a new compound.

“This specific piece was inspired by the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau, my actual time in Dallas, my fantasy about Texas, longing for my homeland, my dreams about horses, cowboys and the legendary Ms. Britney Spears,” said Raz, who will perform the solo work.

Raz has been an artist-in-residence at the UT Dallas Centraltrak art space near downtown Dallas. Raz’s residency was supported by the Schusterman Family Foundation and the UT Dallas School of Arts and Humanities.

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