Choreography & Music: Hofesh Shechter
Performed by: Shechter II
Video Projection Design: Shay Hamias
Original Lighting Design: Lee Curran
Original Costume Design: Merle Hensel
Original Music Collaboration: Nell Catchpole, Yaron Engler
Percussion Arrangements: Hofesh Shechter, Yaron Engler
Additional Music: J. S. Bach, Cliff Martinez, Joni Mitchell, Giuseppe Verdi

Dancers: Jack Butler (UK), Evelyn Hart (UK), Evelien Jansen (Netherlands), Niek Wagenaar (Netherlands), Rosalia Panepinto (USA/Italy), Jill Goh Su-Jen (Singapore), Chien-Hann Chang (Taiwan), Charles Henrich (France), Marion De Charnacé (France), Jared Brown (USA)

Produced by the Hofesh Shechter Company and co-commissioned by: Théâtre de la Ville, HOME Manchester Düsseldorf Festival
With the support of Fondazione I Teatri. Creative residency at DanceEast, Ipswich.

The Hofesh Shechter Company’s support for Shechter II 2020 was made possible through funding from:

The Foyle Foundation
The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation
International Music and Art Foundation

Additional core funding is provided by:
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation

The company also receives public funding through Arts Council England and benefits from the support of the BNP Paribas Foundation for the development of its projects.

Political Mother was originally created on 20 May 2010 at the Brighton Festival, UK.

Notes on the Performance

In 2020, Hofesh Shechter celebrated the tenth anniversary of his iconic masterpiece Political Mother by creating a new and powerful version for the junior company Shechter II.
Built around an original musical composition by Shechter himself, Political Mother Unplugged evokes the ferocity and spirit of the original production while transporting it into a new era and for a new generation of dancers selected from among the world’s most promising talents.
The performance immerses audiences in a universe of rare emotions and intense sensations, driven by Shechter’s contagious tribal movement language and the extraordinary abilities of his dancers.
Combining pulsating music with refined lighting and projection design, Political Mother Unplugged promises a unique and overwhelming theatrical experience.

★★★★★ “...as ambitious and as heads-down, hair-prickingly exhilarating as modern dance gets...”
— Mark Monahan, The Telegraph (on Political Mother, 2010)

“Hofesh Shechter’s Political Mother lacks only words. Yet they — and the questions they raise — are fully readable in this compelling dance, rooted in ethnic traditions and transformed through the language of contemporary movement.”
— Giuseppe Di Stefano, Il Sole 24 Ore, November 2011