Arkadi Zaides is an independent choreographer; born in Belarus in 1979, he immigrated to Israel in 1990 and currently lives in Brussels.
CHOREOGRAPHY
In Israel, he performed in several companies such as the Batsheva Dance Company and the Yasmeen Godder Dance Group before embarking on an independent career in 2004. Zaides holds a Master’s degree from the Amsterdam Master Of Choreography program at the Theater School in the Netherlands. His performances and video installations have been presented in numerous dance and theater festivals, museums and galleries across Europe, North and South America and Asia. In his work, Zaides addresses social and political issues, he previously focused on the Israeli/Palestinian context, and is currently concerned with the European one. Zaides’ artistic practice aims to initiate critical debate, concentrating on the body as a medium through which social and political issues are experienced most acutely.
AWARDS
Zaides received the Emile Zola Prize for Performing Arts for demonstrating engagement in human rights issues in his work Archive (2013). His work Quiet received a grant from the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport (2013). He was the recipient of the Israeli Lottery Foundation Landau Award (2012). He won the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport Young Artist Prize (2008, 2009, 2011). He received the annual Rosenblum Award for excellence in the arts (2010), and his work Solo Colores received the Kurt Jooss Award (2010).
CURATORIAL WORK
Zaides continuously develops platforms to promote contemporary discourse of performance making. Together with dramaturge and researcher Sandra Noeth, he initiated Violence of Inscriptions. The project brings together artists, thinkers, and human-rights activists to negotiate the role of the body in producing, maintaining, legitimizing, representing, and aestheticizing structural violence (2016). Zadies curated Moves Without Borders, a close collaboration with Goethe Institute Israel. The project invited avant-garde choreographers to conduct performances and workshops in Israel (2012-2015). Together with choreographer Anat Danieli, Zaides curated the New Dance Project in Jerusalem. The project provided novice choreographers with professional guidance, production assistant, and financial support (2010-2011).
COLLABORATIONS
Zaides took part in the work process of the following performances and projects: INFINI project (Jozef Wouters, Brussels, 2015), Durcheinander (deufert&plischke, Berlin, 2015), Contracting Fears (Bridge On A Wall, Murcia, 2010), Ladies First (Matanicola, Berlin, 2007), Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder (Yasmeen Godder, Tel Aviv, 2006), Eyezaurus Frida (Noa Dar, Tel Aviv, 1999). During the years 1999-2004, Zaides was part of the Batsheva Ensemble and the Batsheva Dance Company, both lead by the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin.