Biography

Yael Flexer is an award-winning choreographer based in Brighton, UK. Her work is primarily concerned with interaction, connecting with an audience on a human and visceral level. The work has a subtlety and intimacy that is apparent in the movement choices, wry humour and informal on-stage dialogue between performers. Works blend fast-paced intricate movement with digital technology, dry humour and text often written by collaborator Wendy Houstoun.

Yael originally formed the company as Choreographer in Residence at The Place Theatre, London. To date she has created 13 full-length productions, touring throughout the UK and internationally. Company commissions of live and/or digital works include Brighton Festival, Brighton Digital Festival, Woking Dance Festival, Sadler’s Wells, The South Bank Centre & Barbican Centre, London.

Commissions as an independent artist include, among others: E-Werk Tanz Festival (Germany), Edge, Scottish Dance Theatre, Motus Dance Festival, National Youth Dance Company Scotland, Ludus Dance, Mapdance, Lila, Freefall & Cascade Dance Companies, Gravity & Levity & Trinity-Laban. Recent commissions include works for Hull Dance, Maslool (Israel), Stavanger University (Norway), Three Score & Encore East. Yael has created numerous works for youth companies and regularly leads workshops, professional training and mentoring projects in the UK and internationally. Yael is winner of The Jerwood Award and completed her PhD in 2013 at The University of Chichester where she also co-directs mapdance, the University’s MA/postgraduate touring company.

Commissions

  • Set me on Fire (2020): Music video, Birdmask, Manuel Gagneux
  • Lucid Interval (2019): Movement Direction for Tina Hofman
  • Apre Moi (2019): Three Score Dance Company, Brighton,
  • Smudge (2019): Hull Dance professional and community commission
  • Small Acts (2019): Encore East, Dance East
  • Vortex 4 (2018): Maslool Tel-Aviv, premiere, Bat-Sheva Varda Studios
  • Vortex 3 (2018): Swindon Dance/Exeter C.A.T
  • Digital Traces (2017): Interactive digital & live improvisation performance, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton
  • Imagining Otherwise (2017): BA3 Commissioned works, Trinity-Laban
  • Re|placed (2017/2018): National Youth Dance Company Scotland
  • Act Four (2016): As part of the Disappearing Acts tour, University of Stavanger, Norway
  • Act Three (2016): As part of the Disappearing Acts tour, Vagen School, Norway
  • Act Two (2016): Outdoor commission for Professional Dancers, Motus Festival, Milton Keynes
  • Disappearing Acts (restaging 2016): Maslool professional Training, Israel
  • Act One (2016): As part of the Disappearing Acts tour, C.A.T commission, Dance East, Ipswich
  • Weightless (2015): Restaging As part of the Weightless tour, University of Stavanger, Norway
  • Vortex 2 (2015): YDANCE, Scotland 
  • Undoing Undone (restaging 2014/2015): Mapdance, University of Chichester
  • I Have a Body (2014/2015): Freefall Dance Company, Cornwall
  • Après Moi (2014): Three Score Dance Company, Brighton
  • Weightless (2014/2015): Restaging as part of the Weightless tour, Maslool Professional Training, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  • Weightless (2014): Restaging As part of the Weightless tour, Recreation, Wessex Dance Academy
  • The Living Room (2013): Restaging, Edge, LCDS, The Place
  • Shrink’d (2013): restaging Cando2 & C.A.T, The Place
  • Up (2012): The Place and Circus Space C.A.T
  • Undoing Undone (2012 & 2013): Recreation, mapdance, University of Chichester
  • Vortex (2012): Cascade Dance Company, part of the Cultural Olympiad
  • The Living Room (2012): Restaging, BA students, Stavanger University, Norway.
  • The Living Room (2011): Reconstruction, Stavanger University, Norway
  • The Living Room Outside (2010): large-scale site-specific commission, West Sussex County Council
  • What If (2010): Ludus Dance Company
  • Not About Love (2010): Lila Dance Company
  • Another Way of Remembering You (2010): Site-specific commission, Bath Spa University
  • Flying Solo (2010): Cat Casbon, South Hill Park
  • Doing (2008): Choreographic research Lab, Edge, London Contemporary Dance School
  • Back (2008): Bewegungs Art, E-Werk International Tanz Festival, Freiburg Germany
  • Collapsing in Four (2008): Influx Dance Company
  • Groundwork (2007): Laban Centre
  • Scan (2006): Velcro Dance Company
  • Wallflower (2005): Film commission, Lyndsey Butcher, Gravity & Levity
  • Exit Plan (2003): Bewegungs Art, E-Werk International Tanz Festival, Freiburg Germany
  • Just About Here (2001): Loop Dance Company
  • Undone (2000): Scottish Dance Theatre
  • Held (2000): Physical Recall, Time Out Project