Roy Assaf Dance

Circle. Triangle. Ark. Polygon. Square. Dot. Hexagon. Heptagon. Octagon. Star. Rhombus. Oval. Prism. Cube. Heart… And Figure No. 16.

Figure No. 16 is a work for three dancers and a kite. Or, a dance for two couples in a series of 1000 beginnings. A dance that owes its life to Hokuto and Mariko, to Johannes in the 19th century, to Johannes in the 21st, to Glenn (meter be damned), to Roland, Neema and to Josef from Budapest, to love, to hate, to a child prodigy, to a monster, to a ghost, to adolescence, to a nervous breakdown, to a vase of flowers, to a bearded elephant, to a camel who swims in pond, to name a few. Figure No. 16 is a dance for a single spectator, the one person who decides its fate, and if it is even really a dance.

This video is an excerpt of a full evening-length work.

Roy Assaf was born in 1982 in the rural community of Sde Moshe in southern Israel. He has been dancing and creating as long as he can remember. He broke his front tooth at the age of five while dancing on the slippery floor of his family home. At the age of six, he began giving tap concerts for his neighbor, who watched him dance on his concrete balcony from her window across the yard. From 1990 to 1996 he began creating and performing his own choreography for monthly family gatherings in Jerusalem. In 1997, a morning performance by the Batsheva Ensemble revealed to Roy his desire to pursue a career in dance. At the age of 16 he joined a dance group led by Regba Gilboa at his local community centre in Kiryat Gat. Two years later he was drafted into the Israel Defence Forces where, with vest, helmet and a rifle on his shoulder he danced through the 8-hour checkpoint shifts. In 2003 he met Emanuel Gat, with whom he collaborated closely as both performer and choreographic assistant until 2009. Since 2010, Roy has been developing, performing and sharing his own works around the globe.