About us

Ivgi&Greben

Ivgi&Greben creates expressive, raw dance performances of an international level. Urgent social themes are translated into human images that touch you and won’t let go.

Waiting in motion

Nice to meet you!

Uri Ivgi & Johan Greben

Already during their individual dance careers, respectively with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel and Dutch National Ballet in the Netherlands, Uri Ivgi and Johan Greben successfully started their individual careers as choreographers. In 1998, Uri Ivgi received the award as Emerging Choreographic Talent from the Ministry of Culture in Israel. In 2001 he won the Audience Award for his duet Longing at the International Choreographers Competition in Groningen, and second prize at the International Choreographers Competition in Hannover, Germany. Johan Greben won the Incentive Prize for Choreography ’89 of the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and the Wim Barry Perspective Prize ’90 for his first choreography Later. Both have created various choreographies for companies, festivals and schools in Europe. Ivgi&Greben began their collaboration in 2003 with the Carmen for the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company in Hungary. Since then, they have been creating for many dance companies around the world. Ivgi & Greben depict their ideas through an intense movement language that they combine with poetic images, which touch and confront. They see their work as a mirror for their audience, as well as themselves to seek a personal reflection of reality. With themes such as oppression, tension between individuals and groups, longing for freedom and love, and sexuality and acceptance, Ivgi&Greben create a visual world where movement, music, light and costumes come together in its own aesthetic world. In 2011, Ivgi&Greben received the prestigious Golden Mask Award in Russia in the category Best Choreographer – Ballet/Contemporary Dance for This Is Not A Love Song, which they created for the Provincial Dances Theatre in Russia. In 2014 and 2015 Ivgi&Greben worked as artistic directors for the Rozbark Theatre in Poland. For this company they adapted their successful production This Is Not A Love Song, which was immediately nominated as best production of the year. To develop an audience, they created the production I Give You My Heart for public space, indoors and outdoors. In addition, they initiated the Rozbark in Motion Festival in combination with a training program for dancers and choreographers. Ivgi&Greben presented Rozbark Theater in Germany, France and the Netherlands. In 2018, Ivgi&Greben produced the full-length dance performance We Are In Trouble with a successful premiere in the European Capital of Culture Leeuwarden/Friesland 2018. They concluded the equally successful tour of 18 performances during the Lowlands Festival.  

Dance as communication For Ivgi&Greben, dance is connected to the human condition as pure life energy. The body as a vehicle of life and suffering is central and the emotional expression is leading. The collaboration of the two choreographers has led to a recognizable aesthetic with an intensive movement style, theatrical weight, clear broad lines and attention to detail. On a basis of classical modern dance, minimalism and abstraction are applied within a visual framework. Flowing compositions of abstract gestures, intense emotional images and interplay are built up and disrupted into sculptural tableaux. The work appeals to the wordless connection of one’s own body with other bodies. Ivgi&Greben therefore invites the audience to empathize and wants to inspire ideological flexibility and compassion.

Ivgi&Greben created for: Ballett am Rhein, MiR Dance Company DE; Itdansa, ES; Modern Dance Turkey; Ballet Junior de Genève, Tanzkompanie Theater St. Gallen, Tanzkompanie Konzert Theater Bern, CH; National Theatre Ballet, Prague Chamber Ballet, CZ; Phoenix Dance Theatre, Scottish Ballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, GB; Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, HU; Balletto Teatro di Torino, IT; Dansgroep Amsterdam, Introdans, Scapino Ballet, NL; Norrdans, Skånes Dansteater, SE; Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, SKR; Provincial Dances Theatre, RU; Rozbark Theatre, Wroclaw Opera Ballet, PL.

Own dance company In 2021, Uri and Johan started their own dance company Ivgi&Greben in Leeuwarden. This makes them the first international professional dance company in the province of Friesland. In 2021, together with their eight international dancers, they created the performance Nice To Meet You! followed by the performance Wasted Skin in 2022. In 2022, Ivgi&Greben also co-produced the site-specific performance Under Wetter by the Frisian Tryater, the only multilingual theatre company in the Netherlands.

Part of dance company Ivgi&Greben zijn Alice Leoni, Anastasia Papasakellariou, Daniel Flores Pardo, Gaetano Tricomi, Greta Cecconi, Ludovico Murgia, Mariona Carrasco en Tommy Heeffer.