Aftershock (2015)

Touring 2023-24

Culture shock in hindsight, Aftershock is Artistic Director Ronen Koresh’s reflection on his emigration from Israel to the United States in the 1980s, and its impact on his artistic development and identity. Koresh shares

“Israel is a huge part of my life. It’s what defines me as a person—the culture, the tension, the love of life, the passion, the heat, the music and food, the complexity of racial and cultural integration. But my work is Middle Eastern culture coupled with American experience,” he adds. “Culture shock shakes your core. Then you live, you create, shaken up.”

Through the powerful athleticism and lyrical lines of the synchronized Koresh Company dancers, Aftershock illustrates the dangers and difficulties of building artistic integrity in a new place—the reverberation of hostile receptions, the challenge of gaining acceptance, and the risk of losing oneself to the expectations of a new environment.

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Meet the Choreographer

Ronen Koresh, Choreographer

Ronen (Roni) Koresh was born and raised in Israel. He received early dance training from his mother, a folk dancer in the Yemenite tradition, and from teachers Alida Gera, Micha Deri, Nira Paz and Moshe Romano. Koresh joined Martha Graham’s Batsheva 2 Dance Company before enlisting for 3 years in the Israeli army. In 1983, he moved to New York to study with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He began performing with Shimon Braun’s Waves Jazz Dance Company in Philadelphia, and in 1991, founded Koresh Dance Company in Philadelphia, followed by the Koresh School of Dance in 1993. Koresh has established a repertoire of over 60 works and develops 2 to 3 new works each year. These have included commissions for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Giordano Dane Chicago, GroundWorks Dance Theatre, Las Vegas Contemporary, Odyssey Dance Theatre, Spectrum Dance Theater, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Dance Celebration, the dancers of MADCO (commissioned for St. Louis’ New Dance Horizons series), Point Park University, Jacksonville University, East Carolina University, and Giordano Dance Chicago, as well as mentoring students at performing arts high schools across the country. Koresh had been on the faculty at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts for 30 years since 1986, teaches master classes across the country, and participates in festivals including Jacob’s Pillow and the Northwest National Dance Project. Recipient of a Philadelphia dance community Rocky Award from FringeArts and Dance/USA Philadelphia, Koresh is an avid collaborator and supporter of emerging artists. His interdisciplinary works have been supported by multi-year fellowships and grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.