Nir de Volff (IL/D; dance)

Nir de Volff was born in Israel where he studied dance and took his first steps with local professional dance companies. In Tel Aviv, he took part as a guest artist in Pina Bausch’s Viktor at the Israeli opera house. Since he moved to Amsterdam in 2000, he started engaging with his own work. In 2004, he moved to Berlin and created his first piece for Sophiensaele Tanztage festival, and founded his own company, TOTAL BRUTAL, in summer 2007. Since then, the company has been working based at Dock11 theater and expanded its productions to Sophiensaele in 2013. In September 2014 TOTAL BRUTAL premiered at the prestige theater Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in collaboration with the theater director Falk Richter which a piece that has now become part of the repertoire.
 
Aside from his ensemble work, Nir de Volff collaborates with artists such as the group She She Pop at HAU Berlin, or Katarina Niminnen at Volksbühne Berlin. De Volff is invested in international cultural exchange projects, engaging in social-political topics with entertainment. In the past few years, he developed a movement method called USE-ABUSE which he has been teaching around the world at important dance and art centers. TOTAL BRUTAL works with a wide range of professional performers, and with various theaters. They have performed their work at theaters such as Oper Frankfurt, Grand Theatre Groningen, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, ZIL Culture Centre Moscow, SESC Pinheiros (São Paulo), Esplanade Theatre (Singapur), Bangkok National Center for Dramatic Art, Stadttheater St. Pölten (Austria), Warehouse 2 (Jaffa Port), Tel Aviv, Ponec Theatre (Prag), Teatro Alle Tese (Venice), Old Court Building (Macao), Amphithéâtre de Gesù (Montréal), and in various others cities in Germany and around the world. 2015-16, they performed during the Nurkan Erpulat show at Maxim GORKI theater in Berlin.
 
De Volff’s most recent productions include performances during the renowned Viennese Festwochen festival 2016. In November 2016, de Volff created his first solo performance, called ”Love & Loneliness in the 21st century”. In August 2017, he presented the piece ”Come as you are # 2017” as a research-work in progress with three Syrian dancers who live as refugees in Berlin.

Photo: Bernhard Musil