Artistic Director, Sydney Dance Company
“Simply tremendous.”
THE CITIZEN
“Contemporary dance has a new star.”
SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE
“Unique, Kylie calls him, and she’s right.”
THE GUARDIAN
“His language, gender blind and fuelled by disparate energies, has a muscularity that ebbs and flows…”
THE TIMES, LONDON
Barcelona born choreographer Rafael Bonachela’s appointment as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company was announced in November, 2008, four months after the premiere of his commissioned work for the Company titled 360°, which had premiered to great acclaim at CarriageWorks in Sydney on July 29. we unfold now launches his directorship and is the first new work created for the Company by Bonachela since his appointment. we unfold sees Bonachela collaborating for the first time with Australian artists Daniel and Jordan Askill, for video art and costume design respectively, and reunites the choreographer with Italian composer Ezio Bosso, whose new Symphony No. 1 is heard for the first time during this Australian season.
Bonachela describes himself as a ‘movement junkie’ and the exploration and experimentation of pure movement is his motivation. In addition to his own movement vocabulary, he finds inspiration in the visual arts and popular culture, which gives his work a distinctive style. A choreographer committed to innovation, he is often described as one of the most intriguing and inventive choreographers working in the world today, moving seamlessly between the mainstream and avant garde dance works.
Rafael trained at the London Studio Centre and danced with Lanonima Imperial in Spain before joining Rambert Dance Company in London where he remained from 1992 to 2004. As a dancer, Rafael has performed in works by many of the world’s leading choreographers including Merce Cunningham, Richard Alston, Christopher Bruce, Siobhan Davies, Jiri Kylian, Twyla Tharp, Mats Ek, Javier de Frutos, Wayne McGregor, Kim Brandstrup, Mark Baldwin, Jeremy James, Per Jonsson, Lindsay Kemp, Ohad Naharin, Karole Armitage, Matthew Hawkins, Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor.
His first choreographic work for Rambert Dance Company, Three Gone, Four Left Standing, premiered in 1998 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. He was appointed as Rambert’s Associate
Choreographer in April 2003, a position he held until November 2005. He has choreographed nine works for Rambert Dance Company, including 21, a multi-media work produced in collaboration with Kylie Minogue’s creative team. Rafael was a finalist in the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards in the Best Contemporary Choreography category for 21.
In September 2004, Rafael won the first ever Place Prize award for choreography, along with the Audience Vote Award and the New York Bloomberg Choice Award, for his piece E2 7SD. The following year his work Irony of Fate won third place in the 19th International choreographic competition in
Hanover,Germany. Rafael was invited to present both works at the Whitechapel Art Gallery by Director Iwona Blazwick and Chair Mario Testino for Art Plus Dance. It celebrated the flashpoints between art and other cultural forms and was unrivalled as the highlight of the arts calendar in 2005.
In Autumn 2005, Rambert premiered Rafael’s new work Curious Conscience. Rafael subsequently received the prestigious Choo San Goh Award (USA) and the production was chosen as the best show of the year by TIME OUT Magazine in London.
In April 2006 at the first ever Biennale Danza e Italia international competition for independent choreographers from all over the world, Rafael was awarded both the Guglielmo Ebreo prize and the Critics’ Prize for his choreography of Soledad commissioned by Probe.
June 2006 saw the launch of Bonachela Dance Company. Rafael choreographed two new works and collaborated with contemporary composer Matthew Herbert. In July that year,
Rafael was appointed as one of the first Artists in Residence at the South Bank Centre, London. He plans to use this association to further develop his collaborative work with artists from other disciplines and to explore ways in which dance can operate outside it usual theatre forum.
In November 2007 Bonachela Dance Company was nominated by the National Dance Awards Critics Circle for Oustanding Repertoire (Modern). Other commissions include work Rafael has createde for Candoco, George Piper Dances, Donlon, ITDANSA, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Transitions Dance Company, Dance Works Rotterdam, Union Dance and PROBE.
Bonachela has completed four dance films: Nowhere Better Than This Place in collaboration with the director Livia Russell, The Kreutzer Sonata, 21, a seven-minute film featuring and inspired by Kylie Minogue and Muse with director Tim Meara.
In 2002, Bonachela’s career took an interesting turn when he was commissioned to choreograph Kylie Minogue’s routine at the Brit Awards. His unique approach to choreography, combining contemporary dance within a more mainstream context, was so highly acclaimed that he went onto work extensively with Ms Minogue, other popular artists and clients including Tina Turner, The Kills, Primal Scream, Juliet, Jaguar Automóviles, Siemens Mobile and Hugo Boss.
