May Zarhy is a freelance choreographer. Her work dwells in the gap between the concrete and the abstract - between functional, daily movements and ones that we could call ‘Dance’. Her choreographic, performative, and curatorial interventions question existing conceptualizations of liminality and bordering. She explores movement in relation to a space, which she sees as a landscape already inhabited by tensions, histories, and happenings. In this way, listening becomes a central practice in her movement and choreography practice, by which to explore and negotiate each other’s presence in an already dense space.
Zarhy is a graduate of Codarts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2006), and ex.er.ce choreography program directed by Xavier Le Roy and Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier, France (2007). During her studies she worked as William Forsythe’s assistant at the Forsythe Company (2005). Later, Zarhy co-founded with Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah the collaborative trio Mamaza (2009 - 2014), with whom she created and performed around the world.
2014 marked a shift in Zarhy’s work with the creation of her piece “1325”. The piece was named after resolution 1325 - a UN Security Council resolution which addressed the impact of war on women and the importance of women’s full and equal participation in conflict resolution, peace building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and post-conflict reconstruction.
“1325” marked the beginning of Zarhy’s feminist approach to choreography and dance, insisting on a female dramaturgy in the piece - a non-linear trajectory with several peaks, a deep interest in finding a form for the dancers’ subjectivity on stage, and a raw and vulnerable state of performing. In terms of audience perception, the piece was a flop when presented in Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris and later in Tanz im August in Berlin: half of the audience left during the show, while the other half remained moved by the unraveled quality of it. This harsh experience led Zarhy to dedicate herself to insisting on vulnerability as strength, on sensitivity as something to take care of rather than to tame, things which have become her mission since then in her teaching, creating, performing and curating.
Between 2015-17 Zarhy collaborated with vocal artist Michal Oppenehim, creating several pieces, in which they explored the female voice/s, their relation to presence, and the relation between sound and movement. Collaboration with musicians has become central in Zarhy’s work since then, and the act of listening as a an axis in her practice. In her work she insists on human scale relationality and intimacy as conditions for exchange and resonance with the audience.
In 2019 she worked with musician Elad Bardes on her most personal work to date “untitled” - a solo performed by herself with a single red fluorescent light, surrounded by a sound installation based on her recorded sounds of breaths and staged as a site-specific performance in a shelter in Tel Aviv.
Between 2017-2020, Zarhy was curating and presenting her screening series Cinemay Choreographic Cinema at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv, hosting artists such as Eszter Salamon, Youness Atbane, Germaine Acogny, Florentina Holzinger and others. In 2021-23 she was director of the post-graduate choreography program in Kelim center Bat Yam, to which she invited artists such as Arkadi Zaides, Andreas Merk, Lee Meir, Shai Faran and others. Since 2021 Zarhy has been collaborating with Swedish musician Daniella Ljungseberg, in pieces such as: “Kristin” (2024), “Presencia” (2023), “Ausencia” (2021) and more.
In parallel to her own choreographic work, Zarhy has worked as a dramaturg and rehearsal director for fellow artists such as: Adi Boutrous, Fabrice Mazliah, Hermann Heisig, and others.
She regularly teaches in places such as: Tanzfabrik Berlin, Moving Communities contemporary dance for people living with Parkinson’s Disease at Yasmeen Godder company, Pro-Mornings professional classes in Suzanne Dellal Center, Maslool School of Contemporary Dance TLV, and more.
