Hillel Kogan

Hillel Kogan was born in 1974 in Tel Aviv.

Kogan started studying dance at the Kfar Saba Conservatory. He went on to study in the Tel Aviv Dance Center Bikurey Ha’itim, and in 1990 he danced in Siki Kol and Avi Lapidot’s Bikurey Mahol (“first fruits of dance”). He studied in the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and served in the IDF as an Outstanding Dancer.

Kogan danced with the Batsheva Ensemble in 1995-96, in Lacrimosa (1995), and in 1996 he choreographed his first dance for the ensemble. At the end of that year, he joined the Nomad Dance Company in Switzerland, a group of dancers from Maurice Béjart’s company, where he danced and choreographed until 1998. In 1999 he moved to Portugal where he choreographed for the National Ballet, taught dance at the University of Lisbon and the Setúbal Dance School and collaborated with choreographer Paula Pinto. In June of that year, he choreographed for the Gvanim Dance Festival in Israel, for which he was nominated Tanz International monthly’s Best Outstanding Young Choreographer. Between August 1999 and 2005 he danced with the Gulbenkian Dance Company in Lisbon. During those years he also choreographed for companies worldwide, including the Muza Dance Company in Israel and the Royal Academy of Dance Portugal in Lisbon. He also founded the Whatever Dance Company together with Claudia Novoa, which performed in Portugal and Switzerland.

When the Gulbenkian Dance Company was closed, Kogan received Ohad Naharin’s offer to join the Batsheva Ensemble as rehearsal manager and dance with the Batsheva Company in his Furo (2006).
Apart from working as the ensemble’s rehearsal manager, Kogan is a guest dancer, coordinator of educational projects in Batsheva Company and Naharin’s assistant. Moreover, he is active as an independent artist in the Israeli dance scene, choreographing for various companies, and performing in his and others’ works. In addition, he also teaches Gaga in Israel and worldwide.
Kogan won the Yair Shapira Award for 2010. In 2013, he was nominated the Israel Dance Critics’ Circle Outstanding Creator for his work We Love Arabs. In 2014, he was nominated as the European Tanz magazine’s Promising Artist of the Year.