Born in Johannesburg, she began studying ballet at age 5, and at age 14 she was admitted to a dance program and at the same time danced with the PACT Dance Company. At age 17, she moved to France to pursue further dance studies, and was subsequently admitted to Maurice Béjart’s company in Belgium and John Cranko’s Stuttgart Ballet but following a visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp, she decided to leave Germany and immigrated to Israel in 1968, where she danced in the Israeli Opera Ballet under Edis de Phillippe. In 1970, she travelled to Vienna, where she became the solo dancer of the Theater and De Wien Company for a period of two and a half years. Upon her return to Israel she danced with Bat-Dor, and later with Moshe Efrati’s Kol Demama (“sound of silence”).
In 1977, Shir joined Batsheva where she was a leading dancer until 1986. Her performances included The Great Variation (1977); Dreams, Scenes from the Music of Charles Ives (1978); Lunch, Stravinsky Dance Circus, Daughters of Shiloh, Wilderness, Swamps & Forest (1979); Ties, Between Two, Rhapsody, Cantigas, Nymphaeas (1980); The Foreigner, Transformation (1982); Heavenly Choirs (1986).
In 1982, Shir won the Kinor David Award. In 1987 she was appointed Batsheva’s rehearsal manager, and in 1989 she was promoted to artistic director, a position she held for a year, until the nomination of Ohad Naharin.
Since 1991, Shir has been managing a dance center in Eilat and serving as a teacher and rehearsal manager in the South-African PACT Company.
Repertoire
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Double Time
Itzik Galili
1990 -
Silences
Mario Cardozo
1990 -
Super Straight is Coming Down
Daniel Ezralow
1990 -
You Gotta Move
Peter Pucci
1989 -
Dreamtime
Elisa Monte
1989 -
Heavenly Choirs
Nira Triffon
1986 -
The Foreigner
Victoria Green
1982 -
Between Two
Rahamim Ron
1980 - Load More
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Nympheas
Robert Cohan
1980 -
Ties
Siki Kol
1980 -
Cantigas
Pauline Koner
1980 -
Rhapsody
David Hatch Walker
1980 -
Lunch
Matthew Diamond
1979 -
Stravinsky Dance Circus
Paul Sanasardo & Members of the Company
1979 -
Daughters of Shiloh
Rahamim Ron
1979 -
Wilderness Swamps & Forest
Ze'eva Cohen
1979 -
Scenes From the Music of Charles Ives
Anna Sokolow
1978 -
Dreams
Anna Sokolow
1978 -
The Great Variation (based on Homage to Jerome Robbins)
Yacov Sharir
1977
Photos
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Bruno De Saint Chaffray, Shelley Sheer | Photo: Yoram Rubin -
Bruno De Saint Chaffray, Shelley Sheer | Photo: Yoram Rubin -
Rahamim Ron, Shelley Sheer | Photo: Mula Eshet -
Rahamim Ron, Shelley Sheer | Photo: Mula Eshet -
Shelley Sheer, Nurit Stern, Nira Paaz | Photo: Mula Eshet -
Lea Avraham, David Dvir, Shelley Sheer, Haim Ohn, Orit Kenan, Amir Kolben | Photo: Yoram Rubin