May Zarhy is a Tel Aviv and Berlin based choreographer. A graduate in 2006 of the Rotterdam Dance Academy and the choreography program ex.e.r.ce directed by Xavier Le Roy and Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier, France in 2007. During her studies, she worked as William Forsythe’s assistant at the Forsythe Company in 2005. She is a founding member of ‘Mamaza’ collective together with Loannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah, the trio was active between 2009-2014 in Germany and Switzerland. Since 2014, Zarhy has been working independently, creating stage pieces as well as participatory works in the public sphere. In her works she is drawn to the intersection of choreography, performance, and sound art.
Since 2021 Zarhy is the director of the post-graduate choreography program in Kelim center Israel. She also works as a dramaturg and rehearsal director for fellow artists, Adi Boutrous,
Uri Shafir and more.

‘Presencia’ is a new duet created with dancers Brit Rodemund and Dominic Santia. It deals with touch and lack of human touch through choreographic and dancing points of view. The work method involves the creation of a duet based on touch, and then removing touch, separating the bodies in space while insisting on executing the duet as it is, only without touch. It moves forward the significance of interdependence, reciprocity and continuity between space and bodies. Through what could be a cliché, a man woman duo, the piece deals with old-fashion and contemporaneity, past and present, daily movement and virtuosity. It invites the audience to fill in the ‘missing link’ by imagining the touch once it’s not there, to participate with their imagination and fantasy.