This season, Ballet BC welcomes the return of choreographic duo Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, artists whose work continues to shape contemporary dance on stages around the world. Known for their physically charged and emotionally grounded creations, the pair bring a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective to everything they make.
Smith and Schraiber are director-choreographers whose collaborative practice spans dance, theatre, opera, and film. Partners both inside and outside the studio, they have developed a shared artistic language built on years of working, performing, and creating together. Both artists are alumni of Batsheva Dance Company, where they performed under the direction of Ohad Naharin. Their time with the company had a lasting influence on their movement approach, particularly in its emphasis on improvisation, musicality, and deep physical awareness. Smith joined Batsheva in 2005 after training at The Juilliard School and other major North American institutions, while Schraiber joined in 2010 following his studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Since transitioning from full-time performance to choreography, Smith and Schraiber have created original works for many of the world’s leading dance organizations. Their commissions include pieces for Paris Opera Ballet, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Royal Danish Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, L.A. Dance Project, the National Ballet of Canada, and Ballet BC, among others.
The duo are also founding members of The Broken Theater and the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), a collective that brings together artists from across disciplines to develop new performance works. Through AMOC, they have expanded their practice into opera and multidisciplinary projects, collaborating closely with composers, musicians, directors, and designers. These experiences have deepened their interest in how movement interacts with sound, text, and visual storytelling.
“Or Schraiber and Bobbi Jene Smith are two of the most important names in contemporary dance.”
– CBC Arts
Recent collaborations with musicians have included their Seven Scenes at NYC’s Hudson River venue Little Island featuring music by Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee’s Ringdown, and the pair are currently directing and choreographing the Philip Glass opera Satyagraha with the Paris Opera Ballet, premiering April 10. Their Ballet BC premiere is also set to Glass music, played live onstage by a string quartet.
Their work in film has further broadened their creative scope. Smith and Schraiber have directed and choreographed several screen-based projects and have brought their movement direction to large-scale productions, including Boaz Yakin’s Aviva (2019), Terence Malick’s The Way of the Wind (2025), Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! (2026) and their own stage to film adaptation Past, Present, Future | Waiting Places (2024). Their experience working with the camera has influenced their stage work, where attention to detail, timing, and spatial composition often reflects a cinematic sensibility. The duo also direct music videos and films, and have starred in both films and live theatre productions as actors. In 2023, they choreographed the off-Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea starring Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott.
A central element of Smith and Schraiber’s process is extensive collaboration with the performers in the studio. Rehearsals often begin with improvisation, play, and open-ended exploration rather than fixed material. As Ballet BC audiences encounter their work, they will experience choreography that places the human body at the center of storytelling. Their creations invite viewers to engage not only with virtuosic movement, but with the complexity, vulnerability, and strength that movement can reveal.
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