Zufit Simon
Performer and choreographer
Born in Israel (Kfar Sirkin), graduated from high school with a dance degree and studied contemporary dance at the University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) in Frankfurt am Main. She works in Berlin, Munich and Braunschweig, where she rehearses, performs and raises funds.
She presented her first choreographic solo works in Berlin, followed by invitations to national and international festivals, e.g. Italy, Austria, Tanzania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria and France.
In 2012, Zufit Simon was selected with the solo “Wild Thing” for the pitching at the Tanzplattform Deutschland in Dresden and showed at the Tanzplattform Deutschland in Kampnagel Hamburg 2014 the choreographic concert "I LIKE TO MOVE IT".
From 2016 to 2019, she completed the trilogy “un-emotional” about the relationships between physical language, mimicry and gestures. Together with the director Moritz Schönecker, she opened the Theaterhaus Jena season with the production „Die Zofen“ (J. Genet) and „Judith“ (F. Hebbel) in 2015. During the 2017/2018 season, she curated a dance series there.
Since 2016 she is member of the choreographers’ association Tanztendenz München e.V.; she has been a part of the artistic direction of the artblau Tanzwerkstatt from 2018 to 2022.
With the musician and video artist Fredrik Olofsson Zufit Simon has been working closely for over twelve years; he has been involved in all of her productions in recent years.
Zufit Simon’s most recent works are SCHÄUME, a choreographic exploration of instability (world premiere 2019, LOT-Theater) and, together with Lois Alexander and Clarissa Rêgo, STRANGE FOREIGN BODIES, inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy’s “58 Indices on the body” (world premiere 2020, schwere reiter, Munich). The solo work “Passable, not Presentable” about the Jewish radical feminist Shulamith Firestone celebrated its world premiere at LOT-Theater Braunschweig in October 2021.
The solo work “Passable, not Presentable” about the Jewish radical feminist Shulamith Firestone celebrated its world premiere at LOT-Theater Braunschweig in October 2021.
“Radical Cheerleading”, a piece about dance as a form of protest, was first performed at LOT-Theater Braunschweig in 2022; it premiered in Munich in February 2023 and was nominated for the German Theatre Award DER FAUST in the “Dance production” category. The production won the 2024 Festivalpreis des Best OFF freie Theater in Niedersachsen.
2025 she receives the Tanzpreis der Stadt München.
The emphasis and goal of my work is to question the self-evident, create confusion – first in me, then in the audience – in order to confront ourselves with our own perception and things we take for granted. I portray this, with the help of the body, as part of a bigger picture.
Zufit Simon
Awards:
- 2025 Zufit Simon receives the Dance Prize of the City of Munich.
- 2024 gewinnt die Produktion „Radical Cheerleading“ den Festivalpreis des Best OFF Freier Theater der Stiftung Niedersachsen, eine Produktionsförderung in Höhe von 30.000 Euro.
- 2023 Nominierung zum Deutschen Theaterpreis „DER FAUST“, in der Kategorie „Inszenierung Tanz“ mit der Produktion „Radical Cheerleading“.
- 2009 Dritter Preis “Internationaler Choreographenwettbewerb Hannover” mit “Meine Mischpuche”.
- 2007 Audience Award with the play "Diminuendo 2", VorOrt-Festival, Münster.
- 2005 Dritter Preis mit “fleischlos” bei dem Wettbewerb “Das beste deutsche Tanzsolo“, euro-scene, Leipzig.