Yacov Sharir

Yacov Sharir, born in Casablanca in 1940, came to dance through visual art. He trained in ceramic design and glass sculpture at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design before studying dance at the Jerusalem Music and Dance Academy with Hasia Levi Agron and with Gertrud Kraus. During the 1960s he worked in both ceramics and performance, including with Inbal Dance-Theater, before joining Batsheva Dance Company in 1967. At Batsheva through 1975, he danced in repertory by Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, José Limón, and Talley Beatty while also designing costumes and sets—a cross-disciplinary practice that defined his career.

Sharir came to Austin in 1978, founding the American Deaf Dance Company and joining the University of Texas faculty. The company developed a professional platform centered on visual rhythm, gesture, and embodied communication, creating sustained work for Deaf performers. In 1982 he established Sharir Dance Company as UT's professional company-in-residence, bringing national and international artists to campus and on tour. The company became Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks in 1997, formalizing José Luis Bustamante's role as co-director, and continued through 2007.

From the late 1980s onward, Sharir pioneered the integration of digital systems into choreography. *Virtual Bodies: Travels Within* (1994) explored immersive digital space; subsequent works employed wearable computers, responsive projection, and interactive environments. In these pieces, the dancer remained the perceptual anchor: virtual or projected bodies extended rather than replaced the live performer, and responsive systems made breath, proximity, and direction potential compositional material. Sharir collaborated with engineers, programmers, designers, and dancers to test these forms.

Sharir became faculty emeritus in 2013 while continuing to create and research. The 2018 *Transcendence* retrospective, presented by UT, documented his work across Deaf dance, company building, and technology-centered choreography. The Sharir and Sharir/Bustamante Dance Collection preserved videos and documents for future study. He died on 29 September 2023 at age 83.