Jasmin Vardimon is an Israeli born choreographer who has worked in this country for a dozen years now, and achieved international acclaim for her company with works like Park and Justitia, both of which have been seen in Oxford in recent years.

She is known for creating powerful characters with demanding, sometimes dangerous dancing. Her new work, 7734, is receiving its premiere tonight in Brighton, and will be performed in Oxford next Tuesday.

Among the cast of nine is 22-year-old Sam Coren, who was taken into the company soon after finishing his training. It’s quite a feat to get straight into a company of such distinction, and Sam told me how it all started for him in Oxford.

“My parents moved to Oxford when I was three, and they still live here now.

“I started dancing with Cecilia MacFarlane when I was three or four. I started working with her once a week, and worked my way up through all the different companies she runs until I got to Oxford Youth Dance Company.

“I used to make pieces or perform pieces at the Pegasus or the Playhouse. I think Cecilia is just amazing at getting people involved in dance, and I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for Cecilia.

“With her it was very much about the individual and the individual being creative. It was very much about doing your own thing rather than learning a particular technique.

“At first it’s running about and pretending to play football, but as you get older it’s more about using improvisation techniques.

“The qualities that she instilled are still very important to me — creativity, individuality.”

I asked Sam, pictured, at what point he decided that dance was going to be his future.

“I think it was when I was 16, and I went with Oxford Youth Dance to Perm in Russia, and we had to work with ballet dancers and more traditionally trained dancers, and I was thrilled at how these people were so trained that it gave them the freedom to do anything.

“Then when I was about 17 I saw the Jasmin Vardimon company do Park at The Playhouse, and I remember thinking ‘that’s something I’d like to do in the future’, and when I’d finished my training at London Contemporary Dance School I was lucky enough to get into the company. It was the company that appealed to me most because of the physical theatre aspect of Jasmin’s work, rather than simply pure dance.”

Modesty aside, did she give any idea about why she chose you over the many others who auditioned?

“I think it was the background and attitude I got from training with Cecilia, and I think I had the kind of looks that she was looking for at the time.” Sam has been in the company for just over a year now, and has been getting used to his new life with a company that appears all over the world.

“It’s very exciting when you go on tour. It’s tiring and you live out of a bag and there’s a lot more waiting around and travelling than there is performing, but when you do get to perform the adrenaline takes you through and it’s really great.

“I’ve been to Israel and Prague, and we’re going to France. I think you learn how to manage yourself when you’re tired and in a strange country. When you’re about to perform and you find yourself in a very attractive theatre, it’s hard not to get very excited, and the adrenaline starts pumping.

“The dancers all get on well (there are nine) and you have to get on really, as you spend all day together. It’s very hard work, but we do have days off when we have a good time, but then again you don’t want to make yourself too tired if you’ve got to dance. On the last night of a tour though, we definitely go out and have some fun!”