Video: Best of MOMIX tours Israel this July.

Most of the choreographers I’ve interviewed here in Israel are, of course, Israeli.  But since I’ve been freelancing more as a dance writer, I’ve had some great opportunities to interview choreographers from abroad whose companies are touring to Tel Aviv.

MOMIX is the next major dance troupe which will travel through town, and a few weeks ago I enjoyed a lively Skype conversation with the company’s founder, Moses Pendleton.  After sorting through a half-hour’s worth of worthy material – a difficult task when your interview subject is thoughtful, well-spoken, and quite witty – I wrote “Momixian Fantasy,” which was published the Jerusalem Post on June 25, 2009.

* * *

Momixian Fantasy

‘You never know when you’re going to be attacked by an idea,” says choreographer Moses Pendleton.  Israeli audiences will get to see several of Pendleton’s highly original ideas when his Connecticut-based company, MOMIX, tours Best of MOMIX to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba in July.  The program is, according to Pendleton, “a compilation of several highlights from several programs put together like a rock music album.”

Few dance companies can pull off a greatest hits show – but MOMIX can.  Over its 29-year history, the company has produced a string of works that are not only successful but wildly inventive.  Best of MOMIX features eye-catching excerpts from Lunar Sea, Opus Cactus, Momix in Orbit and the company’s latest creation, Botanica.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Oyster” by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak.  Photo by Eyal Landesman.

I’ve already seen Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Oyster twice, but I leaped at the chance to see it again at the Suzanne Dellal Center last week.

This time around I brought my partner, Tal.  Tal never went to dance performances before meeting me, but in the last year, he’s been to his fair share of concerts.  Yet after Oyster, he did something he’d never done before: he leaned over and whispered mournfully in my ear, “Is that it?  It’s over?”

Like me, Tal fell in love with this magical work, and in doing so, he confirmed my suspicion that this is one of those few productions that nearly everyone – devoted dance lovers and novice viewers alike – should see.  Israeli audiences may need to wait a little while longer to watch Oyster again, but this week they can catch the company’s captivating performances of Shaker at the Suzanne Dellal Center.

The article below was first published in the Jerusalem Post as “Can’t Shake Oyster”

* * *

Can’t Shake Oyster

It’s not every dance that can boast 10 years of consistently packed concerts.  But Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Oyster is one of these rare, beloved works.  Having surpassed the 400th performance mark earlier this year, Oyster is now celebrating its tenth anniversary with performances by the Inbal Pinto Dance Company at the Suzanne Dellal Center.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rina Schenfeld in her new work, Angels.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

This article is a guest post by Gdalit Neumann.  Enjoy!

* * *

About Angels

By Gdalit Neumann

Tel Aviv native Rina Schenfeld is one of Israel’s most celebrated artists.  After studying at the world famous Julliard School in New York in her early twenties, Rina returned home and became a founding member and principal dancer of the Batsheva Dance Company from 1963-1979.  There she danced historic roles in works by none other than Martha Graham, Glenn Tetley, and John Cranko, to great acclaim.

After leaving Batsheva, Schenfeld embarked on a highly successful international career as principal dancer and choreographer of her own company, Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre, which is based in Tel Aviv.  She is the recipient of countless distinguished international awards and in 1997 was honored with the Na’amat  lifetime achievement award in the realm of dance.  The New York Times hailed Schenfeld as “one of the most important artists of our generation.”

Now Rina Schenfeld has done it again. After the tremendous success of her last work Dance Me to the End of Love (ריקדי לקצה האהבה), she will present her latest full length evening entitled Angels (מה לך מלאך?) at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv on June 23rd.  Angels is a journey into this first lady of dance’s wild and wonderful imagination.  Using songs by Laurie Anderson as inspiration, Schenfeld paints a colorful canvas of images, movement, sound and screen that tempt the pallet and are sure to satisfy.  Images of suspended angels, darkness and light, the Garden of Eden, and past and present speckle the stage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Video: Les Ballets de Monte Carlo in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Altro Canto

Dance history buff that I am, I was thrilled when I got to interview Jean-Christophe Maillot.  Why?  He directs Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, which in some ways carries on the legacy of the legendary Ballets Russes.  Yet even with these rich historical roots (or perhaps because of them), this top-notch company presents decidedly 21st-century work.  Read on to understand why!

This article was first published as “A Midsummer Dream” in the Jerusalem Post on June 14th, 2009.

* * *

“Each time I go to a new country, I always go with a tremendous hope that what we will bring is completely different – because the environment is different, because the culture is different, because the history of the country is different,” explains Jean-Christophe Maillot, choreographer for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.

Since 1993, the French-born choreographer has led Monaco’s world-renowned dance company on tours around the globe.  Yet for Maillot and most of the troupe’s 46 dancers, the company’s performances at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center will mark their first visit to Israel – and Maillot is looking forward to it.

Maillot’s hope may well be fulfilled on this tour.  Firmly rooted in the classical ballet tradition while moving forward with a distinctly contemporary style of choreography, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo is indeed different from much of Israel’s dance scene.  This contrast should prove exciting not only for Maillot, but for Israeli audiences as well.

Though it may seem paradoxical, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo’s freshness stems from a rich history.  Monaco’s ballet tradition stretches back to the early decades of the 20th century, when Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev brought his famed Ballets Russes to Monte Carlo.  The ground-breaking company dissolved when Diaghilev died in 1929, but it was reconstituted three years later by Colonel de Basil and Rene Blum.  Conflicts between the directors led to a split, and under Blum’s leadership, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo continued to win praise with its cast of star dancers and inventive choreographers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Video: An excerpt from Airfield, Liat Dror and Nir Ben-Gal’s latest creation

Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror first burst onto the stage with Two Room Apartment in 1987, and they continued to create a stir with their choreography throughout the 1990s.  But when I got to Tel Aviv last year, the couple was nowhere to be found.

It’s not that Nir and Liat disappeared from the country’s dance scene.  They just carved out a non-traditional space for themselves in Mizpe Ramon, a small desert town a few hours southeast from Tel Aviv.  There, in a place they call Adama (”earth”), they live, teach, and create.

Occasionally the pair still brings their company to Tel Aviv for performances.  After months of hearing a bit about Nir and Liat, I finally got to see their Prince Charming in November 2007 at Tmuna Theater.  But to find out more about Adama, I decided to venture into the desert for a visit in January 2008.  And then again in April 2008.  And, well, again in June 2008.

I first wrote the article below for The Winger after my second stay at Adama.

* * *

Read the rest of this entry »