Andrea Miller.  Photo by Franziska Strauss.

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Usually I meet choreographers before I interview them, or at least I have seen a concert or two of theirs.  But having heard plenty of positive buzz and watched some captivating clips on YouTube, I was sufficiently intrigued about Andrea Miller to set up a Skype conversation with the New York-based choreographer this summer.

Unlike most of the artists I’ve interviewed in the last two years, Andrea isn’t Israeli.  However, she’s no stranger to the Israeli contemporary dance scene.  Prior to taking Manhattan by storm with her three-year-old company, Gallim Dance, Andrea lit up the stage as a member of the Batsheva Ensemble.  I couldn’t help but wonder if and how her fresh aesthetic had been affected by her time here in Israel.

Gallim Dance in Andrea Miller’s Blush. Photo by Karli Cadel.

Andrea and I spoke shortly after Gallim Dance made an appearance at Jacob’s Pillow, one of the most prestigious summer dance festivals in the United States.  Besides discussing Blush, which Gallim Dance presented at the Pillow, we talked about Andrea’s path from training in Humphrey-Weidman technique to Juilliard to Batsheva.  Join us as Andrea reflects on her experience in Israel, Gaga, her artistic influences, and Gallim Dance.

If you too are intrigued by Andrea, you can hear more from her when she participates in a special panel, Contemporary Israeli Dance and the Reinvention of the Jewish Body, at the JCC Manhattan on October 22 during Jewish Body Week.  Want to see some of her choreography?  The Northwest Professional Dance Project is premiering a dance by her this week in Portland, Oregon, and in the next few months alone, Andrea’s work will be presented by Utah’s Repertory Dance Theatre, Ballet Hispanico, and the Juilliard School.  2010 will take Andrea to Holland, Canada, and Switzerland before Gallim Dance’s summer engagement at the Joyce Theater in New York City.  And for now, you can get a taste of her work by watching the clips below.

Video: Gallim Dance trailer, with excerpts from several of Andrea Miller’s works

Gallim Dance in Andrea Miller’s Blush. Photo by Franziska Strauss.

Video: Excerpts from Andrea Miller’s Blush

Related Posts on Dance In Israel

• Gallim Dance at Jacob’s Pillow: Waves of Israeli Influence
• Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in October

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

• Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination
• Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor: An Interview with Dramatic Dancemakers
• Interview with Yair Vardi: A View from the Top
• Renana Raz: Choreographing Israeli Culture and Beyond
• Sahar Azimi Speaks about Choreography and Contemporary Dance
• Shlomit Fundaminsky: An Interview on Improvisation and Israeli Life
• Noa Dar Discusses Her Dance Career

Related Links

• Gallim Dance
• Jewish Body Week (with information about the panel Contemporary Israeli Dance and the Reinvention of the Jewish Body)

Video: Maria Kong’s Fling

As usual, there are lots of dance performances happening in Israel’s dance scene this month – but as I looked at the calendar, I realized that October is packed with several extra-special events.  Below are some teasers for premieres, festivals, foreign tours, online contests, and more.  For additional information about the following events and other performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars.

Israeli Dance at Home

The members of Maria Kong.  Photo by ASCAF.

Four former Batsheva dancers – Anderson Braz, Leo Lerus, Ya’ara Moses, and Talia Landa – make up Maria Kong, a new company which debuted fling last month to sold-out crowds.  Now in its second run at the Nachmani Theater in Tel Aviv until October 10 and with a third set of shows planned for November 9-15, fling is clearly here to stay.  3-D projections, stunning costumes, and a striking score of both live and recorded music set an otherworldly mood for the work, but it’s the group’s supremely dynamic movement and supercharged stage presence which gives fling a lasting impact.

Shlomit Fundaminsky in La Divina. Photo by Aviv Zemer.

In honor of Tmuna Theater’s 29th anniversary, this month’s performances at the Tel Aviv institution are priced at a mere 29 shekels (that’s roughly $8!).  Participating choreographers and dance groups include Shlomit Fundaminsky, Hagit Yakira, Ensemble Maya and Tomer, Acco Dance Center, Anat Shamgar, Efrat Reuven, Benyamin Yagendorf, Elad Ben-Sasson, Inbal Shachar, Tzachi Cohen, Shai Faran, Aviv Eveguy, and Maya Brenner.  Hear about Shlomit’s work in Shlomit Fundaminsky: An Interview about Improvisation and Israeli Life.

Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer.  Photo by Matyas Krotziger.

Yossi Berg and Oded Graf are presenting their new 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer at the Lab in Jerusalem on October 14-15 and at the Inbal Theater in Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dellal Center on October 16-17.  This often humorous exploration of the idealized man won rave reviews when it premiered this summer in Germany and Poland, and now the choreographers have revamped their work with a cast of standout Israeli dancers: Hillel Kogan, Irad Matzliach, and Yossi Berg and Oded Graf themselves.

Barak Marshall’s Rooster premieres in Tel Aviv Dance 2009.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

October means it’s time for the Tel Aviv Dance festival!  This festival brings some of the hottest names in dance from around the world to the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Tel Aviv Opera House.  Stay tuned to Dance In Israel for more on Tel Aviv Dance 2009, which runs from October 16 through November 13 – and if you’re nostalgic, you can reread my preview of Tel Aviv Dance 2008.  Last year Barak Marshall’s Monger was a big hit when it opened Tel Aviv Dance, and this year, his new work Rooster will close the festival.

In partnership with the Israeli hotel chain Isrotel, the Batsheva Dance Company is presenting the 6th Phaza Morgana Festival in Timna National Park, Eilat from October 22-24.  This year’s festival includes Take Two, a program featuring choreography by Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal; Anaphaza, one of Ohad Naharin’s iconic works; and a special appearance by the Idan Raichel Project.  Check out my most recent article on Batsheva, Batsheva Dance Company: From Graham to Gaga, for background on the company and a list of other related articles about the group.

Israeli Dance Abroad

Whether you’re in Europe, the United States, or Asia, there’s something coming your way this month . . . .

Barak Marshall’s Monger. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Barak Marshall’s production of Monger kicked off this month with a trip to Seoul and Daego, South Korea; the final performance of this tour is October 7th.

Video: Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s Heroes.

Besides presenting their 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer in Israel, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf are taking Heroes to the N.O.W. Festival in Saarbrucken, Germany on October 10.  The pair returns to Staatsheater Kassel, Germany for an October 25 showing of a new creation, Fairy Tales, which has its official world premiere in December.

Iris Erez in Arkadi Zaides’s Solo Colores.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

From October 11 until the 25, Arkadi Zaides is touring with Solo Colores and Solo Siento in Asia.  After showing Solo Colores at the Shanghai Dance Festival in Shanghai, both works will be performed in Taipei at the Kuan Du Arts Festival and then in Tokyo.  For more about these works, check out my article Arkadi Zaides: Community Connections and Stunning Solos.

Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation.  Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation will be performed in Prague on October 11-12 as part of 4+4 Days in Motion, and on the 28th-29th, the work will be part of TANZ IN BERN in Bern, Switzerland.  Read more about Yasmeen’s work in Close Encounters Series: Yasmeen Godder.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Hydra.  Photo by Seto Hidemi.

The Inbal Pinto Dance Company takes Hydra to the Dance Umbrella Festival in London on October 18-19.  The creators talked about the development of Hydra in my podcast Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination.

Gilat Amotz’s Empty Room.  Photo by Lucky Trimmer, Berlin.

Gilat Amotz’s solo Empty Room will be performed in Masdanza, the  International Contemporary Dance Festival of the Canary Islands.  Empty Room is one of only 10 solos which were selected for this competition, which runs from October 17-24.  Gilat’s choreography was also chosen to be included in the Masdanza Tenerife Festival at the Teatro Victoria in Santa Cruz in Tenerife from October 25-26.

As part of Nextbook’s Jewish Body Week, the Foundation for Jewish Culture is presenting an evening titled Contemporary Israeli Dance and the Reinvention of the Jewish Body at the JCC in Manhattan on October 22.  Choreographers Deganit Shemy, Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance, and Saar Harari of LeeSaar: The Company will show excerpts of their work and participate in a panel discussion moderated by dance writer Elizabeth Zimmer.  Read a bit about Deganit Shemy’s premiere of Arena at DTW last spring in From Writing to Talking about Dance, and find out about Andrea Miller’s connection to Israeli contemporary dance in Gallim Dance at Jacobs Pillow: Waves of Influence.

Rachel Erdos’s Alma. Photo from Gvanim Be’machol 2007.

Rachel Erdos is headed to the United States to set Alma on the Washington D.C.-based troupe CityDance Ensemble.  Her work will be performed at the Kennedy Center as part of CityDance’s “Latitude” program on October 29-30.  CityDance toured the Middle East last spring, and I caught up with them in east Jerusalem; read about their visit in CityDance in Jerusalem: Exploring the Gaps Between American and Israeli Dance.

Israeli Dance Online

Video: Michael Miler’s Speed of Light

Michael Miler’s Speed of Light is one of 10 finalists in the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest 2009.  The winning entry will be performed at Sadler’s Wells in London in January 2010 as part of the program Sadler’s Wells Program.  Like Speed of Light?  Vote for it! Speed of Light caught my eye when it premiered at the Shades of Dance Festival last March; read my impressions in Behind the Scenes at Gvanim: Shades of Dance Festival.

* * *

For a calendar including these events and other performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars.  Know of some other exciting event relating to Israeli dance in Israel or abroad?  Leave a comment below with the details!

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• Batsheva Dance Company: From Graham to Gaga
• Shlomit Fundaminsky: An Interview about Improvisation and Israeli Life (Podcast)
• Close Encounters Series: Yasmeen Godder
• Arkadi Zaides: Community Connections and Stunning Solos
• Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination (Podcast)
• From Writing to Talking about Dance
• Gallim Dance at Jacobs Pillow: Waves of Influence
• CityDance in Jerusalem: Exploring the Gaps Between American and Israeli Dance
• Tel Aviv Dance 2008
• Behind the Scenes at Gvanim: Shades of Dance Festival

Related Links

• Maria Kong
• Tmuna Theater
• Yossi Berg and Oded Graf
• Tel Aviv Dance 2009 English Program
• Batsheva Dance Company
• Barak Marshall
• Arkadi Zaides
• Yasmeen Godder
• Inbal Pinto Dance Company
• Gilat Amotz
• Gallim Dance
• LeeSaar The Company
• Deganit Shemy
• Jewish Body Week
• Foundation for Jewish Culture
• Michael Miler

Video: A trailer for Gallim Dance in Andrea Miller’s Blush, which will be performed at Jacob’s Pillow from July 8-12.

What’s a New York-based dance company doing with a name like Gallim, which means “waves” in Hebrew?

Gallim Dance wasn’t founded by an Israeli, but its director and choreographer – Andrea Miller – was once at the center of Israeli contemporary dance as a member of Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Ensemble.  Now Miller is generating buzz of her own with Gallim, which has attracted the attention of presenters, critics, and audiences since its inception in 2006.

It was Miller’s I Can See Myself in Your Pupil which first caught the eye of Ella Baff, the director of the famed Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts.  Baff invited Gallim Dance to perform the work at the festival’s Inside/Out outdoors stage last summer, and she called the concert “a big hit.”  “People really, really loved it,” she told me in a phone interview.  “It was absolutely one of the most popular things that we presented on Inside/Out last season.”

Gallim Dance is poised to be another hit at the Pillow this year.  From July 8-12, Gallim Dance will perform Miller’s latest work, Blush, in the Doris Duke Theatre.

So just what is it about the company and Miller’s choreography which is so captivating?  Baff ticks off a list of impressive factors.  First, she explains, Miller has “originality in terms of conceptual meaning and also in terms of physical vocabulary.”  The young choreographer also uses a wide variety of music, which Baff finds appealing.

Then there’s the matter of the dancers, whom Baff calls “fantastic.”  The dancers’ technical facility and physical prowess isn’t the only part of their power onstage.  Baff elaborates, “They have terrific stage presence, they’re a very tight ensemble, and they are clearly committed to her choreography . . . You can often feel that the artists are very clearly communicating the intent of the choreographer.”

I asked Baff if she saw a connection between Miller’s work and that of Ohad Naharin, the director of Batsheva.  “I do recognize the influence of Ohad,” Baff answered.  “I think the place where I see the most resemblance is in the energy.  There are some pieces that Ohad has made that are very forceful pieces, and I think that in at least most of the work that I’ve seen of Andrea’s so far, she likes strong work.  That doesn’t mean to say that the next piece she’s going to make isn’t going to be soft and quiet.  But I do think that she shares a power, an interest in strong communication, that Ohad has in a lot of his work.”

Yet Miller’s choreography has a flavor and freshness of its own.  Baff is quick to note, “Andrea certainly has her own voice, and it’s a voice that’s going to be developing more and more, no doubt, because she’s still a young choreographer.  And that’s what’s also kind of exciting – you feel that there’s a lot of room to grow, that over time she has a lot to say, and that we’ll be hearing more.”

Related Links

• Gallim Dance
• Jacob’s Pillow
• Batsheva Dance Company

Ohad Naharin.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Since 1981, the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award has been bestowed annually on luminaries of the dance world.  From Martha Graham (the first recipient) to Laura Dean (the 2008 recipient), selected choreographers have won this prize with their lifelong devotion to building and shaping their art form.  The honorees have pioneered new techniques and ventured into unfamiliar compositional territory.  Out of their experiments emerged choreography that was not only groundbreaking but masterful.

With the exceptions of Pina Bausch and Maguy Marin, the Scripps recipients have been American or based in the United States.  This year, though, a third choreographer from abroad will receive the award: Ohad Naharin.  The award presentation will take place on June 25th at ADF in Durham, North Carolina.

Naharin, the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, has left an indelible impact not only on the troupe he leads but on the larger Israeli dance scene.  Yet as his selection for the Scripps award suggests, Naharin’s influence is also felt beyond Israel’s borders.

Indeed, Naharin’s work has spread worldwide.  Major companies including the Nederlans Dans Theater and the New York-based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet have performed his critically acclaimed and captivating choreography.  Juilliard students have learned several of Naharin’s works over the years, while young dancers in Sweden recently presented Kamuyot. And of course, the Batsheva Dance Company itself has toured around the globe with a tempting menu of Naharin’s visual delights.

Naharin’s consistently well-crafted composition and clever challenges to choreographic convention would be enough to launch him into the stratosphere of contemporary dancemakers worthy of the Scripps award.  But this artist also made his mark on dance training.  The inventive movement which characterizes Naharin’s work stems from Gaga, which the choreographer created and instituted as the Batsheva Dance Company’s primary method of training.  Daily Gaga classes in Israel and workshops around the world have introduced dancers – and non-dancers – to Naharin’s movement language.

Naharin’s choreography and innovative technique has caused ripples throughout the dance world, and his effect on a new generation of dancemakers is already visible.  Many of Israel’s independent choreographers danced for Naharin at Batsheva; though they have developed their own voices, their processes and products have at times been flavored by those of their former director.  Meanwhile, in New York, Gallim Dance – founded by Batsheva Ensemble alumna Andrea Miller – is making waves.  If the histories of previous Scripps honorees are any indication, Ohad Naharin’s already far-reaching impact on the field of dance will be long lasting as well.

List of Scripps Award Recipients

(From the ADF Awards & Dedications Page)

1981 Martha Graham
1982 Merce Cunningham
1983 Paul Taylor
1984 Hanya Holm
1985 Alwin Nikolais
1986 Katherine Dunham
1987 Alvin Ailey
1988 Erick Hawkins
1989 In memory of Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Jose Limón
1990 Twyla Tharp
1991 Anna Sokolow
1992 Donald McKayle
1993 Talley Beatty
1994 Trisha Brown
1995 In memory of of Pearl Primus and Helen Tamiris
1996 Meredith Monk
1997 Anna Halprin
1998 Fayard and Harold Nicholas
1999 Pina Bausch
2000 Pilobolus Dance Theatre
2001 Garth Fagan
2002 no recipient
2003 Maguy Marin
2004 Eiko and Koma
2005 Bill T. Jones
2006 Murray Louis
2007 Mark Morris
2008 Laura Dean
2009 Ohad Naharin

Related articles about Ohad Naharin’s choreography on Dance In Israel

• “MAX – Connecting to Ohad Naharin’s Choreography”
• “Getting to Know the Batsheva Ensemble”
• “Mamootot – Challenging the Performer-Spectator Divide”
• “Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance in Israel: A Cycle Completed”
• “Batsheva Dance Company Premieres Ohad Naharin’s Hora“

Related Articles about Gaga on Dance In Israel

• “Going Gaga: My Introduction to Gaga Dance Classes”
• “Gaga: Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language, in His Own Words”
• “Gaga: A Foreigner Explores Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language”
• “Ohad Naharin on Gaga (Video)”
• “A Glimpse into the Gaga Workshop”

Related Links

• American Dance Festival
• Batsheva Dance Company
• “Israeli choreographer wins prestigious prize” (Ynet article)