Dance In Israel » Haramat Masach

Curtain Up 6: Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor Host Noa Shadur

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:02:13 +0000

Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Big Mouth. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Dance In Israel: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
Niv Sheinfeld: We made several pieces [for the festival]. I was doing work for the Batsheva Ensemble and the Kibbutz Dance Company in the beginning, but it was part of Curtain Up. And then I did Co-Variance, Pig, and Jorona for Curtain Up, together with Oren.

Noa Shadur’s Into the Night. Photo by Jewboy.

DII: What drew you to invite Noa Shadur to be the choreographer to share the bill with you?
Oren Laor: I suggested Noa’s name, and Niv immediately said “Yes, that’s a good idea,” because we saw Noa’s work in the past, and among many Israeli independent choreographers, Noa’s sources are the ones that we feel are the best. She looks at humans; we saw it’s never just strictly movement. She’s an explorer, like we like.

Noa Shadur’s Into the Night. Photo by Jewboy.

NS: I think [it was] also the fact that we had a good dialogue with her. We started seeing her work and talking to her and checking things out, and we found that the language of the dialogue was fluent, and it gave us a good base.

Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Big Mouth. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: Can you tell me a bit about how your new work Big Mouth started?
NS: The beginning was not from an idea; it was from working with Keren [Levi], because Keren is a good friend of mine for more than 25 years. We went to high school together, and I got to know the dance world from her. She was talking about coming to Israel; we said maybe we’ll make a solo for you. We started by joking about it. And then we invited her to get into the studio for two weeks in Tel Aviv, and interesting things came up for us. Then we went for Amsterdam for the second period of work.

Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Big Mouth. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NS: We were touring sometimes in this period, and we weren’t in Israel a lot, and somehow I think it affected this work. [Also] the fact that Keren left Israel, it made the piece somehow with reference to the Israeli culture. It’s only a reference. It’s from a very personal point of view, from our connection, this trio. This solo became a trio; of course we found ourselves drawn in.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 5: Noa Dar Hosts Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:36:16 +0000

Noa Dar’s Us. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Dance In Israel: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
Noa Dar: I choreographed for Curtain Up from 1996-2000, 5 years in a row. And then I was a guest artist in 2001 and again in 2004 . . . It was very important thing for me, this Curtain Up. It really was my school or my initiation program for my choreography, so I found this project very important. And I think it’s very that good this time the choreographers have a chance to express their own artistic choices and also to guide young choreographers. I’m excited about this opening of the establishment to the ideas of independent choreographers. This is important.

Maya Brinner’s Red Ladies. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

DII: What drew you to invite Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah?
ND: These are dancers of mine. Maya is dancing with me since 2000, already nine years. And Irad is dancing with me for the last three years. I found both of them to be very creative, very interesting in their research. Both are also involved in other mediums of art; Irad came from visual art and Maya from film. We had some mutual understanding, because for years we are working together. I’m very happy to give them this opportunity.

Irad Mazliah’s Unter den linden. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

DII: Are there any links between the three works in Curtain 5?
ND: We had a lot of mutual talks and plans and trying to research what we have in common in order to build not a program of three different dances but to have an evening which has as many connections of possible . . . the three of us [are] looking at differences versus conformity, and stillness or stuck positions versus mobility and change. And each one deals completely differently [with these ideas]. So there are different tones on a common basis in these three pieces.

Maya Brinner’s Red Ladies Photo by Tamar Lamm.

ND: Maya is working with three female dancers who are [like] workers in a factory. They’re all the same, and in this sameness they’re looking for their individuality and the way they can be unique in this competitive world.

Irad Mazliah’s Unter den linden. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

ND: Irad is coming from a different place. He took three people who are very different, but he put all three of them in one world, with very distinct rules of its own.

Noa Dar’s Us. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

ND: My work is again three dancers that deals more with the Israeli common experiences that create the uniformity of the way of thinking, the way of acting, and the negative attitude towards difference. I came [to this work] with very strong experiences that I’m having in the last few years as a mother and also as a citizen.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 4: Tel Aviv Dance Company & Yaara Dolev Host Michael Miler

Deborah Friedes Galili — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:15:33 +0000

Yaara Dolev’s Blossom. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Dance In Israel: Can you tell me about the relationship you and Amit Goldenberg have had with Curtain Up?
Yaara Dolev: The first work we did with Haramat Masach [Curtain Up] was a collaboration between us and plastic artists in 2001. It was in the space between the theater and the Batsheva offices. The whole place was covered with these mobile statues and we danced with [them], and it was a very nice project. In 2002, we did another piece for Haramat Masach. It was a very political piece; the name of it was Ivrim, about fascism . . . And in 2003, we did a piece called Machine. It was a whole evening. And that’s it. That was when we decided that we want to create outside of this festival, to be more independent when we create.

Yaara Dolev’s Blossom. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

YD: This 20 year [anniversary of] Haramat Masach is a great opportunity to come back to this and to do it in an independent way. It’s really unique and wonderful that they gave this option for the six creators to really do [the festival] without interference, without questioning, just to give this freedom to create.

Michael Miler’s Number 6. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: What drew you to select Michael Miler to join you on the bill?
YD: Of course when we knew that had to select someone, we tried to see as much as possible . . . I think it’s a good collaboration because there’s something about his creation that is more [about] the pure, clean movement in space, and less [about] theater. And [there’s] something about it that we believe in . . .

Michael Miler’s Number 6. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

YD: I think Michael is very talented. I think he’s very interesting. He’s coming from math; in university, he studied engineering and mathematics. You can see it in his compositions, and it’s very interesting for me. I think it’s very clear what he wants, and you can see he’s very mature about his creation.

Yaara Dolev’s Blossom. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: Can you tell me a little bit about the work that you’re premiering, Blossom? Where did it come from?
YD: Actually, it started by chance. I took a DVD from the Third Ear [a DVD store in Tel Aviv], and it was a Sean Penn movie, Into the Wild. It’s a wonderful film, and when I finished the film, immediately I knew what I want to do in this work. And what we’re doing now is pretty much the same vision that I had when I finished [seeing] this movie . . . it was the first pulse for me for the creation. Also, I thought because it’s the first creation I [am doing] without Amit, it’s really my blossom.

Yaara Dolev’s Blossom. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

YD: I was really with myself in this creation. I feel like I could really put my dream on the dancers onstage. There’s my truth there, so it feels good.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 3: Yasmeen Godder Hosts Iris Erez

Deborah Friedes Galili — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:04:26 +0000

Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Dance In Israel: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
Yasmeen Godder: I’ve presented many times, from 1999-2004 consecutively. I’ve experienced the festival many times, and it has had a great impact on my career in a sense that it allowed me to present a work for those six years every year . . . I would premiere something in the winter, and in the summer I would start working again towards the new creation in the winter, so it created a cycle for me that made a lot of sense during the years that I did it.

Iris Erez’s Numbia. Photo by Itay Merom.

DII: What made you choose to host Iris Erez?
YG: When we first had the meeting at the Ministry of Culture, the concept was to invite people whose work has evolved from working with us or from growing within our work. And so when I thought of who has done that, obviously Iris was a very clear choice.

Iris Erez’s Numbia. Photo by Itay Merom.

DII: Do you see strong links between your work and Iris’s work?
YG: Given that Iris has worked with me for many years, I think that her method of generating materials is influenced by the methodology which I have developed over the years and therefore [it] perhaps has similar roots, but ultimately each of our works is developed through the very personalized prism of our worlds both thematically and in the different ways of constructing them . . .

Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

DII: Can you tell me a little bit about where LOVE FIRE came from?
YG: I was commissioned to make a work using three waltz pieces in October of last year. At first I found myself rejecting the idea of accepting this commission; I didn’t immediately find an interest in it. And then I decided that because it presents a challenge for me, because the music that was sent to me was not necessarily music that I knew what I wanted to do with [it], that this was interesting and this was an opportunity to do something differently.

Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

YG: I was fascinated by this idea that I received this CD with classical waltzes to my Jaffa mailbox. I tried to keep this tension of this music that doesn’t relate to here, and how do we approach it; how can we relate to it. And that was the beginning.

Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

YG: Then I collaborated with Yochai Matos, the visual artist. For many years he approached me about doing [something], and we’ve talked with each other about our work. Ultimately, we decided that what would be interesting would be that he would create a response – not a collaboration with me, but rather a response to my work. So that’s what’s happening on my stage . . . It’s a performative installation-based response, because he’s actually a visual artist; he’s not a performance artist, but there’s an aspect of what he does that can be seen as performance.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 2: Vertigo Dance Company and Noa Wertheim Host Elad Shechter

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:53:53 +0000

When I called Adi Sha’al and Noa Wertheim, who direct the Vertigo Dance Company, they had just landed in Israel after an appearance at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America in Washington D.C. There they had presented an excerpt from Wertheim’s Mana, which will be officially premiered in Curtain 2 along with Elad Shechter’s Roni. I chatted with the couple about their U.S. trip and their experience with Curtain Up.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Dance In Israel: How was your time at the General Assembly?
Adi Sha’al: People were very moved by Vertigo’s performance, and people came [up to us] afterwards, after they were clapping hands for a long time and standing up – some people even with tears. We also talked about our social vision of the company and the Eco-Art Village . . . And we also did workshops and created connections with dance companies in D.C.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
AS: It’s been a good relationship. Vertigo [Dance Company] has been around for 17 years now, and all of our first shows were under this title, under Curtain Up. We owe a lot to this institute.

Elad Shechter’s Roni. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: What drew you and Noa to select Elad Shechter to be the choreographer for this program?
AS: Elad used to be a dancer in our company, so we’ve known him for several years now. Once Nilly Cohen [director of the dance department in the Culture and Arts Administration] and the people at Haramat Masach came with the idea of coaching, we said basically the only one that we can really coach and we can say that it will be real for us is somebody that we know, somebody that we have a dialogue with.

Elad Shechter’s Roni. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

AS: In a way, we are marking here two companies. One is the main company which Noa is doing a piece for, and the other one is the young company, the Vertigo Ensemble, which Elad is doing a work for, and it’s [all] happening in Vertigo’s studios under the umbrella of Vertigo’s production. And we [work with] the same co-artists. Ran Bagno is making the music for both pieces; he’s a musician we’ve been working with together many years now. Danny Fishof, he’s our lighting designer; he is doing the lighting design for both pieces, Mana and Roni. And the costume designer is Rakefet Levy; she’s doing both pieces. So we feel like it’s a production house called Vertigo, and it’s very exciting for us to do these two things together side-by-side in the same evening.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: Noa, can you tell me a bit about where Mana came from?
Noa Wertheim: I like to work from the movement, and I never have a clear idea, but I do have a certain attraction to something. This time, the line and the circle came straight away. After I was dealing with Ra’ash Lavan [Noa's previous work, White Noise], where gravity was so important, it was different to work with the shapes.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 1: Nimrod Freed Hosts Anat Grigorio and Dafi Altebab

Deborah Friedes Galili — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:01:38 +0000

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Dance In Israel: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
Nimrod Freed: I was produced in Haramat Masach [Curtain Up] about four times. At a certain moment I felt that I had to move on, and now it’s a very good way to come for a visit.
DII: On this visit, what drew you to invite both Anat and Dafi to join you in Curtain 1?
NF: I’ve known Anat and Dafi for many years.

Anat Grigorio’s Daydream. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NF: I met Anat as a dancer; she came to dance in my Tami Dance Company. I need to work with very creative people, and from that very moment, I saw her creativity. As a matter of fact, while she was a dancer in my company, I was already producing her as a young creator.

Dafi Altebab’s Under the Rug. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NF: I met Dafi when I did the project “On the Edge” in Beit Tami, so I produced her work. And I think both Anat and Dafi are very authentic and passionate and creative in an unusual way.

DII: Do you see any links between the work that you made for this program and the works that Dafi and Anat made?
NF: There is a common ground which happened by chance. I didn’t strive for that . . . it happened. The three of us are dealing with the hidden sides of life.

Dafi Altebab’s Under the Rug. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NF: Dafi is trying to reveal, to open up stuff that she pushed under the carpet.

Anat Grigorio’s Daydream. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NF: Anat is dealing with this moment of waking up. You know, in the morning, when we open up the eyes, trying to wake up; those moments that we don’t know exactly where we are . . . For her, you know, it’s a very intriguing time; many things are happening in this time, and she’s trying to dance it and understand it. I guess she’s meeting her unconsciousness in those moments.

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

NF: And I’m dealing with subtext.

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: Can you tell me a little bit more about your piece, Subtext?
NF: I am interested more in what is under the words, what is under our life. I’m more interested in energy, in what people don’t say. And I’m trying to dance it . . . Whenever we talk subtext, right away there is a new subtext. And then we reveal it, we discover it, and right away there is a new layer, a new subtext. When we dance, we find ourselves not dancing, not moving, and still there is a new subtext . . . For me it becomes more and more interesting, the world which is beneath, under, [rather] than the politically correct world. And I wish we could talk subtext. Maybe it wouldn’t be very polite, but it looks closer to truth.

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For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 2009: Celebrating 20 Years of Israeli Premieres

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:25:03 +0000

The Curtain Up 2009 poster. Courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

The annual Curtain Up festival has figured prominently in my understanding and appreciation of Israeli contemporary dance. Every autumn, this festival presents a fresh harvest of premieres by some of the field’s most promising choreographers. I have now attended Curtain Up twice, and both seasons introduced me to some new faces and showcased the latest creations by choreographers whom I was already following.

As the buzz about this year’s 20th anniversary celebration grew, I wanted to find out more about the history of Curtain Up. I talked with each of the six headlining presenters in this year’s festival, veteran choreographers who received support from the festival earlier in their careers. They related their own personal pasts with Curtain Up, but wanting even more of an overview, I decided to go straight to the founder of the festival: Nilly Cohen, who directs the dance division of the Ministry of Culture.

Nilly’s retelling of Curtain Up’s history traces the rise of the Israeli contemporary dance scene. “20 years ago, there were not so many choreographers in Israel,” she remembers. “There were only three dance companies, and all the young choreographers, all the fringe simply didn’t exist. And this was the main target for my initiative. I [wanted] to build the next generation of choreographers in Israel. That was the aim 20 years ago. And now we can see that this aim succeeded. Now we have many choreographers and many dance companies.”

Nilly continued, “I [initiated] Curtain Up 20 years ago because of the bad conditions for the choreographers. They didn’t have the money to make their creations, to do the performances, to do the public relations, the marketing, and so on. It takes [a lot of] money to do this, and they were very young; they were beginners in this profession. And it was very difficult. So I initiated this stage to give the young choreographers all the conditions to make their art.”

Then as now, Nilly explained, the government stepped in to help independent choreographers. “We give them the money for the creation: for the costumes, for the dancers, for the lighting, for the design,” she elaborated. “Besides this, we give them free the [concert] halls, Suzanne Dellal in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Theatre in Jerusalem . . . We do the public relations for them. And we also give them the income.”

This generous public support spurred the flowering of Israeli dance, fostering its growth from a small pool of struggling choreographers to a vibrant scene featuring both an array of full-fledged companies and a seemingly multiplying set of individual artists. Nilly recounted with pride, “I began [Curtain Up] 20 years ago, and then many creators were born on this stage and developed. They developed to be dance companies like Vertigo Dance Company, like Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s company, like Noa Dar’s dance company, like Yasmeen Godder and many others.”

As this significant anniversary of Curtain Up approached, Nilly said, “I thought that the best thing to celebrate 20 [years] is to show what is the fruit of this stage. And the fruits are all of these dance companies, so I invited them to perform on this stage this year.” She added that she also was pleased to offer these now mature choreographers the chance to curate the festival by selecting emerging choreographers to join them on their respective programs.

Below is my preview of Curtain Up 2009, which was originally published in the Jerusalem Post as “Celebrating Creative Choreography.” My next few articles on Dance In Israel will zoom in on each individual program, with excerpts from my interviews with the choreographers and photographs of the new works.

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Celebrating Creative Choreography

Participating in the annual Curtain Up festival, the country’s major platform for new works, is a rite of passage for Israeli choreographers. Reflecting on her history with the festival, choreographer Noa Dar explains, “It really was my school and my initiation program for my choreography.” Now Dar and other veteran choreographers are returning to Curtain Up for a special 20th anniversary season and they are initiating a new generation of dancemakers into the circle of Curtain Up participants.

As in past years, Curtain Up 2009 boasts several programs of hot-off-the press choreography. Yet this year, there is a twist. Each of the six concerts is headlined by an established choreographer who in turn selected one or two emerging choreographers to join the bill. The result is a sumptuous spread of Israeli contemporary dance featuring both the field’s most acclaimed artists and some of its freshest rising stars.

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Nimrod Freed of the Tami Dance Company chose both Anat Grigorio and Dafi Altebab to join him in Curtain 1 because they are “authentic, passionate and creative in an unusual way.” Freed’s Subtext, Grigorio’s Daydream, and Altbeb’s Under the Rug all imaginatively uncover and probe the hidden sides of life.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Curtain 2 is enlivened by the electrifying energy of Vertigo Dance Company and its younger division, the Vertigo Ensemble. Performed against a strikingly geometric black-and-white set, Noa Wertheim’s new Mana explores the essential differences between men and women. Danced with verve by the Ensemble, Elad Shechter’s Roni casts a broader gaze at the dynamics of control in contemporary life.

Yasmeen Godder’s Love Fire. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Yasmeen Godder was a frequent presenter in Curtain Up during the early 2000s, but her premiere in Curtain 3 marks a dramatic departure from her previous works. LOVE FIRE, a duet danced to classical waltzes, reconsiders romanticism and includes a “performative installation-based response” by visual artist Yochai Matos. Iris Erez, who regularly collaborated with Godder as a dancer, unleashes her own choreographic power in the trio Numbia.

Ya’ara Dolev’s BLOSSOM. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

The clean lines, precise angles and graceful curves of the body take center stage as the Tel Aviv Dance Company performs two works in Curtain 4. Waves of movement wash over the dancers in BLOSSOM, a premiere by the company’s co-artistic director Ya’ara Dolev. Guest choreographer Michael Miler also displays what Dolev describes as a predilection for “pure, clean movement in space” in his Number 6.

Noa Dar’s Us. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

When Noa Dar selected Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah for Curtain 5, the three choreographers talked about uniting their program with a common theme. Dar says that Brinner’s Red Ladies, Mazliah’s Unter den linden, and her own Us deploy unique perspectives on “difference versus conformity and stillness or stuck positions versus mobility and change.”

For Curtain 6, the team of Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor joined forces with dancer/choreographer Keren Levy to produce Big Mouth. Using their personal relationships to Israeli society as a jumping off point, the trio investigates the conflicting desires of belonging to a group while maintaining one’s self-expression. The program is rounded out by Noa Shadur’s Into the Night, which compares the reality of death with its melodramatic theatrical representation.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.

Traditionally, Curtain Up hosts an additional program by a well-known group, and this year’s guest concert is guaranteed to make a big splash. Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout, which premiered in 2008 in Norway, floods a black-box stage with water to create an otherworldly setting where dancers mix with musicians from the experimental Kitchen Orchestra. It’s a magical way to cap off Curtain Up’s celebration of creativity.

More Information

Curtain Up runs from November 24 to December 7 at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv and from December 8-14 at the Rebecca Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem. Tickets (100 NIS for most shows) are available at 03-5105656 (Suzanne Dellal Center) and 02-5605755 (Rebecca Crown Auditorium).

For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in November

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:47:32 +0000

November is a month of festivals and foreign tours. For more details about these events and other performances, visit Dance In Israel’s Calendars.

At Home

Lee In Soo’s Modern Feeling is part of Tel Aviv Dance. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot.

Tel Aviv Dance 2009 is in full swing at the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Opera House. Still to come are companies and choreographers from France, Spain, Korea, and Israel. Check out the lineup in Tel Aviv Dance 2009 Mixes Global and Local Dance and get to the theater from now until November 13 to catch some of the best international dance around.

Sharon Vazanna’s Walking Inside Water. Photo by Amina Husberg.

While international performers are taking over the main stage at Suzanne Dellal, the center’s more intimate Yerushalmi Theater is hosting a mixed bill by emerging Israeli choreographers. On November 6, Odelia Kuperberg presents the trio Without Blinking, while Sharon Vazanna premieres her solo Walking Inside Water. Cuban-born Lazaro Godoy joins the program with his striking Jugo de Limon.

Noa Dar’s Us premieres at Curtain Up 2009. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Soon after Tel Aviv Dance finishes, another major festival will take its place on Suzanne Dellal’s stage. Haramat Masach, or Curtain Up, is an annual platform for premieres by Israeli choreographers. To celebrate the Suzanne Dellal Center’s 20th anniversary, this year the festival invited established choreographers to create new works and host fresh creations by emerging artists. Curtain 1 opens with Nimrod Freed plus Anat Grigorio and Dafi Altbeb; Curtain 2 pairs Vertigo Dance Company’s Noa Wertheim with Elad Shechter; Curtain 3 boasts Yasmeen Godder and Iris Erez; Curtain 4 includes Tel Aviv Dance Company’s Yaara Dolev and Michael Miler; Curtain 5 features Noa Dar with Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah; and Curtain 6 closes with the team of Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor as well as Noa Shadur. The festival ends with a special performance of the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Trout. Check back soon for more posts on Curtain Up 2009, and see below for articles about individual choreographers who will be participating in this year’s festival.

Video: Rina Badash’s Revealed Under the Covers

Although Curtain Up dominates the dance programming in late November, there are still a few dance performances to be found outside this platform. On November 26, Tmuna Theater will host Rina Badash’s Revealed Under the Covers, a multidisciplinary work featuring a solo dancer, live music, and video art projected on four screens.

Abroad

Ohad Naharin’s MAX. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

After presenting Ohad Naharin’s Hora and Mamootot at home during the Tel Aviv Dance festival, the Batsheva Dance Company is packing its bags for a European tour. Audiences in the Netherlands, France, and Germany can catch performances of Naharin’s Mamootot, Deca Dance, MAX, and Sharon Eyal’s Love. Want to read more about these works? Take a look at Mamootot: Challenging the Performer-Spectator Divide, Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance in Israel: A Cycle Completed, and MAX: Connecting to Ohad Naharin’s Choreography.

Ohad Naharin teaching Gaga in Tel Aviv. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Meanwhile in New York, Ohad Naharin will receive one of the 2009 Dance Magazine Awards on November 9. During his trip stateside, he will teach master classes in Gaga at Peridance in New York City from November 9-10. Hear some of the choreographer’s thoughts on Gaga in Ohad Naharin on Gaga (Video).

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Further south in Washington D.C., Vertigo Dance Company will perform Noa Wertheim’s new Mana at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America (the GA). This year the GA will meet from November 8-10, and Vertigo will perform at the opening plenary which also features a speech by President Barack Obama. Israeli audiences can see Mana when Vertigo performs at Curtain Up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

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

Yasmeen Godder’s dancers are also headed to Europe for more performances of Singular Sensation in Belgium and Germany. Learn more about the choreographer in Close Encounters Series: Yasmeen Godder.

For Young Dancers in Israel

Over the next several months, a select group of young aspiring dancers will develop their artistry in weekly Gaga classes and repertory workshops taught by members of the Batsheva company and staff. Want to be part of this project? If you’re between the ages of 14 and 22, you can audition on November 10 at Studio Varda in the Suzanne Dellal Center. For more information, contact Michal at todance@013net.net.

Dance In Israel » Haramat Masach

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More Information

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Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in November

At Home

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