Dance In Israel » Idan Raichel Project

Phaza Morgana 2009: Batsheva Dance Company in the Desert

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:24:26 +0000

Ohad Naharin’s Anaphaza. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Two weeks ago, the distinctive sound of dancers drumming on enormous water cooler bottles flooded the courtyard of the Suzanne Dellal Center as the Batsheva Dance Company rehearsed Ohad Naharin’s Anaphaza. But last week, the studios were eerily silent. Why? Batsheva took Anaphaza, water bottles and all, down to the Arava desert for Phaza Morgana 2009. From October 22-25, the usually placid Timna Park overflowed with audiences and energy as Batsheva and the Idan Raichel Project put on three spectacular shows.

My preview of Phaza Morgana was originally published as “Dance in the Desert” in the Jerusalem Post.

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Dance in the Desert

This weekend, the desert won’t be so deserted. Crowds of eager spectators are flocking to scenic Timna Park, twenty-five kilometers north of Eilat, for Isrotel Phaza Morgana 2009. Nestled among the park’s striking rock formations at the foot of the magnificent Solomon’s Pillars, a 3,000 seat amphitheater will host three spectacular programs designed to entice the senses and enliven the spirit.

The world-renowned Batsheva Dance Company has partnered with the Israeli hotel chain Isrotel to present Phaza Morgana on five previous occasions, but this year’s festival promises to be the most sensational event yet. As in previous seasons, the dance troupe’s large-scale production of Anaphaza forms Phaza Morgana’s centerpiece and maintains a magical appeal.

Ohad Naharin’s Anaphaza. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Choreographed for the Israel Festival in 1993 by Batsheva’s artistic director, Ohad Naharin, Anaphaza boasts pulsing rhythms, inventive movement, clever props, and eye-catching costumes which have made the work a favorite among audiences and critics alike; indeed, the dance has been seen by an astounding 350,000 people around the world and won recognition as one of the artist’s signature works. For Phaza Morgana, over thirty dancers from the Batsheva Dance Company and the Batsheva Ensemble will bring Anaphaza to life with their unchained energy, spreading from the stage onto the rock formations themselves.

Batsheva Dance Company’s other program in the festival is Take Two. Created especially for Phaza Morgana, Take Two combines selections not only from Naharin’s rich repertory but from Sharon Eyal’s growing body of work. Eyal’s choreography, which masterfully moves large groups of dancers through the space, is well-suited to the grand scale and soaring backdrop of the desert stage. Her Bertolina was a success at Phaza Morgana 2007, and now excerpts of her more recent Makarova Kabisa will be featured in Take Two. Naharin’s portion of the program will include sections from older classics such as Mabul and Naharin’s Virus as well as newer favorites like Seder and Shalosh.

Phaza Morgana in Timna Park. Photo by Liron Simon.

While dance is at the heart of Phaza Morgana, this year’s event also highlights music with a captivating concert by the Idan Raichel Project. Based on the group’s latest hit album, the show Within My Walls will be accompanied by a sixteen-member orchestra and will include special guest appearances by internationally known soloists. Marta Gómez contributes a Colombian flavor to Raichel’s ensemble, and Somi adds African accents to the group’s eclectic sound. With the Idan Raichel Project’s irresistible beats and intoxicating melodies, Phaza Morgana’s crowds will leave the festival dancing.

Video: Isrotel’s promotional video of Phaza Morgana

Remembering Big Performances at Suzanne Dellal’s Big Stage

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:41:36 +0000

Barak Marshall’s Monger. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

This summer has already been so packed with festivals and performances that I have barely had time to reflect, but I figured it’s high time that I post an article I wrote at the end of Suzanne Dellal’s Big Stage.

I’ve been to numerous festivals since moving to Israel, but the Big Stage stands head and shoulders above many others in my mind. There was something magical about the festival’s outdoor setting, and each impressively large-scale performance brought its own theatrical marvels to the already enchanting space. Further adding to my enthusiasm about the festival was the dual reason for its existence: Tel Aviv’s centennial and Suzanne Dellal’s 20th anniversary. It’s pretty hard to top that!

I first published the article below as “Big Performances” in the Forward on June 19, 2009. Read on to get a sense of what this spectacular festival was like – or to refresh your own memories of this momentous event.

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Big Performances

An eager crowd took its seats high above the Suzanne Dellal Center’s plaza for the opening of the three-week festival Habama Hagdola — The Big Stage. Two majestic palm trees framed the large outdoor stage, and the center’s main building provided a picturesque backdrop. A glance around revealed the impressive scenery of the first century of Tel Aviv: quaint red-roofed homes of the Neve Tzedek neighborhood overtaken within a few blocks by modern skyscrapers.

But it was the action onstage that captured the audience’s gaze. Rooted in a wide stance, five women grabbed their heads and raised their arms in exasperation. Rocking vigorously in place, they performed a series of intricate gestures. Even the smallest motion — a lift of the hip, a tilt of the chin — was delivered with attitude. The movement grew, the pace quickened, and the tension built as five men approached the women.

This nuanced, lively dance — Barak Marshall’s Monger — was only part of the excitement onstage. The popular band Balkan Beat Box lent its infectious rhythms and hypnotic vocals to the choreographic excerpts. As the dance and live music mixed, Marshall recounted, “the energy on the stage was explosive and surprising.”

Balkan Beat Box. Photo by Yariv Alter.

In some ways, though, this synergy might have been predicted: Here were two massive hits performing together. BBB’s fusion of musical influences has won the group a devoted following, and Monger, with its theatrical vitality, was a big success during Israel’s most recent dance season.

Monger follows 10 characters who serve the domineering (but never visible) Mrs. Margaret. Marshall combines text, an eclectic sound score, clever visual tricks and an expressive physical language into a well-seasoned dramatic stew. Some rhythms and gestures seem Middle Eastern, others European, and still other elements — especially vintage radio ads for Hebrew National and Manischewitz products — provide a taste of Jewish New York in the early 1900s. This blend of cultural flavors has endeared Monger to audiences at home and abroad.

The Big Stage marks Suzanne Dellal’s 20th anniversary, and Marshall attributes much of his own success to the center. “Simply put, I would not be a choreographer if it weren’t for the Suzanne Dellal Center,” Marshall said. “[Suzanne Dellal director] Yair Vardi discovered me, challenged me and pushed me to challenge my limits.” The center also produced Monger.

Marshall is not alone in benefiting from Suzanne Dellal’s support. The choreographer further credits the center with the larger “renaissance of dance in Israel,” thanks to numerous yearly festivals that “discover new choreographers and catapult young Israeli creators into the international dance scene.”

The center’s extensive programming is made possible by its remarkable facilities. Suzanne Dellal boasts three theaters for productions large and small, traditional and experimental. Both the Batsheva Dance Company and the Inbal Pinto Dance Company call the center home, and the complex’s studios host other choreographers’ activities. Imagine New York City’s Lincoln Center devoted exclusively to dance. Add some visionary leadership, and you have a sense of the Suzanne Dellal Center — the reason that Israeli dance is increasingly a global force.

According to Vardi, who has steered the institution since its founding, Suzanne Dellal is “definitely the major dance center in Israel.” Besides possessing this national distinction, Suzanne Dellal has thoroughly integrated itself into the fabric of Tel Aviv. Vardi proudly outlines the center’s many contributions to the city, affirming, “By now, we’re a very important part of Tel Aviv’s culture scene.”

The Big Stage celebrated not only the Suzanne Dellal Center’s birthday, but also Tel Aviv’s centennial. Accordingly, the festival reflected the city’s artistic treasures. Besides BBB, major Israeli musical acts, including Chava Alberstein, Ehud Banai, and the Idan Raichel Project, rocked the house. The Orna Porat Theater for Children and Youth, which is in residency at Suzanne Dellal, charmed a family audience.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Photo by Robert Etcheverry

Yet it was the dance concerts that revealed the essence of the Suzanne Dellal Center. Spain and Canada have been particularly supportive of the center, so Vardi invited Madrid’s Compañía Nacional de Danza and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal to perform.

The rest of the dance programming exhibited some of the best that Suzanne Dellal has offered throughout its history. The acclaimed Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company presented Rami Be’er’s 1994 masterpiece, Aide Memoire. Choreographer Ido Tadmor revived Cell and Sima’s Pot with cameo appearances by legendary dancers Rina Schenfeld and Talia Paz.

Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s White Noise. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Another collaboration paired Vertigo Dance Company with the Tararam Group, which fuses dance and percussion. Vertigo’s tribe of daring dancers threw themselves into Noa Wertheim’s 2008 White Noise. As the troupe charged toward the audience and tore across the stage, Tararam’s drummers increased the electrifying intensity. Tararam’s performance also received a fresh twist with an acrobatic solo by one of Vertigo’s dancers.

No celebration of Tel Aviv and the Suzanne Dellal Center could be complete without the Batsheva Dance Company. Together with the Batsheva Ensemble, Israel’s oldest modern dance company performed excerpts from some of Ohad Naharin’s most beloved repertory. The dancers’ bodies rocketed into deep arches to the chorus of “Echad Mi Yodea” (“Who Knows One”) and repeated jointed, rhythmic patterns during a synthesized version of Ravel’s “Bolero.”

Dressed in black suits and hats, the Batsheva dancers pulled audience members onstage to a techno rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The unsuspecting performers gamely grooved with their professional counterparts; some even hammed it up on the Big Stage.

The crowd rooted wholeheartedly for Batsheva, for Suzanne Dellal’s home team and for the most recognizable emblem of Israeli contemporary dance. Too soon came the end of the festival, but all left assured that Tel Aviv is still moving with grace and purpose as it begins its second century.

The Big Stage. Photo by Ariel Besor.

Tel Aviv’s 100th + Suzanne Dellal’s 20th = The Big Stage

Deborah Friedes Galili — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:00:26 +0000

Photo of the Big Stage by Ariel Besor.

Something big is about to happen. It’s the biggest cultural draw in town from May 14 until June 6th. And fittingly, it’s titled Habama Hagdola: The Big Stage.

This isn’t the first time that the plaza of the Suzanne Dellal Center has been turned into a massive, open air theater. The pictures in this post show a previous transformation from a few years ago. But this time around, the construction of the Big Stage is marking something truly huge: the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv and the 20th anniversary of the Suzanne Dellal Center, Israel’s premiere center for dance.

To celebrate both of these occasions, the Big Stage (sometimes translated as the Great Stage) will present some of Israel’s top dance companies and musical groups as well as world-renowned troupes from abroad. The opening night combines both art forms in a special performance by Balkan Beat Box, with excerpts from Barak Marshall’s “Monger” that are set to music by the popular Israeli band. As part of the festivities, Yair Vardi, Suzanne Dellal’s director, will receive an award from the Foreign Ministry for his contribution to the field of Israeli dance.

Photo of the Big Stage by Ariel Besor.

In a land whose recorded history stretches back thousands of years, it’s a bit mind-boggling to realize that Tel Aviv is a mere century old. Consider for a moment the ages of some other major cultural centers in the West: Paris. Rome. London. New York City. Tel Aviv is but an infant next to these metropolises, but despite its relative youth, the city has developed a world renowned arts scene.

There was certainly concert dance in Tel Aviv prior to the founding of the Suzanne Dellal Center. Even before the country of Israel was formed, the city absorbed immigrants who had trained in the German expressionist style and laid the foundation for Israel’s modern dance scene. In 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company opened in town, and the Bat-Dor Dance Company debuted a few years later. Over the next two decades, Israeli choreographers started to strike out on their own, and they centered their activity in Tel Aviv.

But what really put Tel Aviv on the international map of dance was the Suzanne Dellal Center. Finally, the city – and indeed, the country – had a complex of world-class theaters and studios devoted almost entirely to dance. The center became a home for the quickly expanding field of contemporary dance, and its multiple stages and festivals spurred more and more choreographers to create work. It’s hard to imagine that Israeli contemporary dance would have grown so much and risen to such prominence over the last twenty years without the support of the Suzanne Dellal Center.

With its key place in the city’s cultural arena – and its role in revitalizing Neve Tzedek, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside of Jaffa – it seems fitting that Suzanne Dellal will play a central part in Tel Aviv’s 100th anniversary celebrations. With the Big Stage up and ready to go, let the party start!

The Big Stage Schedule

May 14, 9 p.m. – Balkan Beat Box and excerpts from Barak Marshall’s Monger (Music and Dance)
May 16, 9 p.m. – Vertigo Dance Company and Tararam (Dance)
May 18, 9 p.m. – Ido Tadmor and Friends, with Rina Schenfeld and Talia Paz (Dance)
May 19, 9 p.m. – Chava Alberstein (Music)
May 21, 9 p.m. – Batsheva Dance Company (Dance)
May 22, 9 p.m. – Mosh Ben Ari (Music)
May 23, 9 p.m. – Rita with special guest Shlomi Shaban (Music)
May 26-May 27, 9 p.m. – Compania Nacional de Danza (from Spain) (Dance)
May 28, 4:30 p.m. – Orna Porat Children and Youth Theater (Theater)
June 1-2, 9 p.m. – Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal (from Canada) (Dance)
June 3, 8:30 p.m. – Idan Raichel Project (Music)
June 4, 8:30 p.m. – Ehud Banai (Music)
June 5, 4:30 – The Apples (Music)
June 6, 9 p.m. – Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Dance)

For more details in English on the dance performances, please check the Events page of Dance In Israel. Tickets can be bought at Suzanne Dellal’s box office, 03-5105656.

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Phaza Morgana 2009: Batsheva Dance Company in the Desert

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