Dance In Israel » israel festival

The 50th Israel Festival: Batsheva, Merce Cunningham, and More

Deborah Friedes Galili — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:33:25 +0000

Video: The 2011 Israel Festival
50 years of the Israel Festival – this country’s most prestigious multidisciplinary arts festival – is a milestone worthy of celebration. And for local dance lovers, the jubilee season offers even more reasons to celebrate, for the programming features an extraordinary lineup of artists from home and from abroad. With a rich calendar of performances through June 18, the 2011 Israel Festival is set to lure concert-goers from around the country to Jerusalem. Here’s a peek at this year’s dance events:

Video: Strange Fruit

The first day of the festival featured the physical marvels of Australia’s Strange Fruit in Zion Square and the lyricism of the Israel Ballet and soloists from Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet performing Giselle in Safra Square.

Video: Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s Sadeh21

Batsheva Dance Company returns to the festival with Ohad Naharin’s new Sadeh21, created in collaboration with the troupe’s full roster of dancers. Bathed in soft lighting by Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi) and clothed in variously hued and textured costumes by Ariel Cohen, the company presented a short preview to the press on Monday. Although the cast is large, the rapport among the dancers often lends the work an intimate feel and effectively draws the viewer into the world onstage. Sadeh21 premieres on May 25 and continues its run in Jerusalem through May 27.

Naharin is not the only well-known Israeli choreographer premiering work in the Israel Festival. On May 28-29, choreographer Nimrod Freed and composer Israel Breit will unveil La, a work for four singers and three dancers. Drawing on their respective backgrounds in dance and theater, longtime partners Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor will debut Ship of Fools on June 9.

Video: Merce Cunningham Dance Company

Two years after Merce Cunningham’s death, the legendary choreographer’s company is appearing in the Israel Festival as part of its worldwide Legacy Tour. On June 6, the Sherover Theater will host the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s performance of Split Sides (2003) and Sounddance (1975), while the Israel Museum will be the site of several Events – programs including excerpts of Cunningham’s renowned repertory – on June 9-11.

Merce Cunningham’s Events. Photo by Anna Finke.

Besides these performances, a series of lectures, discussions, and workshops called MerceCampus will be offered at Bezalel, Yaffo 23 in conjunction with the Jerusalem Season of Culture. Sessions include a workshop with Dance Forms, the computer software used by Cunningham to compose his dances; film screenings and performances of music by Cunningham’s famed partner John Cage; and conversations with the company’s dancers and artistic director. Entry to MerceCampus programming is free, and the full schedule in English is available here.

Video: The Danish Dance Theatre in Tim Rushton’s Kridt

The 2011 Israel Festival will close with the Danish Dance Theatre in two programs. Artistic director Tim Rushton teams up with jazz artist Caroline Henderson for Love Songs on June 15. A mixed bill including Rushton’s Kridt, Enigma, and CaDance will be performed in Jerusalem on June 17 and in Modi’in on June 18.

For more information about programming and ticketing, visit the Israel Festival’s website.

Israel Festival 2010

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:56:01 +0000

ISRAEL FESTIVAL 2010 from ISRAEL FESTIVAL on Vimeo.

Video: Preview of the Israel Festival 2010

As mid-May turns into late May here in Israel, spring is in full bloom. The sun is now everpresent, no longer occasionally blocked by clouds, and the days grow hotter. Rain showers are replaced by trickles of tourist groups, portending the forthcoming wave of summer visitors. And in Jerusalem, the Israel Festival opens, providing the season’s freshest programming in theater, music, and dance.

The Israel Festival traditionally mixes some of the top names from the international arts scene with local favorites, and this year is no exception. The 2010 dance line-up promises a particularly diverse array of renowned artists hailing from around the world. Tangokinesis, based in Buenos Aires, brings a tantalizing mix of Argentinean tango and modern dance to Nuevo Tango. Shen Wei Dance Arts will arrive in Jerusalem from its home in New York, but the Chinese-born Wei’s style is infused with elements of Chinese opera, and his work Re is colored by his travels in Tibet, Cambodia, and China. British choreographer Akram Khan is known for blending Indian kathak dance with more modern movement, and his Gnosis is inspired by the Hindu Mahabharata. And the masterful Bill T. Jones will take on American history in Serenade/The Proposition, which incorporates striking video art along with the choreographer’s signature contemporary vocabulary.

Video: Bill T. Jones’s Serenade/The Proposition

Joining these visiting troupes on the festival’s stage is a hometown favorite, Vertigo Dance Company, which maintains a studio in Jerusalem as well as an innovative Eco-Art Village on nearby Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey. Vertigo will kick off the festival with two free shows of Noa Wertheim’s landmark environmental work, Birth of the Phoenix, before performing Wertheim’s White Noise and her most recent dance, Mana.

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

The 2010 Israel Festival runs from May 25 until June 11.

Spring Festival Fever: The Israel Festival in Jerusalem

Deborah Friedes Galili — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:21:43 +0000

Video: LINES Ballet in Alonzo King’s Rasa, which will be part of the Israel Festival.

Spring festival fever has hit Israel. The Big Stage Festival is in full swing at Suzanne Dellal in Tel Aviv. There’s many Shavuot festivals planned around the country, and several of them focus on dance and movement. And from May 24th to June 11th, the Israel Festival will bring world-renowned performing artists in all disciplines to Jerusalem.

The Israel Festival has been a mainstay of the spring festival season since its founding in 1961, though its character has evolved over time. From its roots as a music festival in Caesarea, the event expanded to include theater and dance. The Israel Festival moved most of its performances to Jerusalem in 1982, and it remains there today.

Although it bears this country’s name, the Israel Festival is truly an international event showcasing high-quality art from both in and out of Israel. A quick survey of this year’s dance offerings alone yields four different countries from three different continents (and that’s besides Israel!).

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. Photo by Robert Etcheverry.

While the dance artists represented in the 2009 Israel Festival are scattered around the globe, their work at times intersects stylistically. Take Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, which will be performing Stijn Celis’s Noces and Mauro Bigonzetti’s Cantata. This troupe comes from a classical background but has a decidedly contemporary twist; indeed, they count Ohad Naharin’s Minus 1 among their repertory.

Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. Photo by Marty Sohl.

Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, based in San Francisco, could be described similarly – but it has an unmistakeably unique aesthetic shaped by artistic director and choreographer King. LINES will show King’s Irregular Pearl and Rasa, set to Zakir Hussain’s virtuoso tabla music.

Compañía Nacional de Danza. Photo by Fernando Makrom.

Another branch on the family tree of contemporary dance is Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza. Though the dancers again have superb ballet skills, artistic director Nacho Duato moves even further from the classical vocabulary in his celebrated choreography. Compañía Nacional de Danza will display Duato’s talents in Castrati, Gnawa, and Por Vos Muero.

Alarmél Valli. Photo by S. Anwar.

Although some variation on contemporary dance characterizes these three companies, other scheduled performances are from a wholly different part of the stylistic spectrum. Alarmél Valli will bring her own expressive abilities to classical Indian Bharatanatyam dance in The Forgotten Seed. Meanwhile, the Israeli troupe Mayumana blurs artistic disciplines, and their high-energy shows are always packed with a cross-genre blend of movement.

Mayumana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Mayumana isn’t the only Israeli offering which incorporates dance. Clipa Theatre’s K, based on short stories by Franz Kafka, is classified under the festival’s theater programming. Yet the cast has several dancers as well as puppeteers and circus performers, ensuring that this will verge into the realm of physical theater. Also listed in the Israel Festival’s theater schedule is Man, Woman, Reflections; this production is directed and choreographed by Yoram Karmi, the artistic director of Holon’s Fresco Dance Group.

Visit the Israel Festival’s website for a complete listing of its programming.

International Exposure 2008: Day 6

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:24:33 +0000

(Video: Kolben Dance in Amir Kolben’s “Interface”)

What’s a visit to Israel without a journey to Jerusalem? Today, attendees of the International Exposure Festival are making the one-hour trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Our visit will start with Kolben Dance Company’s performance of Amir Kolben’s Interface. After a tour of the city, we’ll return to Tel Aviv for a farewell reception. The festival closes with the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Hydra by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. Hydra packed the theater when I saw it at the 2008 Israel Festival. I’m guessing that though we might be tired after 6 days of dance watching, we’ll flock to the Suzanne Dellal theater one more time for this performance!

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination (Podcast)

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:29:29 +0000

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Shaker completes its U.S. tour at New York City’s Joyce Theater this week. Photo by Eyal Landesman.

This is the first in a series of podcasted interviews with dance professionals in Israel.

You can listen via the player embedded in this post or subscribe to this podcast for free by visiting our podcast feed and using the iTunes software ((You can subscribe to the podcast feed by searching the iTunes directory for “Dance In Israel”)). This podcast was initially produced for Israel Seen, and the text below was written for The Winger.

* * *

The very first work I saw at the Suzanne Dellal Center last year was Shaker, by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. Despite my jet lag, I realized that Inbal and Avshalom’s visually stunning work was special – and when I later saw the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Oyster (twice!) and Hydra, I knew that my initial assessment of these creators was correct. Want more proof of this couple’s exceptional talent and ability to win over audiences with their artistry? Several hundred performances after its premiere, Oyster still fills the house at Suzanne Dellal, and the Israel Festival had to add a third performance of Hydra this June because of the demand for tickets.

Avshalom Pollak and Inbal Pinto. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazyn.

In between rehearsals for their new production and tours of their existing repertory, I caught up with Inbal and Avshalom in the spring of 2008 to learn how this imaginative couple concocts such unique creations. You can learn more too if you tune in to our podcast!

For more pictures, videos, and links, read the rest of my post below:

Hydra, the newest work by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. Photo by Seto Hidemi.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Oyster. Photo by Elazar Harel

Video: A clip from Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Shaker.

I’ll leave you with one more treat:

Video: Excerpts from Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s What Good Would the Moon Be.

Dance In Israel » israel festival

The 50th Israel Festival: Batsheva, Merce Cunningham, and More

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Related Links

Israel Festival 2010

Related Articles on Dance in Israel

Related Links

Spring Festival Fever: The Israel Festival in Jerusalem

Related Links

International Exposure 2008: Day 6

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Other Useful Links

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination (Podcast)

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

Related Links

*This post was made possible thanks to a Fulbright student grant funded by the U.S.-Israel Educational Foundation and hosted by the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.