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.

Related Articles on Dance in Israel

• Spring Festival Fever: The Israel Festival in Jerusalem (2009 Festival)
• Vertigo Dance Company: Art, Environment, Community
• Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s Mana
• Curtain Up 2: Vertigo Dance Company and Noa Wertheim Host Elad Shechter

Related Links

• Israel Festival website

Antonio Márquez. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

This article was first published in the Jerusalem Post.

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Although Israel is best known for contemporary dance, Israeli audiences seem to have an insatiable appetite for flamenco.  Besides boasting several thriving local flamenco companies and an annual flamenco festival and competition, the country has hosted some of the world’s most prominent flamenco troupes in performances that draw large, enthusiastic crowds. Now, after two previous successful visits to Israel, the legendary Antonio Márquez is returning with his company to satiate Israelis’ hunger for top-notch Spanish dance. “The Israeli audience embraced us on our previous visits and we would like to return a warm embrace,” explains Márquez.

Born in 1963 in Seville, Márquez studied flamenco with Antonio Ruiz Soler, a leading dancer of his day, and joined the renowned National Ballet of Spain in 1982. Márquez’s phenomenal technique and dramatic stage presence made him a star with the company and a popular guest artist in other preeminent companies and international galas.  As a performer, he received coveted awards including the Nureyev Prize, and in 1998, he was named Spain’s Most Esteemed Professional Dancer.

Compañia Antonio Márquez. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

In 1995, the virtuoso dancer founded Compañia Antonio Márquez. With Márquez and a roster of talented dancers enlivening captivating, colorful productions, the Madrid-based company has garnered critical acclaim and won a popular following in both national and international tours. For its third trip to Israel, Compañia Antonio Márquez will be the guest of honor of the international dance series at the Herzliya Center for the Performing Arts from January 13-16 before touring to Haifa, Rishon Lezion, and Jerusalem.

Compañia Antonio Márquez. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

Márquez has planned an enticing double-bill for his troupe’s Israeli performances.  Set to Maurice Ravel’s rousing score, Bolero highlights Márquez’s penchant for combining classical flamenco technique with strikingly contemporary choreography. Positioned center stage in a spotlight, every fiber of Márquez’s body exudes power and passion; bursts of lightning-fast footwork are juxtaposed with slow head rolls, subtly expressive isolations, and the gloriously smooth unfurling of his muscled arms. As the music builds, so too does the action with the ensemble. Márquez smartly moves the dancers around the stage in striking formations, sometimes punctuating a strong unison section with an eye-catching canon. All the while, the group entrances with their proud carriage, mesmerizing arm motions, and percussive, rhythmic steps.

Compañia Antonio Márquez. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

Besides Bolero, Márquez has prepared Flamenco Celebration especially for this tour.  Danced to stirring guitar and vocal music, this vibrant group work hews more closely to traditional notions of flamenco dance. Women in tiered ruffled dresses and swirling fringed scarves sweep elegantly through the space, while men in smart suits show off their impeccable high-speed footwork. Sometimes the group surrounds a soloist, clapping, stomping, and gesturing to accentuate the lead dancer’s dazzling movement and impassioned performance. Here too, Márquez electrifies with his brilliant technique and commanding, expressive presence. With such a superb flamenco dancer at the helm, and with an exciting cast of outstanding dancers in well-crafted, compelling choreography, Compañia Antonio Márquez’s concerts are themselves cause for celebration.

More Information

Compañia Antonio Márquez performs at the Herzliya Center for the Performing Arts from January 13-16 at 9:00 p.m. Tickets (269-299 NIS) are available at 1-700-70-29-29.  Additional performances are at the Haifa Auditorium (January 17, 8:30 p.m. 04-8418411), Rishon Lezion’s Heichal Hatarbut (January 18, 8:30 p.m., 03-9666141), and the Sherover Theater in Jerusalem (January 20, 8:30 p.m., 02-6237000).

Related Links

• Compañia Antonio Márquez

Video: Trailer for Less Mess, a collaboration between Ruby Edelman, Sascha Engel, and Christina Gehrig Binder

Just as the dance scene has quieted down a bit in Tel Aviv after a series of festivals, the growing Jerusalem scene is heating up with Machol Shalem’s SHALEM festival 2009.  Unlike most of the festivals which took place here in Tel Aviv, SHALEM features not only concerts but classes, such as Ronen Itzhaki’s workshop for men and Claudia Hauri’s workshop for dancers and actors, cleverly titled “Don’t try it at home.”  This year’s programming runs in Jerusalem from 29-31, and Tel Aviv audiences can see some of the festival’s offerings when they come to the Opera House’s rehearsal room on January 1-2.

To get the scoop on SHALEM 2009 and its parent organization Machol Shalem, I talked to Ruby Edelman, who co-directs the festival along with his partner Idel.  The article below was first published in the Jerusalem Post as “Daring Dance in Jerusalem.”

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Daring Dance in Jerusalem

“It’s a whole different playground,” Ruby Edelman says of Jerusalem’s dance scene.  Tel Aviv is typically recognized as the hot spot for concert dance in Israel but Edelman and his partner Ofra Idel are injecting new energy into Jerusalem’s fledgling scene with Machol Shalem.

Edelman recalls, “The initiation of Machol Shalem started in 2002, [with] me and some other independent dancemakers in Jerusalem who were looking for a place to continue [our] creation.”  Initially, the organizers invited young choreographers to present their work on a single evening and each year, the group’s activities expanded.  Eventually they founded a multi-day festival called SHALEM – The Jerusalem Dance Festival and established a home base with a studio in Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood.

Or Marin’s Origami.  Photo by Ascaf.

Now, with three days of inventive workshops and cutting-edge performances by both Israeli and foreign artists, SHALEM is easily one of Israel’s most adventurous dance festivals.  SHALEM’s progressive programming flies in the face of conservative stereotypes that characterize both Jerusalem itself and the city’s arts scene.  Indeed, Edelman affirms that the festival’s mission is “to present an alternative channel to what modern, contemporary, independent dance can be at this time . . . to search for things which are not obvious and which present variations of what dance can be about.”

Running from December 29-31, SHALEM 2009 advances this search for bold, experimental approaches to dance with what Edelman calls an emphasis on “unique, fresh collaborations of new dance and new media.”  Efrat Rubin joins forces with animation artist Osnat Wald to create her latest work, Yom (Day).  Meanwhile, Copenhagen-based Israeli choreographer Esther Wrobel performs while hanging on a rope against the backdrop of Marlene Nielson’s video projections in CRUST.  Even Splash, a work for young audiences by Australian-born, Jerusalem-based choreographer Joel Bray, includes an interactive video along with live dance.

Less Mess by Ruby Edelman, Sascha Engel, and Christina Gehrig Binder.  Photo by Christian Glaus.

Video and an exploratory spirit also play a prominent part in Edelman’s work, a co-production of Machol Shalem and Tanzhaus Zurich with Swiss dancemaker Christina Gehrig Binder and German filmmaker and choreographer Sascha Engel as creative collaborators.  The trio, graduates of the Rotterdam Dance Academy and frequent artistic partners, embarked on a road trip throughout Israel that was filmed by Seffy Hirsch.  Then the three choreographers built a series of duets based on their experiences during this journey.  The resulting work, called Less Mess, includes clips of the video as reference points.

Technology plays an even more active role during the performances of a few innovative works to be showcased in SHALEM 2009.  During Or Marin’s new Origami, a real-time recording of the work will be projected while the dancers perform.  Berlin-based choreographer Efrat Stempler is also working with real-time recording and projection in her evening-length Shu Shu.  In this trio, the dancers are outfitted with miniature surveillance cameras that monitor the other performers and expose them by screening images in all directions throughout the space.

SHALEM 2009 also features Entr’acte, a duet by Holland’s dance theater cabaret group Gato Bizar that was a previous success in the festival.  The shows are rounded out with excerpts from the Jerusalem-based Kolben Dance Company’s latest production, Amir Kolben’s Min-hara, and a new solo by former Kolben dancer Evelin Ifrach.

Entr’acte by Gato Bizar.  Photo by Maarten Eiland.

While SHALEM’s exciting programming should be enough to attract crowds from outside Jerusalem into the city, the festival is also catering to Tel Aviv’s committed dance audience by bringing both Less Mess and Shu Shu to the Opera House’s rehearsal room from January 1-2.  Machol Shalem’s purpose may be to strengthen dance in Jerusalem, but with its daring curatorial vision, it is enriching the entire country’s cultural scene.

More Information

SHALEM’s performances run from December 29-31 at the Gerard Behar Center in Jerusalem and from January 1-2 at the Opera House in Tel Aviv.  Tickets are available at www.bimot.co.il or 02-6237999.

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• Machol Shalem: The Jerusalem Modern Dance Festival

Related Links

• Machol Shalem

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.

Related Links

• Israel Festival
• Alarmel Valli (India)
• Clipa Theatre (Israel)
• Compañía Nacional de Danza (Spain)
• Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal (Canada)
  
• LINES Ballet (U.S.)
• Mayumana (Israel)
• Yoram Karmi/Fresco Dance Group (Israel)

Video: CityDance Ensemble

You would have thought that to meet Paul Gordon Emerson, the director of the Washington D.C. based CityDance Ensemble, I would have taken a train from New Jersey (my home state) to the capital of the U.S. while I was still living there.  But instead I grabbed a bus to Jerusalem a few nights ago.

Let’s backtrack: Paul’s interest in reviving older modern dance masterpieces and my research on these works first brought us together online nearly six years ago. We’ve kept up our correspondence over the years, reconnecting this fall when CityDance staged Sophie Maslow’s Folksay from Labanotation score (this was doubly exciting for me: my undergraduate thesis on Jewish-American choreographers highlighted Maslow’s career, and I studied Labanotation intensively in graduate school). Yet we never met face to face – until now.

CityDance is currently touring the Middle East, and as part of the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival – which features companies from around the world performing both in the West Bank and in Israel – the company had concerts in Jerusalem and Nazareth this week. Since the Tel Aviv is only an hour away from Jerusalem, I jumped at the chance to see the company and hopped on a bus.

After years of corresponding with Paul, it was fantastic to talk with him in person (and we could have continued for much more time). I also saw firsthand that CityDance lives up to the promise delivered in its slogan, “Power. Passion. Purpose.” The talented dancers threw themselves body and soul into their performance, and the choreography had something to say; indeed, the program’s closing work – Christopher K. Morgan’s Thirst – tackled environmental issues effectively and movingly.

But my trip came with an added benefit: the chance to reflect on some structural differences between concert dance in America and Israel. Some of my thoughts below came up in a post-show conversation with Paul and Christopher, while others struck me later.

CityDance was, in a sense, the perfect troupe to shed light on a few of these contrasts. For one, it is a repertory company. Rather than showcasing work by only one choreographer, CityDance’s program in Jerusalem featured work by Christopher and Paul himself along with Ludovic Jolivet and Kate Weare. While some other American troupes are based on this repertory model, few Israeli companies operate in this fashion. Here, nearly every group is devoted to the work of one or two choreographers.

This wasn’t always the case. The Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and the now defunct Bat-Dor Dance Company were all repertory companies at the start. Indeed, from the 1960s until the 1990s, the repertory structure was the model of a dance company in Israel. But as more Israeli choreographers found their artistic voices in the 1990s and 2000s, they started their own groups to present their work. At the same time, both Batsheva and KCDC found artistic directors whose own choreographic visions could guide those companies to international success. Thus the repertory model not only lost its dominance but nearly disappeared from the landscape of Israeli contemporary dance.

Connected to this contrast in company structure is a difference between dance concerts in the U.S. and in Israel. Like most modern dance concerts I attended or performed in stateside, CityDance’s program was a mixed bill. I have seen plenty of mixed bills here in Israel, but usually they are evenings shared by several independent choreographers and often they are within the context of a festival. Typically, established Israeli dance companies present concerts composed of one full-length work. Sometimes the same set-up is true for concerts by independent choreographers. I’m not sure why full-length work seems so much more predominant in Israel than in America; perhaps a combination of artistic and economic factors contribute to this tendency.

Finally, while the particular concert I saw included more recently made works, CityDance’s inclusion of older pieces in its repertory also sets it apart from Israel’s dance companies. Though it is a particularly strong proponent of reconstructions, CityDance is by no means the only American company which presents older choreography. Some modern dance companies in the U.S., like the Martha Graham Dance Company, are completely dedicated to performing existing repertory; others such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Limón Dance Company keep the older works of their founders alive while commissioning new dances.

In contrast, Israel’s contemporary dance companies rarely include restagings of decades-old choreography in their seasons. Earlier this year I wrote about a few revivals which took place at a special opening performance of the Shades of Dance Festival, but other than that unique concert, it’s hard to see even the most significant works in Israeli dance history onstage here. The emphasis is on the new to the extent that the old is barely visible.

Certainly this situation is related to the relative youth of homegrown Israeli contemporary dance. None of Israel’s existing dance companies were in operation fifty years ago, and few of the country’s choreographers were creating work twenty years ago. The new-ness of the field is partly what makes it so exciting and vibrant, but I wonder if the scene will preserve its treasures as it ages. Dances made prior to the formation of Batsheva have already been lost, and I worry that the same fate awaits comparatively more recent choreography.

This is just the start of a comparison, but I’ll save more thoughts for another post! Many thanks to Paul and CityDance for both a wonderful concert and a point of departure for this reflection.

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• ” ‘Then and Now’ Brings Old and New Together at Shades of Dance” – my article about revivals at the Shades of Dance Festival

Related Links

• CityDance Ensemble
• Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival

(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!

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

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

Links to Choreographers and Companies

• Inbal Pinto Dance Company
• Kolben Dance

Other Useful Links

• Dance In Israel’s International Exposure coverage – full series
• Israel Festival
• Dance In Israel’s Links page – links to companies, choreographers, and more
  
• Suzanne Dellal Center

(Hillel Kogan’s “Everything” will premiere in the 2008 Curtain Up Festival)

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“Another Op’ning, another show
In Philly, Boston, or Baltimo’
A chance for stage folks to say hello
Another op’ning of another show.”
-Lyrics by Cole Porter for the musical Kiss Me Kate

It’s time for another op’ning of another show – again, and again, and again (and again) – in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this month. The 2008 Curtain Up Festival will bring 4 programs worth of premieres by independent choreographers to the Suzanne Dellal Center and The Lab (HaMaabada) during December.  Michael Getman, Maya Levy, Rachel Erdos, Tomer Sharabi, Maya Stern, and Hillel Kogan will each present new works, as will the collaborative teams of Sahar Azimi and Odelya Kuperberg; Yossi Berg and Oded Graf; and Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor with the participation of Ronit Ziv.  The entire festival opens at Suzanne Dellal on December 3 with a special presentation of Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak‘s Shaker, which recently toured the United States.

For a listing of this year’s Curtain Up performances in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, please visit Dance In Israel’s Events page.  You can read both Helen Kaye’s preview and Ori J. Lenkinski’s preview of the festival in the Jerusalem Post and view the Suzanne Dellal Center’s Hebrew program of Curtain Up.  Finally, I’ll leave you with “Another Op’ning, Another Show,” which I wrote for my own website on November 20, 2007 after attending last year’s Curtain Up Festival.  Make sure to click below and view the rest of the post; there’s another video to whet your appetite!

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(Hillel Kogan’s After the Bolero was a highlight of the 2007 Curtain Up Festival.   Kogan, who is also the rehearsal director for the Batsheva Ensemble, performed in the work along with Ariel Freedman and Iyar Elezra, who recently moved from the ensemble to the main company.)

Right now in Tel Aviv, it’s another opening of another show every night at the Suzanne Dellal Center. Along with the wintry weather (rain and 60-something degree days), November brings the Curtain Up Festival (הרמת מסך), a showcase of fully produced works by young Israeli choreographers. This year there are three separate bills, each featuring 2-3 pieces; each program runs twice at Suzanne Dellal before touring to Jerusalem at the end of the month. The mood has been suitably carnival-like, with a lively 14-piece brass band ushering the full crowd into the theater prior to some of the concerts (though on Friday night during Shabbat, the pre-show entertainment consisted of a much quieter quartet of dancers shifting stones around the plaza).

The entire extravaganza kicked off on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 with Vertigo Dance Company’s Vertigo and the Diamonds (ורטיפו והיהלומים) by Noa Wertheim (נעה ורטהיים). Wertheim and Adi Sha’al (עדי שעל), Vertigo’s directors, had presented work at the Curtain Up festivals when they were beginning their careers, so they came full circle with this performance. With lively music performed onstage by the Diamonds and six remarkably athletic dancers, Wertheim’s work – exploring the dynamics within human relationships – was a crowd pleaser. The audience also enjoyed the onstage dance party at the end.

Over the course of the next three evenings, I saw seven works by the next generation of Israeli choreographers: Ronit Ziv (רונית זיו), Oded Graf and Yossi Berg (עודד גרף ויוסי ברג), Aviv Eveguy (אביב אבגי), Michal Herman (מיכל הרמן), Hillel Kogan (הלל קוגן), Odelya Kuperberg (אודליה קופרברג), and Maya Levy (מאיה לוי). All the works featured casts of three to four dancers, though Kuperberg’s work included an extended cast of pedestrians who entered and exited the stage space throughout the performance.  Like Vertigo and the Diamonds, most of the dances explored human relationships in varying contexts, with the dancers manipulating each other in intricate partnering patterns.

While such a rigorous schedule of dance-watching was a bit tiring, thankfully the works were generally well-constructed and all of the performers were spectacularly committed and engaging.  I found Ziv’s contribution – with a title meaning “Mirror” in Hebrew, but written with reversed lettering – particularly compelling, with a marvelous usage of props including a mirror and teacups.   Meanwhile, the zany humor in Kogan’s After the Bolero (אחרי הבולרו) was a welcome addition to the serious tone of the second Curtain Up program.  As a tall, headless man in a suit attempted to speak – and then, as four highly energetic performers blurted out wild dance phrases punctuated with vernacular dance movements – I laughed and cheered along with the rest of the audience.

*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.

A video about the Jerusalem Modern Dance Festival 2007

Tel Aviv may be the undisputed center of contemporary dance in Israel, but Jerusalem also boasts several dance companies, studios, and presenters as well as its own dance festival.  Now in its fourth year, Machol Shalem – also known as the Jerusalem Modern Dance Festival – will run from Wednesday, November 19 until Friday, November 21.  The festival opens on Wednesday with Nimrod Freed’s unique PEEPDance and continues with two mixed bills showcasing work by Israeli and African choreographers.  On Friday, the festival will finish with four hours of live dance and music at Jerusalem’s Havatzelet passage.

To get a sense of the festival, you can take a peek at the videos from 2007 (above) and 2006 (below – click on “Read the rest of this entry”); you’ll see snippets of backstage preparations, engaging performances, and happy audience members.  For more information, visit the Machol Shalem festival’s website, and check out Dance In Israel’s Events page for listings.

A video about the Jerusalem Modern Dance Festival 2006