Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre: About “Angels”

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:17:29 +0000

Rina Schenfeld in her new work, Angels. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

This article is a guest post by Gdalit Neuman. Enjoy!

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About Angels

By Gdalit Neuman

Tel Aviv native Rina Schenfeld is one of Israel’s most celebrated artists. After studying at the world famous Julliard School in New York in her early twenties, Rina returned home and became a founding member and principal dancer of the Batsheva Dance Company from 1963-1979. There she danced historic roles in works by none other than Martha Graham, Glenn Tetley, and John Cranko, to great acclaim.

After leaving Batsheva, Schenfeld embarked on a highly successful international career as principal dancer and choreographer of her own company, Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre, which is based in Tel Aviv. She is the recipient of countless distinguished international awards and in 1997 was honored with the Na’amat lifetime achievement award in the realm of dance. The New York Times hailed Schenfeld as “one of the most important artists of our generation.”

Now Rina Schenfeld has done it again. After the tremendous success of her last work Dance Me to the End of Love (ריקדי לקצה האהבה), she will present her latest full length evening entitled Angels (מה לך מלאך?) at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv on June 23rd. Angels is a journey into this first lady of dance’s wild and wonderful imagination. Using songs by Laurie Anderson as inspiration, Schenfeld paints a colorful canvas of images, movement, sound and screen that tempt the pallet and are sure to satisfy. Images of suspended angels, darkness and light, the Garden of Eden, and past and present speckle the stage.

Rina Schenfeld’s Angels. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

The first half of Angels, featuring Schenfeld herself alongside company dancer Hemi Goldin, takes us on a whimsical journey of Hansel and Gretel, among other things, and culminates with a dramatic and tender duet to Nina Simone’s “Wild is the Wind.” The company then joins Schenfeld and Goldin in the second half of the evening, where our story continues. As in Dance Me to the End of Love, here too Schenfeld uses video to draw the audience intimately closer to her world. A highlight is old family photographs that tell not only her story, but each and every one of ours as well.

As a dancer in the company, I had the great delight of seeing Angels develop from its bare bones to a living, breathing organism that is recreated but never replicated twice on stage. Rina’s mastery of creating, composing, and editing but never dictating during this process allowed for a plethora of ideas to come to life, blossom, and bloom. For all of us who were active collaborators in the creation of the new production, Angels signifies a unique and ongoing journey of self-discovery, relationships and ideas.

Credits for Rina Schenfeld’s Angels

Dancer/Choreographer: Rina Schenfeld
Dancers/collaborators: Gali Aizenman, Hemi Goldin, Tamar Weisman, Gdalit Neuman, Joanna Offer, Lilach Raz, Shimrit Sha’ar, Aviv Chalfon
Video: Yuval Cohen
Stills: Gadi Dagon
Costumes: Inbal Liblich
Music: Laurie Anderson, Nina Simone, Hadara Levin, Arvo Part

More Information

Angels will premiere on June 23 at 9 p.m. at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. It will also be performed at the Karmiel Dance Festival on August 5. Angels returns to Suzanne Dellal during the Machol Lohet Festival on August 12-13.

Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre also hosts open dance classes for the public (beginner to advanced levels) where Schenfeld herself teaches. For more information, please call 03-6046745.

About the Author

Gdalit Neuman is a company member of Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre. She is a writer, teacher, choreographer and lover of all things that move.

Ohad Naharin to Receive 2009 Scripps/ADF Award

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:12:56 +0000

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

Dance In Israel » Juilliard