Noa Dar in Arnica.  Photo by Tamar Lam.

(This podcast was initially produced for Israel Seen in 2008, and the text is amended from my writing on The Winger.  You can subscribe to this podcast using the iTunes software by clicking this link to the podcast feed.)

* * *

I had spent many evenings during my Fulbright year taking contemporary dance classes with Shlomit Fundaminsky and Inbal Aloni at Noa Dar’s studio in Tel Aviv, but when I entered the building one night for a performance of Noa’s Tetris, it was as if I had walked into another world. When I viewed Arnica a month later in the more traditional environment of Tel Aviv’s Tmuna Theater, I not only saw Noa’s range as a choreographer but was struck by her powerful presence as a performer.  After screening more of her work on DVD, I knew I had to meet the woman whose name graced the space where I so frequently took class!

We set up a meeting, and at long last I met Noa in her studio for a stimulating conversation.  During our interview, Noa reflected on the development of her movement vocabulary, the evolution of her repertory, her choreographic process, and the relationship of her work to her upbringing on a kibbutz and to the larger Israeli society.  It was a really rich discussion that, for me, further illuminated her well-crafted choreography while shedding even more light on the surrounding contexts of Israeli dance and Israeli culture.   I hope it will open your eyes as well!

* * *

Noa Dar is currently on tour with Arnica and Tetris in Frankfurt and Münster, Germany, through September 9th.  For video clips and photos of these works and more, please see below.

Video: Noa Dar’s Arnica (Dar performs the second solo)

Noa Dar.  Photo by Eldad Refaeli.

Noa Dar’s Tetris.  Photo by Tamar Lam.

Video: Noa Dar’s Tetris

Noa Dar’s In a Dark, Dark Land.  Photo by Tamar Lam.

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• “Noa Dar’s ‘Tetris’ – Shaping the Space”

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

• Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination
• Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor: An Interview with Dramatic Dancemakers
• Interview with Yair Vardi: A View from the Top
• Renana Raz: Choreographing Israeli Culture and Beyond
• Sahar Azimi Speaks about Choreography and Contemporary Dance
• Shlomit Fundaminsky: An Interview on Improvisation and Israeli Life

Related Links

• Noa Dar

*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.

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Rami Be’er’s Aide Memoire.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Suzanne Dellal’s Big Stage festival will close on Saturday, June 6th with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s performance of Rami Be’er’s Aide Memoire (Hebrew title: Zichron Dvarim).   I was struck by the dance’s power when I first saw it last year – but rather than telling you my perspective in this post, I’m going to bring you a different viewpoint: that of the choreographer himself.

Below is a guest post by Rami Be’er, choreographer and artistic director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.

* * *

The Holocaust in Modern Dance (guest post by Rami Be’er)

As a son of Holocaust survivors, I tried to deal with the horrors of the Holocaust, but it took me years until I felt mature enough to do so.  My parents filled the house with art and music, raised us in an Israeli Kibbutz, started a new life and never mentioned the past.  Same as with me, it took decades until they started to speak.

When I felt ready to deal with the horrors of the Holocaust, I created the piece Aide Memoire.

In Aide Memoire, I tried to illustrate the feeling of being “trapped.”  The dancers move ecstatically, trapped in their personal turmoil, spinning while swinging their arms and legs, and banging on the wall; some are crucified, unable to move freely on the stage.

Aide Memoire is not only about the Holocaust.  It deals with matters relating to present life and reality.  It deals with violence, wars, and their impact on our lives.  I created this dance in order to scream: Stop the violence!  Stop the holocausts!

The subject of the Holocaust has been dealt with in every form of art, including modern dance.  Some dances illustrate the same feeling of being trapped and having no where to go.  In 1961 Anna Sokolow, a Jewish-American choreographer, created her piece Dreams.  It was an attempt to deal with her night terrors.  Eventually it became a memoire to the horrors of the Holocaust.  In this dance, the dancers stand still, each one clasping a balled fist with the other hand, trying to pull them apart but with no success.

This same feeling of being trapped and enslaved is illustrated also in one of Pilobolus’s dances, Selection.  In Selection, one of the dancers approaches a dancing couple, separating them by his cane and snatching the woman away from her partner’s arms.

In KCDC (Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company), I teach my dancers that the world of modern dance is not detached from reality. Not only do we deal with violence and its effect through dance, we also initiate activities to unite Jews and Arabs in Israel, and do as best as we can in order to open the doors of our dance school to students from all races and nationalities, including foreign students who wish to study abroad.

This is my way to fight against violence.

–Rami Be’er
Artistic Director, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company

* * *

Rami Be’er’s Aide Memoire will also be performed in Herzliya on June 10th and in Jerusalem on June 16th; in addition, the work will tour to Poland’s Bytum International Dance Festival in July.   The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company will also take Be’er’s Upon Reaching the Sun to Hungary, Austria, and Croatia this summer.  See Dance In Israel’s Events page and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s website for more details.

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company: Travel Journal
• Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company: From the Galilee Dance Village to the World

Related Links

• Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
• Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company Dance Center

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Rami Be’er’s Upon Reaching the Sun.  Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Just as the Batsheva Dance Company finishes its North American tour and returns home, another major Israeli dance troupe is hitting the road.  Known for its dynamo dancers and visually stunning works, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company will bring artistic director Rami Be’er’s Upon Reaching the Sun to locations throughout Germany and Italy this month.  Later this spring, KCDC will perform in the Ukraine, the U.S., Poland, and Romania; in the summer, the company will continue to Hungary, Austria, and Croatia, with a few more concerts in Poland.

Whereas most world-renowned dance companies embark on major foreign tours from their home country’s cosmopolitan cities, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company is launching its travels from a village: the Galilee Dance Village, located on Kibbutz Ga’aton in northern Israel.  This setup is so unique that it’s worth taking a closer look, and KCDC’s video “The Galilee Dance Village” – posted below – provides multiple perspectives of the company’s home.

(Video: Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, The Galilee Dance Village)

Video Notes

This video offers both historical background and a contemporary view of the Galilee Dance Village, home to Israel’s Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.   Company founder Yehudit Arnon can be seen in brief bits of black and white footage, while new color footage displays artistic director Rami Be’er’s choreography and offers a peek into life as a dancer on the kibbutz.  Be’er talks about the concept of the company as well as his choreographic approach, while company dancers reflect on their experience living and dancing on Kibbutz Ga’aton.

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company: Travel Journal

Related Links

• The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company website
• Dance In Israel’s Events page - check KCDC’s website and this page for upcoming concert information

Bruchim Habaim LeKibbutz Ga’aton – Welcome to Kibbutz Ga’aton, the home of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company

The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company has enjoyed a strong presence abroad, including a performance at Central Park SummerStage in July 2008, so some of you may have had the good fortune of seeing this energetic group perform.  But you may not know about the company’s unusual background.  As its name suggests, this troupe is based not in a city but on a kibbutz.

What exactly does that mean?

To find out, I traveled north last year to observe the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in its natural habitat.  I first published this photo journal of my visit to Kibbutz Ga’aton on The Winger and on Dance In Israel’s beta version this summer.

* * *

I almost didn’t make it to Kibbtuz Ga’aton today.  After finishing my morning Gaga class in Tel Aviv, I found out that the train was not running from Hadera to Haifa, and I needed to get even further north.  But as they say, when there’s a will, there’s a way!  I caught a ride to the bus station in Tel Aviv, hopped a bus to Haifa, picked up the train from there to Nahariya, and then jumped in a cab to Kibbutz Ga’aton in the Western Galilee.

Why make the effort?

This wasn’t merely an outing to a beautiful part of Israel. Kibbutz Ga’aton is home to the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, one of Israel’s oldest and most renowned modern dance companies. When the taxi pulled up to the kibbutz and I saw this sign outside the company’s office, I exhaled and smiled. It took me several hours today – and more than nine months in total – but I finally made it here!

The kibbutz movement in Israel has undergone a lot of change in recent years. While the kibbutzim used to function in a socialist framework, with everyone working on the grounds and sharing income equally, many of these communities have abandoned the traditional model. On Kibbutz Ga’aton, which has changed with the times, the building which housed the old communal dining hall is being renovated – and new dance studios, such as this one, are being created. Company dancers rent housing on the kibbutz, and though in the early years they labored on the kibbutz like other residents, now they work full-time as professional dancers.

The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company was founded in 1970 by Yehudit Arnon, who moved to Kibbutz Ga’aton in 1948 after surviving the Holocaust and studying dance in Europe.  Under her direction, the group – known in Israel as the “Kibbutzit” – performed works by leading Israeli and foreign choreographers.  The company toured all over the world and has the posters to prove it!

As I followed the strains of piano music past these posters and into another set of studios, Yehudit – who still serves as the company’s artistic adviser – poked her head out of her office and invited me to watch a bit of the company’s ballet class.  It was a wonderful surprise to meet her and a great treat to see the dancers warming up.  But for what, may you ask, were the dancers preparing? It was 4:15 p.m. when I spied them doing petit allegro!

At 5:00, the company was scheduled to do an open rehearsal of Rami Be’er’s newest work, 60 Hz, which will premiere next week at the opera house in Tel Aviv.  Rami was born on Kibbutz Ga’aton and, as Yehudit proudly told me, he studied dance with her when was a young boy.  A former dancer with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, he has been its artistic director and primary choreographer since 1996.

I went next door with Yehudit to a small, new theater for the open rehearsal.  Residents of the kibbutz and company staff members filtered into the space, and many of them came over to Yehudit to exchange warm hellos and hugs.   We settled into front row seats and readied ourselves for the run of the dance – which, as with the other works of Rami’s that I have seen, combined highly athletic choreography with visually stunning sets and beautifully designed lighting.

Since the open rehearsal I saw this summer, 60 Hz has been
performed throughout Israel.  The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
will bring this production to the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv
from December 29-31.

Todah rabah to Racheli and everyone who helped make my schlep to the north well worth it!

* * *

You can learn more by visiting the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company’s website and the website for the Galilee Dance Village, an evolving project which will make Ga’aton an even more vibrant center for dance in Israel.   And as always, visit Dance In Israel again for more articles about KCDC coming soon!

*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.

]]> http://www.danceinisrael.com/2008/12/the-kibbutz-contemporary-dance-company-travel-journal/feed/ 5 http://www.danceinisrael.com/2008/12/vertigo-dance-company-art-environment-community/ http://www.danceinisrael.com/2008/12/vertigo-dance-company-art-environment-community/#comments Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:15:37 +0000 Deborah Friedes Galili http://thewinger.com/words/2008/art-environment-community-vertigo-dance-company/

A sign pointing towards Vertigo Dance Company’s studio on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey.

With a wealth of theaters and studios, Tel Aviv and its surroundings serve as the logical home to most of Israel’s choreographers and dance companies.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jerusalem is a distant but growing second center.  But it’s not only Israel’s urban areas that attract dancers.  Scattered across the country’s more rural landscape, three unique dance communities are thriving: the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and Galilee Dance Village in the north, Adama in the desert south, and the more centrally located Vertigo Dance Company.

I ventured out of Tel Aviv to visit each of these company/communities during my initial survey of Israeli contemporary dance, and I will share the sights from my journeys with photo journals.  This week we’ll start with my trip to Vertigo Dance Company‘s Eco-Art Village on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey.  I first published this photo journal of my trip to the Eco-Art Village on The Winger on May 23, 2008.

* * *

Vertigo’s building.

Vertigo’s gorgeous, spacious studio.

A view from the studio – farm equipment and all!

It’s not often that you gaze out the window of a dance studio and see tractors with bales of hay – but during my visit to the Vertigo Dance Company on Sunday (May 18, 2008), that’s exactly what I saw. Located in Israel’s Elah Valley near the town of Beit Shemesh, Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey is home to the new Eco-Art Village, an intentional community of environmentally-friendly artists pioneered by Vertigo’s directors Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al.  While Vertigo still maintains a studio and school in Jerusalem, its original home, the company now rehearses in the peaceful environs of the kibbutz.

When I was there on Sunday, I observed a rehearsal of Noa’s latest work, Ra’ash Levan (White Noise). The dance’s movement vocabulary – with influences from ballet, release technique, contact improvisation, and martial arts – kept me focused on the activity within the studio despite the temptation to look out the windows at the unfamiliar and beautiful surroundings. I returned to the Eco-Art Village on Tuesday for a school performance of Birth of the Phoenix. Premiered in 2004, Birth of the Phoenix is a site-specific work in which the company dances on a special dirt floor under a geodesic dome that is re-constructed for each show (the group has performed the work hundreds of times in Israel and abroad). Like White Noise, this work is extremely athletic with plenty of floorwork, soaring jumps, and partnering – and seeing the dancers throw themselves (at times literally!) into such full-bodied movement on a dirt floor was inspiring.

Here are a few photos to give you a sense of the setting for Birth of the Phoenix:

Me outside the geodesic dome for Vertigo’s Birth of the Phoenix

Inside the dome before the performance.

* * *

Want to know more about some of the dances I mentioned in this post?  For more on White Noise, you can visit Vertigo’s site about the production and read Henia Rottenberg’s in-depth article about the dance.  Visit Vertigo Dance Company’s main site to find out more information about The Birth of the Phoenix. Finally, stay tuned to Dance In Israel for more articles on Vertigo and for an audio podcast with Noa Wertheim!

*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.

(Improvisation at the Ramat Aviv Mall – Hila Carmel’s video of Lior Ophir’s performance in public spaces class during the 2007 contact festival)

In a mere two months of writing this blog, I have already posted about three festivals (Tel Aviv Dance, Machol Shalem, and Curtain Up). On December 16th, yet another festival will begin: the Israeli Contact Festival.

Whereas the other festivals focus on performances, this three-week festival centers on participation, with people gathering from around the country – and the world – to take part in contact improvisation classes, workshops, and jams. Last year I went to both the opening and closing jams, and I wrote about them for my own blog on December 4, 2007.  Below is my report from the field and another video from the 2006 Greenhouse, so read on . . .

* * *

(Photo: Vertigo’s studio, the site of the opening contact jam)

Most of my dancing and concert-going has remained within the city limits of Tel Aviv-Yafo, but on Friday November 23, I traveled to Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey near the town of Bet Shemesh for an evening of dance. Vertigo Dance Company recently opened a beautiful studio as part of the Eco-Art Village there, and their second company performed excerpts from Birth of the Phoenix at the opening the three-week International Contact Improvisation Festival. There was a wonderful communal energy in the open space, with visitors from around the world sharing in a vegetarian spread, enjoying the youthful energy of the Vertigo 2 dancers, joining in physical mixers led by Vertigo’s co-director Adi Sha’al, and jamming until the wee hours when some of us returned to Tel Aviv and others curled up into sleeping bags at the back of the space.

Participants in the contact festival traveled around Israel for a week before settling into Tel Aviv last Thursday for a round of workshops, master classes, and evening jams. Monday night (December 3, 2007) was the final jam in the city, and I joined a large crowd – maybe 200 people? – for this event, held in a large gym in the Kiryat Shalom neighborhood of Tel Aviv. A set of witty improvised performances kicked off the evening around 8:30 p.m., and after a massive group warm-up, we jammed to live music that was at times mellow and at times energizing. The crowd thinned by the time I left at 1:00 a.m., but there were still duets spread out through the space with no sign of stopping.

* * *

Some participants moved to the Galilee after their week in Tel Aviv to live and dance together for the “Greenhouse” portion of the festival.  While I did not make it there myself, you can get a feel for the festival’s special spirit by watching Fernando Feder’s video from the 2006 Greenhouse below.

(Fernando Feder’s video from the Greenhouse during the 2006 contact festival)

Read “Making Contact: Contact Improvisation in Israel” for more about this topic.