Dance In Israel » Monger

Barak Marshall’s “Rooster”

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:37:12 +0000

Video: Barak Marshall’s Rooster

Another guest at International Exposure 2009, Talia Baruch, covers the San Francisco-area dance scene for her blog GoSee– Dance. She wrote some reviews of dances she saw here in Israel in December for her website and is generously sharing them here on Dance In Israel.

Talia’s third article is about Barak Marshall’s Rooster, which was a hit at both Tel Aviv Dance 2009 and International Exposure 2009. Read below to learn more rich background about Rooster and to hear Talia’s take on the work.

* * *

International Exposure 2009 — Suzanne Dellal Center | Barak Marshall

By Talia Baruch

ROOSTER

Co-production of Israeli Opera and the Suzanne Dellal Center

This dance-theater piece is based on I.L. Peretz’s Bontsha the Silent, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and on stories from the Bible and Yemenite folklore.

“Here on earth the death of Bontsha the Silent made no impression at all. Ask anyone: Who was Bontsha, how did he live, and how did he die? Did his strength slowly fade, did his heart slowly give out, or did the very marrow of his bones melt under the weight of his burdens? Who knows?

Bontsha was a human being; he lived unknown, in silence, and in silence he died. He passed through our world like a shadow. When Bontsha was born no one took a drink of wine; there was no sound of glasses clinking. When he was confirmed he made no speech of celebration. He existed like a grain of sand at the rim of a vast ocean, amid millions of other grains of sand exactly similar, and when the wind at last lifted him up and carried him across to the other shore of that ocean, no one noticed, no one at all.”

I.L. Peretz, from Bontsha the Silent

After watching a bounty of dance performances back-to-back at the 2009 International Exposure Dance Festival/Suzanne Dellal Center, it was Rooster that hit home and made me go see the show a second time the following week.

Barak Marshall’s Rooster. Photo by Kfir Bolotin.

Rooster opens with the night chirps of grasshoppers and ends with the twitter of morning birds. The events unfold in & out one night. One night that digests interactions in a Kafkan sequence, that throws in the mix Theater of the Absurd, Vaudeville and Greek Mythology, that reels in Balkan, Gypsy, Middle-Eastern and American-Yiddish tunes, all mashed up into one burning stew.

The show reveals a man’s subconscious stream of thoughts under the spell of a dream. And trailing through this flow of feverish thoughts is the vivid image of the Rooster, which also means Gever (“man”) in Hebrew. The allusion to the story of I.L. Peretz’ Bontsha the Silent, implies Barak’s appeal for self-assertion: “trust your desires and act on them.”

The Rooster, with its flamboyant erected cockscomb and fluttering feathers — pecking, idling, roosting, kakadoodledooing — mirrors the villagers: their rapacious jealousy, pestering gossip, vaunting vanity.

And in all that chaos of color and cruelty and caring, of plucked feathers, warm embraces and longing to our womb roots, there lays the connection between hen and human. Being chicken — fearful; plucking feathers — slaughter; Tarnegol Kaparot — sacrifice (the Jewish ritual of sacrificing a rooster for atonement); and the forever existential loop: Which came first, chicken or egg?

Barak Marshall’s Rooster. Photo by Avi Avin.

Barak Marshall was born in Los Angeles to a Yemenite Israeli performer — Margalit Oved — founder of the Inbal Theater Dance Company. Barak, a true auteur, nursed on the rich brew of his cultural diversity. In his creative work, he draws themes, flavors and voices from the exotic ingredients that nourish his roots. He peppers his staged art with implied Jewish heritage, Yemenite folklore and biblical text, like the excerpt noting the twelve tribes (this piece is written for twelve dancers).

Barak created Rooster for the 2009 Tel Aviv Dance Festival, after the great success of his former piece — Monger — featured at the 2008 Tel Aviv Dance Festival.

Talia Baruch is a writer and translator covering the dance/theater scene in San Francisco, where she has been living for the past 11 years. She is the founder of Copyous, providing creative copywriting and Localization Strategies. The ingredients that shaped her life are the explosive dance scene in urban Tel Aviv, where she grew up, the pea-green English country side, where she inhaled a handsome amount of fresh-manure & horseback-countered through endless woods, and the 24/7 Localization/Internationalization business bustle, that put perspective to it all. www.copyous.com

* * *

Interview with Barak Marshall: Dancing between Israel and America (Podcast) (Part 1)

Deborah Friedes Galili — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:16:03 +0000

Barak Marshall in Aunt Leah. Photo courtesy of Barak Marshall.

(You can subscribe to this podcast using the iTunes software by clicking this link to the podcast feed.)

When we sat down to talk in January 2009, I discovered that a conversation with Barak Marshall is very similar to his choreography: fast-paced, peppered with diverse cultural references, and chock-full of attention-grabbing details. These qualities had captured my eye when I saw the premiere of Monger, and when I saw a rare restaging of Barak’s first work, Aunt Leah, I realized these were hallmarks of his craft since the day he stepped into the studio.

As we cafe-hopped in bustling central Tel Aviv during a Friday afternoon, Barak and I delved into a deep, lively discussion covering both his own choreography and the larger context of contemporary dance. Join us for the first part of our interview as Barak talks about his background, his connection to Inbal Dance Theater and Yemenite dance, and the trajectory of his early career from the making of Aunt Leah to his appointment as the house choreographer for Batsheva Dance Company in 1999. Barak, who splits his time between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles, also reflects on the development of Israeli contemporary dance and differences between the dance scenes in Israel and the U.S.

Barak Marshall’s Emma Goldman’s Wedding. Photo courtesy of Barak Marshall.

From left: Margalit Oved in Barak Marshall’s The Land of Sad Oranges (photo courtesy of Barak Marshall); Margalit Oved in Barak Marshall’s Rooster (photo by Adi Mazan)

In our interview, Barak explained that his mother, Inbal Dance Theater star Margalit Oved, often served as a Greek chorus in his works. Now Margalit is reprising this role in Barak’s new Rooster, which premieres on November 12-13 as part of Tel Aviv Dance 2009. Check out the excerpt below and head over to Tel Aviv’s Opera House to see the full work!

Video: Barak Marshall’s Rooster

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in October

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:09:16 +0000

Video: Maria Kong’s Fling

As usual, there are lots of dance performances happening in Israel’s dance scene this month – but as I looked at the calendar, I realized that October is packed with several extra-special events. Below are some teasers for premieres, festivals, foreign tours, online contests, and more. For additional information about the following events and other performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars.

Israeli Dance at Home

The members of Maria Kong. Photo by ASCAF.

Four former Batsheva dancers – Anderson Braz, Leo Lerus, Ya’ara Moses, and Talia Landa – make up Maria Kong, a new company which debuted fling last month to sold-out crowds. Now in its second run at the Nachmani Theater in Tel Aviv until October 10 and with a third set of shows planned for November 9-15, fling is clearly here to stay. 3-D projections, stunning costumes, and a striking score of both live and recorded music set an otherworldly mood for the work, but it’s the group’s supremely dynamic movement and supercharged stage presence which gives fling a lasting impact.

Shlomit Fundaminsky in La Divina. Photo by Aviv Zemer.

In honor of Tmuna Theater’s 29th anniversary, this month’s performances at the Tel Aviv institution are priced at a mere 29 shekels (that’s roughly $8!). Participating choreographers and dance groups include Shlomit Fundaminsky, Hagit Yakira, Ensemble Maya and Tomer, Acco Dance Center, Anat Shamgar, Efrat Reuven, Benyamin Yagendorf, Elad Ben-Sasson, Inbal Shachar, Tzachi Cohen, Shai Faran, Aviv Eveguy, and Maya Brenner. Hear about Shlomit’s work in Shlomit Fundaminsky: An Interview about Improvisation and Israeli Life.

Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer. Photo by Matyas Krotziger.

Yossi Berg and Oded Graf are presenting their new 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer at the Lab in Jerusalem on October 14-15 and at the Inbal Theater in Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dellal Center on October 16-17. This often humorous exploration of the idealized man won rave reviews when it premiered this summer in Germany and Poland, and now the choreographers have revamped their work with a cast of standout Israeli dancers: Hillel Kogan, Irad Matzliach, and Yossi Berg and Oded Graf themselves.

Barak Marshall’s Rooster premieres in Tel Aviv Dance 2009. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

October means it’s time for the Tel Aviv Dance festival! This festival brings some of the hottest names in dance from around the world to the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Tel Aviv Opera House. Stay tuned to Dance In Israel for more on Tel Aviv Dance 2009, which runs from October 16 through November 13 – and if you’re nostalgic, you can reread my preview of Tel Aviv Dance 2008. Last year Barak Marshall’s Monger was a big hit when it opened Tel Aviv Dance, and this year, his new work Rooster will close the festival.

In partnership with the Israeli hotel chain Isrotel, the Batsheva Dance Company is presenting the 6th Phaza Morgana Festival in Timna National Park, Eilat from October 22-24. This year’s festival includes Take Two, a program featuring choreography by Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal; Anaphaza, one of Ohad Naharin’s iconic works; and a special appearance by the Idan Raichel Project. Check out my most recent article on Batsheva, Batsheva Dance Company: From Graham to Gaga, for background on the company and a list of other related articles about the group.

Israeli Dance Abroad

Whether you’re in Europe, the United States, or Asia, there’s something coming your way this month . . . .

Barak Marshall’s Monger. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Barak Marshall’s production of Monger kicked off this month with a trip to Seoul and Daego, South Korea; the final performance of this tour is October 7th.

Video: Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s Heroes.

Besides presenting their 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer in Israel, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf are taking Heroes to the N.O.W. Festival in Saarbrucken, Germany on October 10. The pair returns to Staatsheater Kassel, Germany for an October 25 showing of a new creation, Fairy Tales, which has its official world premiere in December.

Iris Erez in Arkadi Zaides’s Solo Colores. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

From October 11 until the 25, Arkadi Zaides is touring with Solo Colores and Solo Siento in Asia. After showing Solo Colores at the Shanghai Dance Festival in Shanghai, both works will be performed in Taipei at the Kuan Du Arts Festival and then in Tokyo. For more about these works, check out my article Arkadi Zaides: Community Connections and Stunning Solos.

Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation will be performed in Prague on October 11-12 as part of 4+4 Days in Motion, and on the 28th-29th, the work will be part of TANZ IN BERN in Bern, Switzerland. Read more about Yasmeen’s work in Close Encounters Series: Yasmeen Godder.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Hydra. Photo by Seto Hidemi.

The Inbal Pinto Dance Company takes Hydra to the Dance Umbrella Festival in London on October 18-19. The creators talked about the development of Hydra in my podcast Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination.

Gilat Amotz’s Empty Room. Photo by Lucky Trimmer, Berlin.

Gilat Amotz’s solo Empty Room will be performed in Masdanza, the International Contemporary Dance Festival of the Canary Islands. Empty Room is one of only 10 solos which were selected for this competition, which runs from October 17-24. Gilat’s choreography was also chosen to be included in the Masdanza Tenerife Festival at the Teatro Victoria in Santa Cruz in Tenerife from October 25-26.

As part of Nextbook’s Jewish Body Week, the Foundation for Jewish Culture is presenting an evening titled Contemporary Israeli Dance and the Reinvention of the Jewish Body at the JCC in Manhattan on October 22. Choreographers Deganit Shemy, Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance, and Saar Harari of LeeSaar: The Company will show excerpts of their work and participate in a panel discussion moderated by dance writer Elizabeth Zimmer. Read a bit about Deganit Shemy’s premiere of Arena at DTW last spring in From Writing to Talking about Dance, and find out about Andrea Miller’s connection to Israeli contemporary dance in Gallim Dance at Jacobs Pillow: Waves of Influence.

Rachel Erdos’s Alma. Photo from Gvanim Be’machol 2007.

Rachel Erdos is headed to the United States to set Alma on the Washington D.C.-based troupe CityDance Ensemble. Her work will be performed at the Kennedy Center as part of CityDance’s “Latitude” program on October 29-30. CityDance toured the Middle East last spring, and I caught up with them in east Jerusalem; read about their visit in CityDance in Jerusalem: Exploring the Gaps Between American and Israeli Dance.

Israeli Dance Online

Video: Michael Miler’s Speed of Light

Michael Miler’s Speed of Light is one of 10 finalists in the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest 2009. The winning entry will be performed at Sadler’s Wells in London in January 2010 as part of the program Sadler’s Wells Program. Like Speed of Light? Vote for it! Speed of Light caught my eye when it premiered at the Shades of Dance Festival last March; read my impressions in Behind the Scenes at Gvanim: Shades of Dance Festival .

* * *

For a calendar including these events and other performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars . Know of some other exciting event relating to Israeli dance in Israel or abroad? Leave a comment below with the details!

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.

* * *

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.

“Then and Now” Brings Old and New Together at Shades of Dance

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:13:05 +0000

Video: Then: Ronit Ziv’s Rose Can’t Wait, from the 1999 Shades of Dance Festival

On my way home from “Then and Now,” a special opening program of the Shades of Dance (Gvanim) festival, J.S. Bach’s Air on the G String played on my iPod. Immediately, images from a black-and-white film of choreographer Doris Humphrey’s Air for the G String flashed through my mind. Humphrey’s dance has not only been immortalized on film but stayed alive in reconstructions from Labanotation score; it’s a powerful reminder that choreography doesn’t need to be shelved a few years or even many decades after its premiere.

This was an appropriate vision after a concert which not only celebrated the new but paid tribute to the old. Opening a festival devoted to emerging choreographers, “Then and Now” featured excerpts of four dances which, in the days when the festival doubled as a competition, won the coveted first prize. Selections from Nir Ben Gal and Liat Dror’s Two-Room Apartment (1987), Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al’s Vertigo (1992), Barak Marshall’s Aunt Leah (1995), and Ronit Ziv’s Rose Can’t Wait (1999) shared the stage with excerpts from the choreographers’ latest dances.

These works were met with an extremely warm reception, and I’m sure that the choreographers’ own performances contributed to the excitement. The prolonged unison and matter-of-fact manners of Nir Ben Gal and Liat Dror, the high-speed actions and reactions of Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al, and the daring physicality of Ronit Ziv and fellow dancer Noa Rosenthal were riveting to watch – especially because, in the case of Nir & Liat and Noa & Adi, these choreographers no longer perform on a regular basis. (( Barak Marshall, who is now based part-time in L.A., was not in Israel for this performance. ))

Yet part of the thrill was the return of these older works to the stage. Other than Aunt Leah, which was restaged at the Inbal Dance Theater in autumn 2008, these dances are not in active repertory. Some devoted, longtime dance-goers may have remembered these works, but for many audience members, this was the first chance to see the highly original and even audacious dances which propelled these choreographers into the upper echelon of Israeli contemporary dance. The showing was also an extraordinary opportunity for me to reflect on the trademark styles and artistic development of these choreographers, to better understand their more recent works which have graced the stage in the last two seasons.

There simply aren’t enough occasions to see older works here in Israel. A few of the larger groups like the Batsheva Dance Company and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company have happily shown some repertory from decades past (albeit sometimes in excerpt form, as when Ohad Naharin recombines parts of various pieces in Deca Dance). Yet most choreographers who work outside of these institutions are primarily putting their most recent works onstage, perhaps because of more limited resources and a series of festivals which spur the creation of new works. If the choreographers themselves don’t mount their earlier dances, no one else will. The country does not have an established repertory company whose mission is to celebrate Israeli-made choreography both past and present. Nor is there a network of university dance departments which might reconstruct earlier dances or invite choreographers to set their older repertory on students, as there is in the U.S. (( There are many fine high school dance departments in Israel and they do often bring in independent choreographers, but these departments are rarely if ever staging older works from the 1980s and 1990s. ))

If this system continues unchanged, the early – and in some cases significant – works by Israel’s contemporary choreographers may be lost. But I believe this is avoidable. While modern dance’s roots in this region stretch as far back as the 1920s, the real blossoming of Israeli contemporary dance is not that distant. It is far easier to unearth a dance made twenty years ago than one created eighty years ago. Indeed, the Israeli artists who, during the 1980s and 1990s, triumphed in establishing a thriving independent dance scene are still active in the field and capable of setting their early choreography given the opportunity.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m certainly in favor of celebrating the new. The constant push for creation advances the art form forward; to only perform older work would lead to stagnation. Yet I believe that the field could benefit from the revival and repeated performance of earlier works, which can educate and inspire audiences and dance professionals alike.

I hope that Shades of Dance will make this opening performance of old and new works a tradition so that we can witness the power of choreographic breakthroughs firsthand. Twenty years from now, perhaps audiences will be treated to another viewing of Shaked Dagan’s We Are Going Back, Michael Miler’s The Speed of Light, or Ronen and Tami Yitzhaki’s This Time, which premiered in this year’s festival and caught my eye. And I wish that more support – be it through festivals, dance departments, or other funding mechanisms – will enable choreographers to restage their acclaimed earlier repertory sooner rather than later. Dances which merit a place in history also deserve to live in the bodies of dancers and the eyes of viewers.

Video: Now: Ronit Ziv’s La Femme A, La Femme B

International Exposure Sends Israeli Dance Around the World

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:10:30 +0000

(Photo: Barak Marshall’s Monger has been invited to tour abroad. Photo by Gadi Dagon.)

Ynet, the website for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, announced this week that International Exposure has already yielded invitations for several Israeli choreographers to travel abroad. I’ve gleaned the following information from Ynet’s Hebrew article.

Barak Marshall’s production, Monger, proved to be a big hit among the visitors to International Exposure. It will tour to Spain, Switzerland, Croatia, and Romania this spring. The dance will later be shown at the Joyce Theater in New York and at the 2010 Dance Umbrella Festival in London.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Hydra also attracted the attention of several International Exposure attendees. The Inbal Pinto Dance Company will tour this work to England (Dance Umbrella Festival), the United States (American Dance Festival), and Canada (Montreal’s dance festival).

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, which already is scheduled to tour part of Europe this spring, has been invited to the Sibiu International Festival this May in Romania. The company will also present its production of Peter and the Wolf at a children’s festival in Seoul, Korea, and they will create a new project in conjunction with the International Dance Festival Bytom in Poland.

Several independent choreographers also received offers to perform abroad. See below for videos and details:

Video: Nadine Bommer’s Manimation was a crowd-pleaser at International Exposure. Bommer’s company will join the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company at Romania’s Sibiu International Festival.

Video: Sahar Azimi’s Come Feel. Sahar Azimi has been invited to a festival in San Vincenti, Croatia; he will also create a new work for the Zagreb Dance Company.

Video: Idan Cohen’s A Year in a Fish Life was presented at International Exposure. Cohen will choreograph on the Silesian Dance Theatre in Poland.

Video: Adamdam by Arkadi Zaides. Portugal’s Duplacena Festival will showcase two of Arkadi Zaides’s works.

Video: Ov, by Renana Raz and Ofer Amram. This work will be performed at the Duplacena Festival in Portugal.

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Sahar Azimi
Nadine Bommer
Idan Cohen
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Rami Be’er)
Inbal Pinto Dance Company
Renana Raz
Arkadi Zaides

Snapshots from International Exposure 2008

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:51:04 +0000

Hydra by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak closed International Exposure. Photo by Seto Hidemi.

Most visitors to this year’s International Exposure were festival directors, arts presenters, diplomats, or critics. I, however, came as a researcher. With this festival – as with my other research activities – I sought to discover, to interpret, to understand. I searched for old connections and new pathways.

Featuring over 40 works, International Exposure was exactly the right place to look for the threads which tie together this country’s concert dance scene. The festival is a like a yearbook for Israeli dance. The offerings by each choreographer serve as the album’s individual portraits. Mixed bills drawn from some of the country’s other festivals (Curtain Up; Machol Acher/Other Dance Project) hint at the structure of the dance community, just as club pictures reveal a school’s cliques and groups. And with the 20+ concerts clustered together in a mere six days, it’s possible to see the trends which characterized much this year’s artistic output. (( It should be noted, though, that some choreographers were missing from this year’s International Exposure. Some well-established artists including Nimrod Freed, Anat Danieli, and Adama’s Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror did not present work at the festival. Meanwhile, younger independent choreographers are far greater in number than those represented onstage. ))

Indeed, International Exposure brought the dance scene into focus for me, clarifying and sharpening some observations I had started to form since my research began in 2007. Israel is a small country, the size where everyone in the dance community knows each other, and this shows – not only during the mingling at receptions. For instance, it’s worth noting just how many collaborations there are within the dance scene. Several pairs presented work: Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak, Yossi Berg & Oded Graf, Ya’ara Dolev & Amit Goldenberg, Renana Raz & Ofer Amram, and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor (with the participation of choreographer Ronit Ziv, who performed). (( Ronit Ziv wasn’t the only choreographer who performed in another artist’s work. Ya’ara Dolev danced in Michael Getman’s duet, while Getman in turn appeared in the work Dolev co-choreographed. Lazaro Godoy popped up in dances by Sahar Azimi, Maya Levi, and Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak. Although neither Nadar Rosano nor Iris Erez showed work this year, both choreographers danced in the festival (Rosano in Ronit Ziv’s choreography and Erez in Arkadi Zaides’s offering). ))

The fact that most choreographers are clustered in Tel Aviv probably facilitates this partnership, and it may also foster the cross-pollination of ideas in the work itself. At International Exposure, pure, abstract dance was trumped by theatricality and props (ranging from squeezy toys to green slime, with numerous pairs of shoes and other items in between). There was very little movement for movement’s sake, something I have noticed throughout my time here.

As for the movement itself, many of the dances were influenced by release technique. Assertive fast-paced partnering also dominated, especially in the trios and quartets which filled the four Curtain Up programs. The prevalence of contact improvisation in Israel also seems to have made its mark on how partnering is built.

Yet even as many of the works bore a similar aesthetic imprint, there were glimpses of what lies beyond the borders of contemporary dance in Israel. Elina Pechersky put belly dance on the concert stage, Tamar Borer mined the Japanese butoh tradition, and the Israel Ballet brought another flavor to the festival.

International Exposure may be over, but my research continues! I’m looking forward to talking with many of the choreographers I met at the festival in the months to come – and as my understanding of Israel’s concert dance scene develops, I’ll share more snapshots with you.

Snapshots from International Exposure 2008:

Top row: Barak Marshall’s Monger (photo by Gadi Dagon); Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s Bloody Disco (photo by Gadi Dagon)
Middle row: Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation (photo by Tamar Lamm); Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Post-Martha (photo by Ascaf)
Bottom row: Noa Wertheim’s White Noise (photo by Gadi Dagon); Noa Dar’s Tetris (photo by Tamar Lamm)

Useful Links

International Exposure 2008: Day 4

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:40:20 +0000

(Video: Barak Marshall’s Monger)

Just like the dancers, the audience is moving around a lot today at International Exposure.

Our day kicks off at 11:00 a.m. in a high energy fashion with Rami Be’er’s 60 Hz, performed by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in the Suzanne Dellal Hall. Afterwards, we’ll walk across the plaza to the Inbal Dance Theater for Sahar Azimi’s Torus. Then we move to the complex’s third theater, the Yerushalmi Hall, for the Other Dance Project: Yuval Shalem’s If Not a Flag, Then a Sandwich, Lazaro Godoy’s Jugo de Limon, Gyula Csakvari’s Amarili, and Eyal Munteanu’s Limits.

For our next move, we’ll head over to the reception tent for a traditional Kabbalat Shabbat, the welcoming of the Sabbath. After this brief break, we’re on the go again. Our next stop is Kibbutz Yakum for a performance by the Israel Ballet; the company will be performing Xta and Ni-Na by artistic director Berta Yampolsky.

Back in Tel Aviv, we’ll walk through Neve Tsedek to the Tavi Dresner Gallery for Solo Colores by Arkadi Zaides. And finally, we’ll end up right back where we started: the Suzanne Dellal Center’s main hall. Barak Marshall’s Monger, which premiered at this year’s Tel Aviv Dance festival, will complete our busy day.

See below for more video and links.

Here’s another clip of what we’ll see today:

(Video: Eyal Munteanu’s Limits)

Tel Aviv Dance 2008

Deborah Friedes Galili — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:46:43 +0000

Excertps from Barak Marshall’s new dance, Monger.

Tel Aviv Dance 2008 is bringing companies from all over the world to stages throughout the city from October 23 to November 22. This weekend is the premiere of Barak Marshall’s highly anticipated Monger at the Suzanne Dellal Center. The L.A.-based Marshall – who has lived in both Israel and in the U.S., where he most recently has been affiliated with UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures – stopped choreographing 8 years ago after an injury. His choreography in the 1990s generated a major buzz in Israel and garnered several awards, so devoted dance-goers here will likely flock to the theater for this event.

I too am eager to attend a performance of Monger. Many people recommended Marshall’s work to me last year, but I could only see a few snippets of his choreography at the Dance Library of Israel. These videos and the frequent mentions of his name piqued my interest. I was also intrigued by the fact that Marshall was the son of Margalit Oved, a choreographer and key dancer with the Yemenite dance troupe Inbal in its heyday. After reading Helen Kaye’s preview of Monger in the Jerusalem Post, I’m looking forward more than ever to seeing Marshall’s choreography.

If you are reading this in Israel and want to go to the theater – or if you’re somewhere else in the world and just want to know more – there are a few online resources about Tel Aviv Dance and Barak Marshall’s new work. The Suzanne Dellal Center has an English-language schedule for Tel Aviv Dance 2008 with descriptions of the concert offerings, bios, and photos. There is also an article about the Tel Aviv Dance festival by Ori J. Lenkinski in the Jerusalem Post, with special mention both of Barak Marshall and of the visiting American company Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Cedar Lake has performed Ohad Naharin’s Decadance in the U.S., and they will include some excerpts of this piece in their program this week at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center (the opera house).

Dance In Israel » Monger

Barak Marshall’s “Rooster”

International Exposure 2009 — Suzanne Dellal Center | Barak Marshall

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Related Links

Interview with Barak Marshall: Dancing between Israel and America (Podcast) (Part 1)

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

Related Links

Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in October

Israeli Dance at Home

Israeli Dance Abroad

Israeli Dance Online

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Related Links

Remembering Big Performances at Suzanne Dellal’s Big Stage

Big Performances

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Related Links

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

The Big Stage Schedule

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Related Links

“Then and Now” Brings Old and New Together at Shades of Dance

Related articles on Dance In Israel:

International Exposure Sends Israeli Dance Around the World

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Other Useful Links

Snapshots from International Exposure 2008

Useful Links

International Exposure 2008: Day 4

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Other Useful Links

Tel Aviv Dance 2008