Dance In Israel » Noa Wertheim

International Exposure 2010: Video Preview

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:24:29 +0000

Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror’s Terminal B. Photo by Naama Nada.

Even though December has started and the shelves of Tel Aviv’s bakeries are lined with sufganiot, the jelly donuts traditionally eaten during Hanukkah, many of Tel Aviv’s residents are still walking around in tank tops and sandals. Unusually hot days and sunny skies have made it easy for the masses to pretend that summer never ended. But for those of us who follow the dance field, there is no denying that the calendar year is coming to a close. The tip-off is in the posters and fliers on display at Suzanne Dellal as well as the press releases and invitations received via e-mail, all announcing the arrival of the annual showcase of Israeli dance: International Exposure.

Nimrod Freed’s Flash. Photo by Itamar Freed.

The exact shape and scope of International Exposure have shifted since its first incarnation sixteen years ago. For many years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it operated in conjunction with Curtain Up, the country’s premiere platform for new works by independent choreographers. The festival has stretched over a varying number of days and welcomed crowds both intimate and large. But throughout, the goal has remained the same: to display the wealth of works premiered over the past year to foreign arts presenters, dignitaries, and journalists in the hopes of sending Israeli dance around the world.

Orly Portal’s Gnawia

International Exposure 2010 will run from Wednesday, December 8 through Sunday, December 12, and the schedule features an enticing array of established companies and independent choreographers. Most of the programs will take place at the Suzanne Dellal Centre, but a number of concerts and informal showings will take place at other performance venues and studios. And while some of the events are offered only to the festival’s guests, many of the shows are open to the public. Below is a guide to the events that are accessible to local dance lovers (and a sneak peek at International Exposure for those of you who are not in town). All shows are at Suzanne Dellal unless otherwise noted.

Wednesday, December 8

Video: Ohad Naharin’s Kyr/Zina

International Exposure starts out with the Batsheva Ensemble, the Batsheva Dance Company’s junior division, performing Ohad Naharin’s Kyr/Zina at 20:00.

Thursday, December 9

Rami Be’er’s Transform. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

International Exposure’s first full day kicks off at 11:00 with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Rami Be’er’s new Transform, which premiered during the international Tel Aviv Dance festival this past fall.

Curtain Up 2010 will be represented by three separate bills shown at 16:00, 19:00, and 22:30.

Video: Tamar Borer and Tamara Erde’s Ana

Thursday’s offerings also include a performance of Tamar Borer and Tamara Erde’s latest collaboration, Ana, at 20:30.

Friday, December 10

Friday’s programming includes a fair amount of moving about to different theaters in the area.

Video: The Project in Jacopo Godani’s Light Years.

At 14:00, The Project – a joint initiative by the Suzanne Dellal Centre and the Israeli Opera – will present a mixed bill at the Opera House in the heart of Tel Aviv. The program includes Emanuel Gat’s Through the Center, Jacopo Godani’s Light Years, and Marco Goeke’s Supernova.

Video: Vertigo in Mana

Vertigo Dance Company presents a hit from last year, Mana, at the Givatayim Theater at 17:00. Choreographed by Noa Wertheim, Mana premiered during the twentieth anniversary of the Curtain Up festival.

Video: Maria Kong in Miss Brazil

Maria Kong reprises its program from the Tel Aviv Dance festival, Miss Brazil, at 21:00 at Suzanne Dellal. The company’s four founders – Anderson Braz, Talia Landa, Leo Lerus, and Ya’ara Moses – collaborated on the first half of the bill, Miss, while guest choreographer Idan Cohen contributed the second half, Brazil.

Saturday, December 11

Saturday is primarily a day of mixed bills, titled Exposures, that feature both shorter dances in their entirety alongside excerpts from full-evening works.

Video: Yoram Karmi’s Particle Accelerator

Exposure 1, at 11:00, features Fresco Dance Group in an excerpt from the evening-length Particle Accelerator. The bill is rounded out by Rachel Erdos’s OU’.

Video: Rachel Erdos’s OU’

Odelya Kuperberg’s Tzitzushka.

At 13:00, Exposure 2 will include Odelya Kuperberg’s Tzitzushka and a new work from Idan Sharabi.

Video: Liat Dror’s Terminal B

Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror bring their company from Mizpe Ramon to show Dror’s Terminal B at 14:00.

Video: Mami Shimazaki’s Loop People

At 15:00, Mami Shimizaki’s Loop People shares the bill with Orly Portal’s Gnawia in Exposure 3.

Video: Kamea Dance Company in Tamir Ginz’s Srul

The day finishes at 22:30 with Exposure 4, featuring Kamea Dance Company in an excerpt from Tamir Ginz’s Srul along with Nimrod Freed’s Flash.

Sunday, December 12

Video: Sharon Eyal’s Bill

After a whirlwind of performances, International Exposure 2010 closes with Batsheva Dance Company in Sharon Eyal’s Bill.

More About Vertigo Dance Company & the Eco-Art Village

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:11:55 +0000

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

With a studio in Jerusalem rather than Tel Aviv and another home base in the form of an Eco-Art Village on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey, Vertigo Dance Company is certainly far from ordinary. But what makes Vertigo even more of a standout is the exceptional artistry and socially conscious vision of its artistic directors, Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al.

From the very start, the couple’s striking choreography made an impression on the local dance scene. The pair’s first duet, Vertigo, drew not only from Sha’al’s own experience in the air force but also considered the feeling of dizziness within the context of personal relationships; the work garnered them the 1992 On the Way to London award from the British Council. The following year, their multimedia duet Contact Lenses won the first prize in the prestigious Shades of Dance festival for emerging choreographers.

As Wertheim and Sha’al expanded the ensemble of their Vertigo Dance Company, they became known for making daringly athletic work that explored deeply human issues. The company’s repertory also shattered the conventions of traditional concert dance. The Power of Balance (2001), a collaboration with British choreographer Adam Benjamin, integrated the group’s regular roster of dancers with disabled dancers. Placing mankind’s relationship to the environment at its core, Birth of the Phoenix (2004) abandoned the theater for the outdoors, with the dancers performing on a dirt ground under a geodesic dome.

In June, Vertigo performed a trilogy of recent works – the iconic Birth of the Phoenix, the supremely energetic White Noise (2008), and the magnificent Mana (2009) – at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. Now the company is bringing these three stellar dances to the Suzanne Dellal Center as part of the SummerDance 2010 festival with performances running from August 2 to August 4. As a bonus, the performance of White Noise on June 3 will be followed by a meeting with the artists.

Want to learn more about this unique group? Here are several videos with footage of interviews at the Eco-Art Village and the dances from the trilogy as well as Vertigo and Noa Wertheim’s appearance at the TedxTelAviv event.

Below is a video about Vertigo Dance Company’s Eco-Art Village, with brief clips primarily of Noa Wertheim’s Birth of the Phoenix.

In this next video, artistic directors Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al as well as some of Vertigo’s dancers talk about working in the Eco-Art Village. Many of the dance excerpts are from Wertheim’s White Noise.

Vertigo and Noa Wertheim were part of TedxTelAviv, which was held on April 26, 2010 at the Jaffa port. The video below includes an excerpt from White Noise, followed by Wertheim discussing her move to the Eco-Art Village and her philosophy. The video closes with an excerpt of Mana.

Vertigo Dance Company: A Conversation with Choreographer Noa Wertheim

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:11:30 +0000

Adi Sha’al and Noa Wertheim of Vertigo Dance Company. Photo by Eyal Landesman.

(This podcast was initially produced for Israel Seen in 2008. You can subscribe to this podcast using the iTunes software by clicking this link to the podcast feed.)

As I have traveled through Israel’s dance circles, I have run into Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al many times: at Vertigo Dance Company’s concerts at the Suzanne Dellal Center, at contact jams, and at a performance of Noa’s work on students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. With their company, their school in Jerusalem, and their growing artist village on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey, this dynamic couple is a powerful force in the Israeli contemporary dance scene. They’re also revolutionary in their community-centered and environmentally-conscious approach to dance.

Video: Vertigo Dance Company’s Birth of the Phoenix

In this interview, held in the spring of 2008, Noa talks about raising a family while directing a company, building the Eco-Art Village, choreographing the site-specific environmental dance Birth of the Phoenix, and engaging in “tikkun olam” – healing the world – through her work.

Noa Wertheim’s White Noise. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

When we spoke two years ago, Noa was mounting her White Noise, and in the fall of 2009, she premiered her Mana at the Curtain Up Festival. Along with her iconic Birth of the Phoenix, these two works are now being performed by Vertigo at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem.

Other Podcasts on Dance In Israel

Israel Festival 2010

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

ISRAEL FESTIVAL 2010 from ISRAEL FESTIVAL on Vimeo.

Video: Preview of the Israel Festival 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s “Mana”

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:17:31 +0000

Video: Vertigo in Noa Wertheim’s Mana

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 second guest article is about Noa Wertheim’s Mana, which premiered as part of Curtain Up’s 20th anniversary and was a hit with the audience at International Exposure. Read on to hear Talia’s take on this captivating work.

* * *

International Exposure 2009—Suzanne Dellal Dance Center | Vertigo Dance Company

By Talia Baruch

MANA
Vessel of Light

Mana dances the tension between container and contained, exterior and interior, whole and hollow.

And what is installed first, vessel or light?
Does the Sun rise to fill in the absence of Moonlight, or rather is it the lack of Moonlight that creates the inspiration of its vessel, container of light?
(Based on the Zohar)

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

This timeless tale follows the flow in black and white, with few specks of ruddy-warm. The bewitching-dark night stands in still, mystical contrast to the milky-white house, symmetrically centered in its simple stable form on stage.

Geometric shapes will now act out the dialogue between feminine and masculine, draw the drama between the forces of life that forever struggle to compliment each other:

Feminine: circular, soft black balloon, hanging like a full moon, up above the house

Masculine: pointy, sharp angular triangular roof, edgy rectangular door, protruding

Feminine: curve and crave in sensual, spiral hip-stirred movements

Masculine: stride, high-strung, across the stage in “connect-the-dot”-like linear routes

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Both forces aspire to escape the hollow and reach the whole in this quest to be holistically contained and content. The visual image interlaced throughout the show is of a black balloon attached to a dancer, pulling her up, tall, stretching out for perfection, her white legs long and strong, trotting like a royal horse in a parade.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

At first glance, the fully dressed, almost orthodox, costumes communicate a puritan, reserved modesty. But quite quickly, a bare foot peeking under heavy garment, an escaping white shoulder, a curving contour, a tight waistline, a hip, lend to a sensual, lustful, communication. The free-fall back bends and suicidal leaps shatter the quiet, restrained recital.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

The music drapes the dancers like a fitted gown, in sync, in tune. I play the soundtrack CD over and over and give in to the lyric mood quietly setting in. Ran Bagno, who has been working hand in hand with Vertigo’s mom and pap (Noa and Adi), wrote the score and played all the instruments, except for percussion, tapped by Dani Makov. I sit with Bagno over cappuccino on a sunny winter day in down town Tel Aviv and ask him about the creative process of piecing music for this show. “Unlike some other dances, Mana isn’t a collage of fragmented scenes,” he says, “rather, it’s composed as a single, comprehensive piece. When Noa came out with the idea of a ‘vessel holding light’ I struggled to find just the right musical instrument to fit in…until I stumbled over my kid’s old, abandoned guitar. Something about its virgin, broken, acoustic sound was perfect for infusing the muse.”

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Watching the fluid flow of movement on stage, I’m reminded of Alexander Calder’s art — capturing compound sketches in one single line stroke. The expression captured in Mana carries the visual aesthetics of calligraphy: fine brush, dipped in black ink, forms a black blotch over snow white paper. Then, in a single skilled hand, it drifts, pulling up tall, lying low, and spiraling all the way through.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Vertigo Dance Company founded the pea-green Eco Art Village, where they live and create in a little utopian planet of clean air and fresh manure: http://www.eco-artvillage.org/index_eng.asp. This might explain why their work is genuinely untainted, raw and earthly.

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

International Exposure 2009: A Perspective from Abroad

Deborah Friedes Galili — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:58:21 +0000

Video: Maya Brinner’s Red Ladies was one of several works exploring the individual within the group at International Exposure

A few weeks after International Exposure 2009, not only am I continuing to mull over some intriguing works that I saw, but I am still thinking about the many attendees I met and contemplating the conversations I had with them.

It was truly remarkable to see how many presenters were scoping out Israeli dance with the hopes of bringing Israeli choreographers or companies to their venues. The audience at International Exposure was well-informed, sophisticated, and worldly; its members were knowledgeable about the contemporary dance scene in their own home countries and had seen some of the latest productions from around the globe.

This diverse array of cultured visitors – and their well-informed observations – reinforced my own perception that there is indeed something especially appealing about Israeli contemporary dance. It was illuminating to talk to repeat attendees and learn that they found this year’s festival stronger than in previous years; it was also encouraging to speak with first-time visitors and discover that they found several works of interest.

I had several stimulating conversations about the festival with Brian Schaefer, a dance writer and administrator based in San Diego, California. He has generously written a thorough, thoughtful reflection on the festival for Dance In Israel, offering an invaluable perspective from outside the scene. Enjoy!

* * *

Seeing Israel through the Lens of Dance

By Brian Schaefer

Oil and water may be the most contentious of the commodities in the Middle East. But who says art can’t be a country’s natural resource as well?

Such is the purpose of International Exposure – a type of cultural trade fair to encourage the export of one of Israel’s most valuable products: its creativity. Each year for the past fifteen years, a flock of foreign presenters, managers, choreographers, and journalists has descended upon the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv to get a crash course in contemporary dance in Israel in the hopes that we fall in love with an artist or company and take them home with us to introduce them to our families, or rather, audiences. It’s souvenir shopping on an entirely different scale.

The Israeli Ministry of Culture brings us here to demonstrate the wealth of dance in Israel, show us Tel Aviv as an exciting, cosmopolitan city, and let us discover just how far Israel has come from the pioneering, agricultural days of the kibbutzim and sabras when Israeli dance meant communal folk gatherings, which is still how most Americans consider it. So the point of International Exposure is to destroy that myth and show us an Israel that is innovative and cutting-edge, both in its technology and in its art.

The process of actually bringing a company to the States is a complicated pas de deux that relies on a lot of other factors that come later on. But for now, for this week, it’s about seeing work. A lot of work. An exhausting amount of work.

Still, the experience is extraordinary. And the impact is powerful. Five days later, we leave with a semblance of an idea of what makes contemporary dance in Israel so vibrant. Without trying to lump everything together – after all, one of the strengths of the program is its diversity – there are a few noticeable characteristics, trends, and themes that emerge.

Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Big Mouth. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

It’s difficult as an outsider not to read too much about the regional conflicts into the work we see. Few artists, save perhaps for Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor who explicitly reference Israel’s military history in the engaging trio Big Mouth, admit to addressing politics in any way.

Yet as foreign critics and presenters who for the most part view Israel from the lens of international media, we inevitably look for ways that artists respond to their social surroundings. Maybe we look too much. But perhaps also the fact that such intentional reactions to the political environment are conspicuously lacking in so much of the work we saw is equally telling.

What we actually got in many instances was a complete departure from the realities of this world, and surprisingly often, we were thrust in to the realm of the absurd where the unexpected can occur at any moment, where things are never quite as they seem or can in an instant morph into something unrecognizable. The absurdity is also in the behavior, where over-the-top characters cavort about with exaggerated gestures, inhabiting fantasy worlds in extravagant costumes and bright make-up.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.

Perhaps no Israeli choreographers better encapsulate this aesthetic and sensibility than Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. At International Exposure, the duo showed excerpts from the company’s repertory, the charming Rushes, made a few years ago for the American company Pilobolus, and the new evening-length work Trout, created in 2008 in Norway. In each, the zany characters and extravagant sets and props transport audiences into an imaginary place that may resemble reality at times but clearly isn’t.

Barak Marshall’s Rooster. Photo by Kfir Bolotin.

In Barak Marshall’s Rooster, we took a colorful visit to the shtetls of the 19th century to witness a love triangle mixing stories from the Bible and Yemenite folklore with a period aesthetic and surreal scenes of, for example, a man “laying” eggs in his mouth. It’s a work that, while perhaps a bit unfocused and difficult to follow for non-Hebrew speakers, exudes energy and charm and provides a strong showcase for the performers.

Across the board (for the most part), International Exposure guests walked away with a deep appreciation for Israeli dancers, whose focus and commitment is a noticeable strength of the performances.

Other works that dove into the absurd included Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE, complete with the gutting of a stuffed creature resembling some combination of goat and lion, an unexpected shower of blue glitter, and a dramatic illuminated heart made of diagonal fluorescent tubes. Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s study in masculinity, 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer, also made use of a life-sized dead animal, raising peculiar questions about the role of taxidermy in Israeli society. Okay, not really, but seeing both works in one night gave something to think about.

Michal Herman Dance Group’s Fellowship, based on a short Kafka story, embodied absurdity in the extreme mannerisms of its characters and their exaggerated interactions, as did Irad Mazliah’s Unter den Linden.

While not necessarily “absurd,” Artour Astman & Ilana Bellahsen’s ArtLana presented the two artists as babies in a wide-eyed, charming duet. The grotesque masks in Noa Dar Dance Group’s Anu suggested something of the absurd but dealt more explicitly with another theme that was largely prevalent throughout the festival – the struggle between the urge for individual expression and the pressure to conform.

The aforementioned Big Mouth tackled the topic effectively as did Maya Brinner’s Red Ladies, which followed a trio of women from synchronized harmony to individual awareness and then group conflict.

But perhaps no dance company in the world embodies this tension between group cohesion and individual identity than the Batsheva Dance Company, whose new work Hora closed the festival.

Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s Hora. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Batsheva’s artistic director Ohad Naharin shifts quickly and effortlessly between complicated group sections, done in perfect unison (in a way that no other company can approach), to solos that marry abandon and control in surprising harmony. It’s a tactic utilized in several of his recent works, and just because it’s a recognizable pattern doesn’t mean its predictable. Yet here, the tool loses its impact. While past works like Shalosh (Three) or Mamootot, though still abstract, feel like they follow some sort of arc, Hora in comparison feels circular. At the end, we’re back at the beginning and as a result, it’s a bit harder to appreciate the journey, but then again, maybe that’s the point.

Naharin has always had eclectic music taste, easily moving from a traditional Passover song to the Beach Boys to soundscapes that he himself creates. In Hora, the score consists of some of the most recognizable and clichéd pieces of music by Strauss, Wagner, and John Williams borrowed from the archives or classic science-fiction films. Like the title of the work, Naharin challenges the audience to rearrange its reference points for the associations we have created throughout our lives.

As a result, he creates extremes of possibilities and the space in between where anything can happen and meaning is left ambiguous. Throwing viewers from one end of the spectrum to the other (from familiar to unfamiliar) with unrelated and nonsensical movements forces us to fill in the gaps of how they relate and what it all amounts to. And while you may not walk away with an answer, Batsheva ultimately leaves an impression that, indeed, there is something human within this controlled chaos after all.

I always get a sense, watching Batsheva, that there is something dark and explosive just under the surface, and that’s another thread that seemed to weave its way through the festival of Israeli choreographers and companies. Noa Dar’s Anu plunged suddenly into simulated rape, and Berg and Graf’s 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer similarly incorporated sexual violence into the narrative.

Rami Be’er’s poem Infrared, which is also the name of the work for his Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, follows multi-colored soldiers into a garden, which the over-produced performance suggested rather explicitly. The company appears to have a wealth of resources at its disposal and produced a glossy show that, ultimately, was lacking in the substance and urgency that many of the smaller companies displayed.

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

Noa Wertheim’s Vertigo Dance Company similarly approached the theme of complicated group dynamics. Yet their work Mana offered a depth and sense of intrigue that made it one of the most compelling pieces of the entire week, one that brings together many of the themes discussed here in a tight, luscious, and appealing package that foreign audiences are likely to respond well to.

If another theme might be added, it’s the embrace of classical music mashed with contemporary, fragmented movement. It’s not a new idea in contemporary dance, but the idea was particularly noticeable at this festival. In addition to the well-known scores in Batsheva’s work, Godder also used the waltz for inspiration, and Idan Cohen’s take on Swan Lake paired the Tchaikovsky score with sharp, defined, lightning-quick movement that actually made the idea feel current and relevant – no small feat for such an overused score and well-known ballet. But the sense that Israelis are resisting tradition, or at least looking to re-contextualize it to their new realities, came through loud and clear.

Maria Kong in fling. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Of course, one can’t possibly force all of the performances into only a few basic themes. Defying all categorizations was the work by Maria Kong, a new company comprised of former Batsheva dancers. fling opens with an aching violin solo, performed facing away from the audience, while projections on two columns conjure a world of dark hallways, mysterious rooms, and the constant shift of shadows, which gives the sense that time is passing us by. Without a dancer on stage for the first nearly twenty minutes, a captivating world is created. When they do appear, the dancers move with robotic precision. The slight turn of a head sends waves that reverberate throughout another dancer’s body. Similarly, fling is a subtle work that makes a big impression.

And while International Exposure aims to present contemporary dance, we were also brought to the Israel Ballet studios to view excerpts from the company’s repertoire. The dancers were proficient, the partnering well-executed. But the formality of the ballet language doesn’t seem to fit this country.

Interacting with and observing Israelis on a daily basis during the week of the Exposure, the intimacy, suspicion, joy, tension, spirit, and vitality that seems to hover over society here is reflected in the works of contemporary artists that display the same such characteristics.

In comparison, the ballet, with its sterilized look, organized structure, clear gender roles, and polished edges seems to be just what everyone else is fighting against. And that conflict is what makes the dance in Israel so fascinating.

Brian Schaefer is the dance writer for San Diego News Network and the Program & Audience Development Manager for ArtPower! at UC San Diego, the university’s multi-arts presenting organization.

International Exposure 2009: Showcasing Israeli Dance

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 10:30:17 +0000

Barak Marshall’s Rooster. Photo by Avi Avin.

As autumn turns into winter, there’s an interesting progression from one dance festival in Tel Aviv to the next. Tel Aviv Dance introduces Israeli audiences to top-notch dance from around the globe before giving way to Curtain Up, a celebration of new Israeli-made works. And then, in a few concentrated days of concerts, International Exposure attempts to introduce Israeli dance to the world by showcasing the past year’s bounty (including recently premiered Curtain Up works) to foreign arts presenters who just might invite local choreographers to perform in their home countries.

Now in its fifteenth year, International Exposure will present the work of twenty-seven Israeli choreographers to over ninety guests including theater directors, festival directors, and journalists. These visitors will witness a stellar lineup boasting Israel’s most prominent dance companies as well as many independent choreographers at various stages of their careers. Some of the works on the program have been performed many times over the course of the year; others, such as the selections from the still in progress Curtain Up festival, are in their initial performances. Together, these dances offer a valuable retrospective on the past season and paint a representative picture of Israel’s vibrant contemporary dance scene.

International Exposure 2009 runs from Wednesday, December 9 until Sunday, December 13. Many of the concerts will be held at the Suzanne Dellal Centre and are open to the public, so local audiences can catch up on shows they missed during the last year. Other performances will be held at the Israel Classical Ballet Centre, the Nachmani Theater, Clipa Theater, and the Herzliya Theater, giving visitors a peek at the larger scale of dance venues in Israel.

Below is a day-by-day virtual tour of the festival with photographs and videos of many of the dances which will be performed. Want to learn more about the choreographers, companies, works, and festivals I mention? Click on the underlined names to see related articles published on Dance In Israel.

As we say here in Israel, צפייה מהנה – tzfiya mehana, pleasant viewing!

Wednesday, December 9

Last year’s International Exposure closed with Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak‘s Hydra, and now the couple’s company will kick off this year’s festival with a double bill. The first program features Rushes, which was originally made for the American company Pilobolus. The second program moves to Yerushalmi Hall for a showing of Pinto and Pollak’s Trout and a new work by company member Talia Beck.

Video: Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout

Thursday, December 10

Video: Tel Aviv Dance Company in Yaara Dolev’s BLOSSOM.

Day 2 of International Exposure 2009 starts early with the Tel Aviv Dance Company in co-artistic director Yaara Dolev’s BLOSSOM, which recently premiered in Curtain Up. Participants will then visit the Israel Classical Ballet Centre in Tel Aviv to view excerpts from the Israel Ballet’s repertory.

Video: Artour Astman and Ilana Bellahson in Artlana

A mixed bill at Suzanne Dellal will include excerpts of two works that premiered this summer in Maholohet, the center’s SummerDance festival. Artour Astman and Ilana Bellahsen perform part of their evening-length duet Artlana, while Rina Schenfeld and her company take to the stage in Angels.

Video: Maria Kong in fling

Across town at the charming Nachmani Theater, the collaborative company Maria Kong offers fling, the group’s debut work. The day’s programming also features a visit to Clipa Theater for Michal Herman’s Fellowship, based on a short story by Kafka, as well as presentations by the Acco-based group Hamama and choreographer Shlomi Frige.

Video: Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s Mana

Thursday closes with another recent premiere from Curtain Up. Vertigo Dance Company will perform Noa Wertheim’s Mana.

Friday, December 11

Friday’s schedule boasts works from some of Israel’s most prominent choreographers. The day begins with a trip to the Herzliya Theatre for Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company‘s performance of Rami Be’er’s Infrared, which premiered in November.

Video: Barak Marshall’s Rooster

Back at the Suzanne Dellal Centre, we’ll take a look at Barak Marshall‘s Rooster, a co-production of Suzanne Dellal and the Opera House which premiered in this year’s Tel Aviv Dance festival. The afternoon will also include a celebration for the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s twentieth anniversary.

Iris Erez’s Numbia. Photo by Itay Merom.

In the early evening, we’ll visit Yasmeen Godder’s studio in Jaffa for a showing of Iris Erez’s Numbia and Noa Shadur’s Into the Night, both of which were unveiled recently as part of the Curtain Up festival.

Yasmeen Godder’s LOVE FIRE. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Friday concludes at Suzanne Dellal with Yasmeen Godder‘s LOVE FIRE, which premiered in November at Curtain Up.

Saturday, December 12

Video: Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Big Mouth

Saturday starts with new works from the Curtain Up festival. Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor take the stage first with Big Mouth, a collaboration with Amsterdam-based dancer Keren Levi.

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Next up is the Tami Dance Company in Nimrod Freed’s Subtext, along with Dafi Altabeb’s Under the Carpet and Anat Grigorio’s Daydream.

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

In the afternoon, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s 4 Men, Alice, Bach and the Deer will be performed at the Inbal Theatre in Suzanne Dellal.

Noa Dar’s Us. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

In another program from Curtain Up, Noa Dar‘s Anu (Us) shares the stage with Irad Mazliach’s Unter den Linden and Maya Brinner’s Red Ladies.

Video: Dana Ruttenberg’s NABA

Saturday includes another triple bill at the Inbal Theatre. Improvisation-based artist Ilanit Tadmor presents Happiness is Real, Dana Ruttenberg equips the audience with audio guides in NABA, and Tammy and Ronen Izhaki perform their duet This Now Is, which was shown in the Shades of Dance festival in March. After this program, we’ll move to Studio Varda for a presentation of Arkadi Zaides‘s work-in-progress, Quiet, which has a cast of both Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Video: Idan Cohen’s Swan Lake

The night ends with one more triple bill of excerpts from works which were featured in the SummerDance festival. Sally-Anne Friedland offers A Private Collection, Idan Cohen presents part of his full-length contemporary Swan Lake, and Ronit Ziv performs in her Tide.

Video: Ronit Ziv’s Tide

Sunday, December 13

After a tour of Jerusalem on Sunday, International Exposure guests will be treated to a few last performances at Suzanne Dellal.

Video: Tamar Borer and Tamara Erde’s Izaora Hun

Butoh-influenced performance artist Tamar Borer and filmmaker Tamara Erde present part of Izaora Hun in the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s Inbal Theatre.

Video: Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s Hora

Back in the complex’s main hall, the festival closes with Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s latest work, Hora.

Curtain Up 2: Vertigo Dance Company and Noa Wertheim Host Elad Shechter

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:53:53 +0000

When I called Adi Sha’al and Noa Wertheim, who direct the Vertigo Dance Company, they had just landed in Israel after an appearance at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America in Washington D.C. There they had presented an excerpt from Wertheim’s Mana, which will be officially premiered in Curtain 2 along with Elad Shechter’s Roni. I chatted with the couple about their U.S. trip and their experience with Curtain Up.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Dance In Israel: How was your time at the General Assembly?
Adi Sha’al: People were very moved by Vertigo’s performance, and people came [up to us] afterwards, after they were clapping hands for a long time and standing up – some people even with tears. We also talked about our social vision of the company and the Eco-Art Village . . . And we also did workshops and created connections with dance companies in D.C.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
AS: It’s been a good relationship. Vertigo [Dance Company] has been around for 17 years now, and all of our first shows were under this title, under Curtain Up. We owe a lot to this institute.

Elad Shechter’s Roni. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: What drew you and Noa to select Elad Shechter to be the choreographer for this program?
AS: Elad used to be a dancer in our company, so we’ve known him for several years now. Once Nilly Cohen [director of the dance department in the Culture and Arts Administration] and the people at Haramat Masach came with the idea of coaching, we said basically the only one that we can really coach and we can say that it will be real for us is somebody that we know, somebody that we have a dialogue with.

Elad Shechter’s Roni. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

AS: In a way, we are marking here two companies. One is the main company which Noa is doing a piece for, and the other one is the young company, the Vertigo Ensemble, which Elad is doing a work for, and it’s [all] happening in Vertigo’s studios under the umbrella of Vertigo’s production. And we [work with] the same co-artists. Ran Bagno is making the music for both pieces; he’s a musician we’ve been working with together many years now. Danny Fishof, he’s our lighting designer; he is doing the lighting design for both pieces, Mana and Roni. And the costume designer is Rakefet Levy; she’s doing both pieces. So we feel like it’s a production house called Vertigo, and it’s very exciting for us to do these two things together side-by-side in the same evening.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

DII: Noa, can you tell me a bit about where Mana came from?
Noa Wertheim: I like to work from the movement, and I never have a clear idea, but I do have a certain attraction to something. This time, the line and the circle came straight away. After I was dealing with Ra’ash Lavan [Noa's previous work, White Noise], where gravity was so important, it was different to work with the shapes.

* * *

For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Curtain Up 2009: Celebrating 20 Years of Israeli Premieres

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:25:03 +0000

The Curtain Up 2009 poster. Courtesy of Ora Lapidot PR.

The annual Curtain Up festival has figured prominently in my understanding and appreciation of Israeli contemporary dance. Every autumn, this festival presents a fresh harvest of premieres by some of the field’s most promising choreographers. I have now attended Curtain Up twice, and both seasons introduced me to some new faces and showcased the latest creations by choreographers whom I was already following.

As the buzz about this year’s 20th anniversary celebration grew, I wanted to find out more about the history of Curtain Up. I talked with each of the six headlining presenters in this year’s festival, veteran choreographers who received support from the festival earlier in their careers. They related their own personal pasts with Curtain Up, but wanting even more of an overview, I decided to go straight to the founder of the festival: Nilly Cohen, who directs the dance division of the Ministry of Culture.

Nilly’s retelling of Curtain Up’s history traces the rise of the Israeli contemporary dance scene. “20 years ago, there were not so many choreographers in Israel,” she remembers. “There were only three dance companies, and all the young choreographers, all the fringe simply didn’t exist. And this was the main target for my initiative. I [wanted] to build the next generation of choreographers in Israel. That was the aim 20 years ago. And now we can see that this aim succeeded. Now we have many choreographers and many dance companies.”

Nilly continued, “I [initiated] Curtain Up 20 years ago because of the bad conditions for the choreographers. They didn’t have the money to make their creations, to do the performances, to do the public relations, the marketing, and so on. It takes [a lot of] money to do this, and they were very young; they were beginners in this profession. And it was very difficult. So I initiated this stage to give the young choreographers all the conditions to make their art.”

Then as now, Nilly explained, the government stepped in to help independent choreographers. “We give them the money for the creation: for the costumes, for the dancers, for the lighting, for the design,” she elaborated. “Besides this, we give them free the [concert] halls, Suzanne Dellal in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Theatre in Jerusalem . . . We do the public relations for them. And we also give them the income.”

This generous public support spurred the flowering of Israeli dance, fostering its growth from a small pool of struggling choreographers to a vibrant scene featuring both an array of full-fledged companies and a seemingly multiplying set of individual artists. Nilly recounted with pride, “I began [Curtain Up] 20 years ago, and then many creators were born on this stage and developed. They developed to be dance companies like Vertigo Dance Company, like Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s company, like Noa Dar’s dance company, like Yasmeen Godder and many others.”

As this significant anniversary of Curtain Up approached, Nilly said, “I thought that the best thing to celebrate 20 [years] is to show what is the fruit of this stage. And the fruits are all of these dance companies, so I invited them to perform on this stage this year.” She added that she also was pleased to offer these now mature choreographers the chance to curate the festival by selecting emerging choreographers to join them on their respective programs.

Below is my preview of Curtain Up 2009, which was originally published in the Jerusalem Post as “Celebrating Creative Choreography.” My next few articles on Dance In Israel will zoom in on each individual program, with excerpts from my interviews with the choreographers and photographs of the new works.

* * *

Celebrating Creative Choreography

Participating in the annual Curtain Up festival, the country’s major platform for new works, is a rite of passage for Israeli choreographers. Reflecting on her history with the festival, choreographer Noa Dar explains, “It really was my school and my initiation program for my choreography.” Now Dar and other veteran choreographers are returning to Curtain Up for a special 20th anniversary season and they are initiating a new generation of dancemakers into the circle of Curtain Up participants.

As in past years, Curtain Up 2009 boasts several programs of hot-off-the press choreography. Yet this year, there is a twist. Each of the six concerts is headlined by an established choreographer who in turn selected one or two emerging choreographers to join the bill. The result is a sumptuous spread of Israeli contemporary dance featuring both the field’s most acclaimed artists and some of its freshest rising stars.

Nimrod Freed’s Subtext. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Nimrod Freed of the Tami Dance Company chose both Anat Grigorio and Dafi Altebab to join him in Curtain 1 because they are “authentic, passionate and creative in an unusual way.” Freed’s Subtext, Grigorio’s Daydream, and Altbeb’s Under the Rug all imaginatively uncover and probe the hidden sides of life.

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Curtain 2 is enlivened by the electrifying energy of Vertigo Dance Company and its younger division, the Vertigo Ensemble. Performed against a strikingly geometric black-and-white set, Noa Wertheim’s new Mana explores the essential differences between men and women. Danced with verve by the Ensemble, Elad Shechter’s Roni casts a broader gaze at the dynamics of control in contemporary life.

Yasmeen Godder’s Love Fire. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Yasmeen Godder was a frequent presenter in Curtain Up during the early 2000s, but her premiere in Curtain 3 marks a dramatic departure from her previous works. LOVE FIRE, a duet danced to classical waltzes, reconsiders romanticism and includes a “performative installation-based response” by visual artist Yochai Matos. Iris Erez, who regularly collaborated with Godder as a dancer, unleashes her own choreographic power in the trio Numbia.

Ya’ara Dolev’s BLOSSOM. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

The clean lines, precise angles and graceful curves of the body take center stage as the Tel Aviv Dance Company performs two works in Curtain 4. Waves of movement wash over the dancers in BLOSSOM, a premiere by the company’s co-artistic director Ya’ara Dolev. Guest choreographer Michael Miler also displays what Dolev describes as a predilection for “pure, clean movement in space” in his Number 6.

Noa Dar’s Us. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

When Noa Dar selected Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah for Curtain 5, the three choreographers talked about uniting their program with a common theme. Dar says that Brinner’s Red Ladies, Mazliah’s Unter den linden, and her own Us deploy unique perspectives on “difference versus conformity and stillness or stuck positions versus mobility and change.”

For Curtain 6, the team of Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor joined forces with dancer/choreographer Keren Levy to produce Big Mouth. Using their personal relationships to Israeli society as a jumping off point, the trio investigates the conflicting desires of belonging to a group while maintaining one’s self-expression. The program is rounded out by Noa Shadur’s Into the Night, which compares the reality of death with its melodramatic theatrical representation.

Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.

Traditionally, Curtain Up hosts an additional program by a well-known group, and this year’s guest concert is guaranteed to make a big splash. Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout, which premiered in 2008 in Norway, floods a black-box stage with water to create an otherworldly setting where dancers mix with musicians from the experimental Kitchen Orchestra. It’s a magical way to cap off Curtain Up’s celebration of creativity.

More Information

Curtain Up runs from November 24 to December 7 at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv and from December 8-14 at the Rebecca Crown Auditorium in Jerusalem. Tickets (100 NIS for most shows) are available at 03-5105656 (Suzanne Dellal Center) and 02-5605755 (Rebecca Crown Auditorium).

For listings of Curtain Up performances, please visit the Dance In Israel Calendars page.

Israeli Dance: What’s Happening in November

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:47:32 +0000

November is a month of festivals and foreign tours. For more details about these events and other performances, visit Dance In Israel’s Calendars.

At Home

Lee In Soo’s Modern Feeling is part of Tel Aviv Dance. Photo courtesy of Ora Lapidot.

Tel Aviv Dance 2009 is in full swing at the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Opera House. Still to come are companies and choreographers from France, Spain, Korea, and Israel. Check out the lineup in Tel Aviv Dance 2009 Mixes Global and Local Dance and get to the theater from now until November 13 to catch some of the best international dance around.

Sharon Vazanna’s Walking Inside Water. Photo by Amina Husberg.

While international performers are taking over the main stage at Suzanne Dellal, the center’s more intimate Yerushalmi Theater is hosting a mixed bill by emerging Israeli choreographers. On November 6, Odelia Kuperberg presents the trio Without Blinking, while Sharon Vazanna premieres her solo Walking Inside Water. Cuban-born Lazaro Godoy joins the program with his striking Jugo de Limon.

Noa Dar’s Us premieres at Curtain Up 2009. Photo by Tamar Lamm.

Soon after Tel Aviv Dance finishes, another major festival will take its place on Suzanne Dellal’s stage. Haramat Masach, or Curtain Up, is an annual platform for premieres by Israeli choreographers. To celebrate the Suzanne Dellal Center’s 20th anniversary, this year the festival invited established choreographers to create new works and host fresh creations by emerging artists. Curtain 1 opens with Nimrod Freed plus Anat Grigorio and Dafi Altbeb; Curtain 2 pairs Vertigo Dance Company’s Noa Wertheim with Elad Shechter; Curtain 3 boasts Yasmeen Godder and Iris Erez; Curtain 4 includes Tel Aviv Dance Company’s Yaara Dolev and Michael Miler; Curtain 5 features Noa Dar with Maya Brinner and Irad Mazliah; and Curtain 6 closes with the team of Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor as well as Noa Shadur. The festival ends with a special performance of the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Trout. Check back soon for more posts on Curtain Up 2009, and see below for articles about individual choreographers who will be participating in this year’s festival.

Video: Rina Badash’s Revealed Under the Covers

Although Curtain Up dominates the dance programming in late November, there are still a few dance performances to be found outside this platform. On November 26, Tmuna Theater will host Rina Badash’s Revealed Under the Covers, a multidisciplinary work featuring a solo dancer, live music, and video art projected on four screens.

Abroad

Ohad Naharin’s MAX. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

After presenting Ohad Naharin’s Hora and Mamootot at home during the Tel Aviv Dance festival, the Batsheva Dance Company is packing its bags for a European tour. Audiences in the Netherlands, France, and Germany can catch performances of Naharin’s Mamootot, Deca Dance, MAX, and Sharon Eyal’s Love. Want to read more about these works? Take a look at Mamootot: Challenging the Performer-Spectator Divide, Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance in Israel: A Cycle Completed, and MAX: Connecting to Ohad Naharin’s Choreography.

Ohad Naharin teaching Gaga in Tel Aviv. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Meanwhile in New York, Ohad Naharin will receive one of the 2009 Dance Magazine Awards on November 9. During his trip stateside, he will teach master classes in Gaga at Peridance in New York City from November 9-10. Hear some of the choreographer’s thoughts on Gaga in Ohad Naharin on Gaga (Video).

Noa Wertheim’s Mana. Photo by Gadi Dagon.

Further south in Washington D.C., Vertigo Dance Company will perform Noa Wertheim’s new Mana at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America (the GA). This year the GA will meet from November 8-10, and Vertigo will perform at the opening plenary which also features a speech by President Barack Obama. Israeli audiences can see Mana when Vertigo performs at Curtain Up in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

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

Yasmeen Godder’s dancers are also headed to Europe for more performances of Singular Sensation in Belgium and Germany. Learn more about the choreographer in Close Encounters Series: Yasmeen Godder.

For Young Dancers in Israel

Over the next several months, a select group of young aspiring dancers will develop their artistry in weekly Gaga classes and repertory workshops taught by members of the Batsheva company and staff. Want to be part of this project? If you’re between the ages of 14 and 22, you can audition on November 10 at Studio Varda in the Suzanne Dellal Center. For more information, contact Michal at todance@013net.net.

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.

Celebrating Shavuot through Movement: Hagiga with Bodyways, Vertigo & the Amuta

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:41:17 +0000

Photos: The 2009 Hagiga Celebration, including Vertigo Dance Company and choreographers of the Amuta. Studio photos from 2007 festival are by Rivi Nissim and Amos Vinikof.

For religious Israelis, the upcoming holiday of Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. But for this country’s dancers, Shavuot is a time for celebrating movement. Leaving the hustle and bustle of daily life behind, they flock to more remote, peaceful dance centers around Israel for a few days of invigorating workshops and inspiring performances.

One of these annual Shavuot gatherings is Hagiga, which translates fittingly to “celebration” or “festival.” Initiated by the portal Bodways, the event has become a holiday tradition not only for dancers but for people who are involved in other expressive movement arts such as yoga, tai chi, and Feldenkrais. Rivi Nissim, the founder of Bodyways, emphasizes that the festival “was initiated as a physical (‘down to earth’) meeting between the artists represented in the Bodyways website and the surfers of the website.”

Nissim calls Hagiga a “wandering festival,” hosted in some years by Adama and Ashram in the Desert before moving to Vertigo Dance Company’s Eco-Art Village last spring. No matter where it is held, the festival always attracts a spirited crowd eager to celebrate and connect through movement.

Now in its fifth year, Hagiga has grown to be a dynamic collaboration between Bodyways, Vertigo, and the Amuta (the Choreographers Society, an association for Israel’s independent choreographers). The involvement of so many choreographers will make this year’s event somewhat more dance-centered, with several contemporary repertory workshops. As in previous festivals, there will be a wide range of classes including Gaga, dance improvisation, pilates, Feldenkrais, acrobalance, Cuban percussion, Rio Abierto, voice, and more. Since all of the teachers are represented in the Bodyways website, the Hagiga festival will indeed live up to its promise as a physical meeting between the portal’s users (and, on top of that, it will be quite a meeting of styles!).

Video: Vertigo Dance Company in Birth of the Phoenix, which will be performed at this year’s Hagiga festival.

Besides workshops, Hagiga will include performances of choreography by Amuta members Sahar Azimi, Idan Cohen, Ya’ara Dolev & Amit Goldenberg, Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, Ilanit Tadmor, Mimi Ratz Wiesenberg, and Arkadi Zaides. Another highlight will be Vertigo Dance Company’s performance of Birth of the Phoenix by artistic director Noa Wertheim.

Finally, in the spirit of the all-night study sessions which characterize religious observances of Shavuot, Hagiga will feature its own version of the Tikun Layl Shavuot. Participants can study using movement, voice, and texts from Shavuot in this unique artistic celebration of an ancient holiday.

Here’s a glimpse of Hagiga from seasons past:

Video: The Hagiga Shavuot celebration in 2006

This year’s Hagiga celebration runs from May 28-29 at Vertigo’s Eco-Art Village on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey, near Beit Shemesh. For a complete schedule and to register, visit the festival’s website.

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

Behind the Scenes at Gvanim: Shades of Dance Festival

Deborah Friedes Galili — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:18:05 +0000

Michael Miler’s The Speed of Light will be performed in program 1 of Shades of Dance. Photograph by Eyal Landesman.

Last Saturday night was chilly and wet, but despite the discouraging weather conditions, I bundled up and trekked down to the Suzanne Dellal Center. Choreographer Micheal Miler of Haifa’s Sigma Ensemble had invited me to a rehearsal for the Shades of Dance festival (called Gvanim in Hebrew). Shades of Dance is mounted biennially, and since last year was an off year, I had effectively been waiting to attend the festival for over a year and a half. A little rain wasn’t about to stop me from this special sneak peak.

Since its inception in 1984, Shades of Dance has showcased artists who are relatively fresh to the field of choreography. It has helped launch the careers of some of Israel’s best-known choreographers including Yasmeen Godder, Inbal Pinto, Emanuel Gat, Ronit Ziv, Barak Marshall, Renana Raz, Shlomi Bitton, Anat Danieli, Itzhik Galili, Sally-Anne Friedland, Yossi Yungman, Tamar Borer, Liat Dror and Nir Ben-Gal of Adama, Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al of Vertigo Dance Company, and Yoram Karmi of Fresco Dance Group.

Perhaps this is why my anticipation of this festival feels different: I can’t help but wonder what new choreographic voices will be revealed this year. A mind-boggling 80 dances were submitted to the festival’s selection committee, composed of artistic director Hanoch Ben Dror with Ya’ara Dolev, Sally-Anne Friedland, Renana Raz, and Niv Sheinfeld. I’m looking forward to seeing what sets the 10 chosen works apart from their competition when the 15th Shades of Dance festival opens this week.

Left to right: Shaked Dagan’s We are going back is in program 3; Anat Va’adiya’s Ashetish is in program 1. Photographs by Eyal Landesman.

If the rehearsal I saw was any indication, this year’s festival has a batch of promising choreographers with very diverse aesthetics. Michael Miler’s The Speed of Light is one of the most abstract works I have seen since moving to Israel, and it is thoroughly absorbing. Clad in dark skinny jeans and colorful athletic jackets, Miler and seven other talented dancers maneuver skillfully through a sophisticated movement vocabulary. As they swiftly skate across the floor and slide to the ground, they appear to be constantly gauging the changing formations of their fellow performers.

The relationship between dancers Adam Ben Zvi and Idan Porges in Shaked Dagan’s We are going back is equally engaging. At times the well-matched men create a stop-frame effect with their cleverly-timed partnering; at other times they move hypnotically in slow motion.

The other two pieces I saw at Saturday’s rehearsal were worlds apart from each other in their tone. While choreographer/dancer Anat Va’adiya established an unsettling mood for her solo, Dafi Altebab used text and motions from a flight safety presentation to humorous effect in her trio’s quirky scenario.

Dafi Altebab’s new work is in program 3. Photo by Eyal Landesman.

While I wish I could have stayed for the remainder of the rehearsal, I left early to attend another performance at the Home Port festival. I suppose that after waiting a year and half to attend Shades of Dance, another few days is bearable! The festival opens on Wednesday, March 18 with with excerpts of old and recent works by former Shades of Dance participants Nir Ben Gal & Liat Dror, Noa Wertheim & Adi Sha’al, Ronit Ziv, and Barak Marshall. Then three programs shown back-to-back on Thursday night and Friday afternoon will present the new works from this year’s harvest.

Here are a few more sneak peaks of what will be onstage in the three programs of Shades of Dance 2009:

Anat Meirav’s is in program 2. Photographs by Eyal Landesman.

From left: Galit Hazor’s Blind Spot is in program 3; Tami and Ron Yitzhaki’s work is in program 2. Photograph by Eyal Landesman.

Shir Medvetsky’s solo is in program 3. Photograph by Eyal Landesman.

From left: Ron Amit and Mor Shani’s Lu Carmela; Or Marin’s vanishing point. Photographs by Eyal Landesman.

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 5

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:30:42 +0000

(Video: Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s White Noise)

There is no rest for the weary. In Israel, Saturday is Shabbat, the day of rest – but International Exposure is not letting us sleep in this morning. The schedule looks good, though, so I’m not too upset!

Today we start at 11:00 a.m. with Vertigo Dance Company in Noa Wertheim’s full-length White Noise. Then we’ll leave Suzanne Dellal and head across Tel Aviv to Tmuna Theater. At this smaller space, we’ll see part of Tamar Borer’s butoh-influenced Bardo as well as Noa Shadur’s Hunting Rabbits in the North.

After a reception in the evening, we finish our day with a mixed bill: Rina Schenfeld’s Dance Me to the End of Love; Tirza Sapir’s High Tide, Low Tide (performed by Rikudnetto/DanceNet Group); Idan Cohen’s Joy Ride; and excerpts from Yoram Karmi’s Pulcinella (performed by the Fresco Dance Company).

Here are two more glimpses of what we’ll see in the last concert of the day:

(Video: Idan Cohen’s A Year in a Fish Life)

(Video: Fresco Dance Company in Yoram Karmi’s Pulcinella)

Links to Choreographers and Companies

Vertigo Dance Company: Art, Environment, Community

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:15:37 +0000

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.

Israel’s Curtain Up Festival: “Another Op’ning, Another Show” for Contemporary Dance

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:54:09 +0000

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

* * *

“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!

* * *

(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.

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*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.

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*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.

Israel’s Curtain Up Festival: “Another Op’ning, Another Show” for Contemporary Dance

*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.