Video: Yoram Karmi and Uri Morag’s Man, Woman, Reflections will be performed during SummerDance
It seems like every country has its share of summer dance festivals, and Israel is no exception. The country’s main concert dance festival, SummerDance (Maholohet in Hebrew) is already underway at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. My preview of the festival, “Damn Hot,” was first published in the Jerusalem Post.
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Damn Hot
The Suzanne Dellal Center is turning up the heat with its Maholohet (Hot Dance) summer dance festival. This year’s program boasts a full summer of sizzling performances, showcasing the best of Israeli dance. From July 1 until August 29, hundreds of dancers will take the stage in 76 concerts.
Part of Maholohet‘s appeal is the appearance of so many preeminent companies. The Batsheva, Inbal Pinto and Vertigo Dance Companies are each presenting multiple programs of critically acclaimed works. Many popular smaller groups and up-and-coming independent choreographers are also heating up the program with their creative fires.
Raising the temperature further this summer are 11 hot-off-the-press premieres by choreographers as diverse as Yasmeen Godder, Alice Dor-Cohen, Ronit Ziv, Idan Cohen and Elina Pechersky. Another much anticipated highlight is a special guest program with dancers from the famed Paris Opera Ballet.
Rina Schenfeld in her new work, Angels. Photo by Gadi Dagon.
This article is a guest post by Gdalit Neuman. Enjoy!
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About Angels
By Gdalit Neuman
Tel Aviv native Rina Schenfeld is one of Israel’s most celebrated artists. After studying at the world famous Julliard School in New York in her early twenties, Rina returned home and became a founding member and principal dancer of the Batsheva Dance Company from 1963-1979. There she danced historic roles in works by none other than Martha Graham, Glenn Tetley, and John Cranko, to great acclaim.
After leaving Batsheva, Schenfeld embarked on a highly successful international career as principal dancer and choreographer of her own company, Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre, which is based in Tel Aviv. She is the recipient of countless distinguished international awards and in 1997 was honored with the Na’amat lifetime achievement award in the realm of dance. The New York Times hailed Schenfeld as “one of the most important artists of our generation.”
Now Rina Schenfeld has done it again. After the tremendous success of her last work Dance Me to the End of Love (ריקדי לקצה האהבה), she will present her latest full length evening entitled Angels (מה לך מלאך?) at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv on June 23rd. Angels is a journey into this first lady of dance’s wild and wonderful imagination. Using songs by Laurie Anderson as inspiration, Schenfeld paints a colorful canvas of images, movement, sound and screen that tempt the pallet and are sure to satisfy. Images of suspended angels, darkness and light, the Garden of Eden, and past and present speckle the stage.
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.
Posted on 24 January 2009 by Deborah Friedes Galili
(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).
