Arkadi Zaides and dancers at Majdal Shams.  Photo by Itay Weiser.

This article was first published as “Creative Connections” in the Jerusalem Post on July 24, 2009.  The concert I describe below is already over, but audiences in China, Taiwan, and Japan can catch the same program when Arkadi Zaides and Iris Erez go on tour in October.

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Creative Connections

Arkadi Zaides is a world traveler.  A youthful Zaides made aliyah from Belarus in 1990 and, over the last decade, his talents as an eye-catching dancer and cutting-edge choreographer led him on a series of foreign tours.  So perhaps it’s not surprising that back in Israel, Zaides is focusing his creative energies on bringing worlds together through dance.

Sometimes this is a matter of linking members of diverse communities in the dance studio.  For several months last year, Zaides spent his weekends in the Golan Heights at the Druze village Majdal Shams as part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ Creation and Community Initiative. There he taught workshops to a theater group and presented several of his recent works.  “The project introduced them to contemporary dance and dance theater,” Zaides recalls.  “It was a very unique meeting with very unique people.”

Now Zaides has received another generous NIS 50,000 grant from Teva for a project at Rabeah Murcus Studio for Dance and Movement in Kfar Yasif, an Arab village near Acre.  Zaides explains, “[The studio] is quite a unique initiative in the Arab sector in Israel; it’s the one and only studio for contemporary dance.”  Zaides plans to teach classes and workshops and will invite students to observe his artistic process as he rehearses a new work.

It’s not every up-and-coming choreographer that engages in these community projects, but Zaides states emphatically, “I just believe it’s a must right now.  Culture can bring people together and introduce the different populations to each other – and also, it’s a form of exchange.”

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Video: Sally-Anne Friedland’s Dance Drama Company in A Private Collection

One of 11 premieres in this year’s Maholohet festival, Sally-Anne Friedland’s A Private Collection was first performed at Suzanne Dellal on July 19th.  Now the work is heading to Jerusalem on August 20th and returning to Tel Aviv’s Suzanne Dellal Center on August 22nd.

My preview of A Private Collection was first published as “A Public Premiere” in the Jerusalem Post on July 17, 2009.

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A Public Premiere

When choreographer Sally-Anne Friedland was commissioned to make a work for her visit to the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre in New York City, she created a short dance called Borders.  “It was like an unfinished symphony,” Friedland explains, “I knew I would come back to it one day.”

Three years later, Borders has become what Friedland calls the “cornerstone” of her latest creation.  Like its predecessor, A Private Collection investigates “intimate borders, personal borders, how far we can go and what we need for protection.”

But this new work goes deeper, with three sections that take the audience on a multi-layered, visually luscious journey.  Opening with dancers spread across the floor in frozen positions and covered with pastel-colored sheets of tulle, “Yesterday” conveys the sense that something has already happened.  The dancers soon come alive, cleverly manipulating the nets to become bustles or bridal veils.

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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.

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