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.”

Arkadi Zaides in Solo Siento.  Photo by Marek Kotowski.

Exchange also permeates Zaides’ choreography, which frequently involves a meeting of multiple artists.  Talking about his upcoming show “Solos,” Zaides remarks, “This evening is actually about merging art forms; one piece with video, another with fine art, together in an alternate space.”

Zaides’ unorthodox, interdisciplinary approach makes “Solos” one of the most unique offerings in Suzanne Dellal Center’s SummerDance2009 festival.  Indeed, unlike other works in the series, the program’s two dances trade the traditional stage for the nearby Tavi Dresdner Gallery in Neve Tzedek.

Zaides first presented Solo Siento, a collaboration with video artist Shira Miasnik, in the 2005 Curtain Up festival.  Even more creative voices are included in Solo Colores, which premiered in December 2008.

Iris Erez in Arkadi Zaides’s Solo Colores.  Photo by Itay Weiser.

Inspiration for Solo Colores sprang from the metalwork of sculptor Isabel Cruellas, which Zaides and dramaturge Itay Weiser saw during a trip to Spain.  The striking sculptures of plants and an encounter with the artist herself reminded Zaides of dancer and choreographer Iris Erez, who had performed alongside him in one of Yasmeen Godder’s productions.  “Something with the quality of the work and the process of their making, it’s really close to Iris,” he recounts. “I felt a very strong connection between the two women.”

This initial meeting blossomed into an international collaboration.  While Cruellas crafted a new sculpture in Spain, Zaides and Erez retreated to the studio in Tel Aviv to explore what Erez described as the “oppositions of hard work and poetry,” a characteristic of Cruellas’s art.

The visually stunning end result is a meeting not only of art forms but of artists and spectators.  Both the delicately curved lines of Cruellas’s hard metal sculpture and the sinuous movement of Erez’s long, lean frame are on display for the audience, which surrounds the performance space.

“There’s the idea that people come to see art and suddenly they see a person inside the art space with the sculpture. I think it makes it interesting and special,” Erez reflects.

Related Links

• Arkadi Zaides’s website

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.

In “Today,” the middle section, Friedland provides an often humorous take on life through a series of situations.  One duo dons gloves to box each other, three dancers portray sisters and another dancer acts like “a bride running around, looking a bit like Miss Havisham from Dickens.”

Closely based on Borders, the final section, “Tomorrow,” moves away from the parody of “Today” into a more elevated realm.  Friedland reveals that long curtains of tulle “stand like bars on the stage” and provide privacy for each dancer.  These curtains eventually lift, reflecting the choreographer’s own optimism.  Friedland explains, “My hope is that everybody’s borders, whether they’re international borders or private borders, are respected and accepted, and there’s an open space, free for everybody.”

It took a collection of devoted artists working in diverse art forms to bring Friedland’s rich array of ideas to fruition.  “It’s not a one man show,” the choreographer gratefully acknowledges.  For this production, Friedland worked with six gifted dancers from her Dance Drama Company and also enlisted the talents of costumer Sasson Kedem, set designer Paula Miovdovnik and lighting designer Shai Yehudai to create her visual effects.  Sound designer Shashoo developed an eclectic score blending Franz Schubert and Philip Glass’s compositions along with music from the movies Kill Bill and Full Metal Jacket.

While such partnerships are often an integral part of dance-making, Friedland also found some more unusual collaborators in video artist Liat Freund and photographer Pnina Even-Tal.  Freund and Even-Tal attended every rehearsal, documenting the choreographic process.  Friedland notes that at times, seeing the work through others’ lenses gave her a push in a new direction and spurred her onward.

Rather than keep this process secret, A Private Collection offers glimpses into Friedland’s creative workings by interspersing Freund’s short videos in between sections.  Here, nothing is hidden from the audience.  Laughing, Friedland recounts that Freund “saw the good, the bad and the ugly in the rehearsals, and she’s put it all into this video.”  The video, which includes some of Even-Tal’s photographs, also takes a cue from movies and gives each artist proper credit at the end of the performance.

Although the video certainly will enable the audience to connect to A Private Collection, Friedland believes that the essence of her dance will also attract viewers.  As she prepares for her premiere at the Suzanne Dellal Center, Friedland explains, “I hope that my message is positive, and that each person will find their own private collection in this work and be able to identify with the work.  Especially in the part of the necessity of intimacy and privacy.”

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• “Maholohet: SummerDance2009 at Suzanne Dellal Center”
• “More on Maholohet: A Hot Summer of Dance Continues”

Related Links

• Sally-Anne Friedland’s Dance Drama Company

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.

But with its decided focus on Israeli artists, Maholohet often reveals fresh trends in the country’s dance scene. This year, video is at the top of the list. Among the premieres are Rina Schenfeld’s Angels, Sally-Anne Friedland’s A Private Collection, and Amir Kolben’s Gates of Jerusalem – all of which are illuminated by video art.  Video also lights up Arkadi Zaides’s Solo Siento, Ofra Idel’s Harmony Sucks 4, Tania Vinokur’s Cinco – Flamenco Fusion, Yoram Karmi and Uri Morag’s Man, Woman, Reflections, and Tamar Borer and Tamara Erde’s Isaora Hun.

Another revelation is the wide range of dance styles performed in this small country.  Besides contemporary dance – which itself is varied – Maholohet includes African dance, Middle Eastern dance, Indian dance and quite a bit of Spanish flamenco.  Regardless of style, each program is filled with imaginative artistic vision and talented, energetic performers.  It’s a good thing that the theater has air conditioning, for Maholohet‘s program is as hot as Tel Aviv’s steamy summers.

Video: A preview of Tamar Borer and Tamara Erde’s Isaora Hun, which will be performed in Studio Suzi

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

• “Amir Kolben’s Gates of Jerusalem – Dancing the Real Jerusalem”
• “Rina Schenfeld Dance Theatre: About Angels“

Related Links

• Dance In Israel Events calendar – with listings of the festival’s performances
• Suzanne Dellal Center