I discovered the album “Ringing of Bells” by Ahuva Ozeri in a music store in the Malcha Mall fifteen years ago. The first listens flooded me with inspiration the intensity of which I had not experienced at that point. Two things were clear- the first that this was the material from which the subconscious is made, the second that one day this music would be the inspiration for an homage to Ahuva. Read more
Both pointe shoes and breastfeeding were passing moments in my life. The first because I eventually realized that ballet wasn’t my future and the second because the need for it waned. But I look back at both and remember that we are often stronger than we think and can handle more than we believe, that pain doesn’t always mean you’re doing something wrong and that the lessons learned by the body stay with us for life.Read more
I don’t go out dancing anymore.
I used to.
There was a period when I was out dancing pretty often.
Nowadays I may find myself on a dancefloor here or there for a few minutes, at a wedding, at a festival, if the spirit truly moves me. But I don’t go out to dance.
There’s that joy, when you’re out dancing, of hearing a song that you like, singing along, seeing others belting out and watching that song charge the bodies around you.Read more
בְּאוּלָם חָשׁוּךְ נִמְצָא חֲדַר חֲקִירוֹת לָבָןבּוֹ גֶּבֶר בִּלְבוּשׁ שָׁחֹרקוֹרֵס לְתוֹךְ עֹל שִׁכְמוֹתָיוהַזְּקוּפוֹת.בּוֹחֵן.אוֹתָנוּRead more
The choreographer lives in the “future”, plans the performance, maps out the score, imparts it to their colleagues while the dancer exists in “l’avenir”. The dancer’s true potential, personality, artistry and will come to fruition in “l’avenir”, in the unknowable future. It cannot be rehearsed, foreseen, controlled. It is the chemical reorganization of atoms that occurs to a performer when met with an audience that propels the dancer into this mystifying state of what is to come.Read more
It is true that technology is engulfing our lives and, in many ways, for the better. Our day-to-day is made more efficient and more comfortable by digital advancements. However, the creation of dance is something that, in my opinion, needs no tech bolstering or interventions.Read more
Choreographer Iris Erez made me pause at the Israeli Museum this month when she suggested that a room full of international visitors take selfies and place their phones on the ground, out of reach. Viewers peered down to find their reflections in a mosaic of black mirrors following Iris’ 30-minute-long solo, Self Ritual, presented by Machol Shalem Dance House’s Jerusalem International Dance Week, which hosts top curators and theater programmers from around the globe for five days of dance performances around the city.
As a performance artist whose works tend to associate with theater, I find that the performances that I love most are actually dance. I took a moment to wonder why and found three excellent reasons. Here they are:
Noa Shavit’s solo performance, Ingiven, shows a silently screaming mouth move above a sinewy body to Nick Cave’s stirring lyric, “The tree don’t care what the little bird sings.” If Shavit is that little bird, are we the tree? How many little birds fly around us that we fail to hear? There is a certain silence occupyingRead more
Pain of the Soul Ingiven – Noa Shavit Be in the pain Be the pain Explore the pain Let it out I know I did Thank You Noa Pain of Live Tissue Work of Flesh: Soundtrack for Five Slammed Bodies – Annabelle Dvir Flash The moment the flesh hit the ground Hoo Aaaa ChiiiRead more