I think the major opinion about returning to work as a dancer after maternity leave is that we become less hireable and that our bodies change for the worse. A big question employers ask is “how will these mother/dancers ever manage a tour life with children”? I understand these worries and to say I never had them would be lying. But how are we supposed to overcome certain beliefs if we believe them ourselves?Read more
In the same week, I attended performances of 2019 by Batsheva Dance Company and Shira Eviatar and Hadar Ahuvia’s Possessing. As an audience member, my reflections on these shows were influenced by the juxtaposition of the two in my mind. After all, audiences always bring the past experiences into the theater, superimposing what they haveRead more
It stands to reason that, when observing artistic works, in this case dance works, we should consider the financial stakes at hand in their creation. Whereas one artist can create something that will provide food and rent for tens of families, another will make a work that will put them in debt. Is the financial gain a factor in the work that is made?
Are artists creating small-scale work with little to no financial gain to be had actually freer to say what they want than the big dogs?Read more
In a repeat viewing of the legendary Carnations by Pina Bausch (my first was in Caesarea many years ago, 1991?), I observe as one views a postcard sent from relatives in a distant country. It’s beautiful there but chilly. The essential element is missing, the thing that always characterized Pina Bausch’s works. The essential, for me, is the moment in which the action on stage floods out into the audience, threatens, keeps me up at night and makes me identify with the characters/dancers and to worry about their physical emotional well-being.Read more
זֶה הֲכִי לוֹקָאלִי הַדֶּרֶךְ הַזֹּאת לסוזן דָלָל.
לֹא-קַל-לִי בִּכְלָל.
וּבֶטַח גַּם לָהֶם לֹא.
וְגַם לְאִירִיס שֶׁכְּבָר מְחַכֶּה עַל הַבָּמָה,
וּתְסַפֵּר לָנוּ בַּגּוּפָה עַל הַמְּקוֹמִיּוֹת.
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
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