I am grateful to have differentiated, through this experience, between criticizing (Bikoret in Hebrew) and visiting (Bikoor). Neither good or bad, I allow my thoughts and feelings to manifest here in the context of being a visitor.
The appropriation of contemporary dance into pop culture both strengthens and weakens our form. We love the exposure but feel angry that those benefitting from our hard-won aesthetics and practices are not the true owners. Tourists not citizens. We don’t see bigger audiences at Revelations because of a twirled umbrella in Formation. Read more
Shira and Anat Amrani took the beauty and virtuosity of two adamantly non-European forms – belly-dancing and Yemenite folk dance – and stripped them back of decoration, historicity and cultural context. They used what was left to craft a truly brilliant piece of contemporary performanceRead more
Rising is not the fanciest or most virtuosic piece, it doesn’t have dazzling costumes, props or music. It doesn’t want to impress you, shake you, manipulate you. It isn’t trying to be something. It simply is. And what it is is so much.Read more
In a very thought-provoking meeting with Neta Pulvermacher’s 3rd year students at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance , we talked about what it means to be a professional audience. What questions do we ask ourselves when taking in performance? What do we hope to gain from seeing shows?Read more
*english follows מספר מחשבות שעלו לי תוך כדי הצפייה במופע מולטי/ענת כ”ץ וארז מעין מעניין לדעת כמה מופעים שעלו כאן כותבים בברושור / פלאייר / דף ערב שלהם את צמד המילים “ניסוי בימתי”. וכמה מהם באמת מבצעים ניסוי כנה על עצמם וקהלם. במולטי, גם אם לא כתוב כך במפורש, היתה בהחלט תחושה של סיור במעבדה.Read more
Frank sexuality and bold gender politics also predominated in so much of the work, as if another form of resistance to social and political conservatism. Read more
A
Beautiful
Collaboration between Dana Ruttenburg and Noa Mark-Ofer.
Dance it was not but it was life itself. Read more
שאלתי את עצמי, איפה הקונפליקט. איפה המנוע שיניע את היצירה כולה, ואותי כצופה. האם זה מספיק, לקחת את הרגש הזה, את האהבה הקיצונית הזו, לכאורה שחוקה אבל כל כך חזקה, אותנטית ואוניברסלית, ולשים אותה על במה.
I ask myself why must I watch this? So I decide to walk out–I see no point in a woman taking this. They are no longer dancers in a dance but a man willfully striking a woman. Read more