Adi Sha’al and Noa Wertheim of Vertigo Dance Company. Photo by Eyal Landesman.
Noa Wertheim’s Vertigo and the Diamonds. Photo by Miri Yanai Shimonovich.
Noa Wertheim’s White Noise which premiered this year. Photo by Gadi Dagon.
As I have traveled through Israel’s dance circles, I have run into Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al many times: at Vertigo Dance Company’s concerts at the Suzanne Dellal Center, at contact jams, and at a performance of Noa’s work on students from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. With their company, their school in Jerusalem, and their growing artist village on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey, this dynamic couple is a powerful force in the Israeli contemporary dance scene. They’re also revolutionary in their community-centered and environmentally-conscious approach to dance. Join us as Noa talks about raising a family while directing a company, building the Eco-Art Village, choreographing the site-specific environmental dance Birth of the Phoenix, and engaging in “tikkun olam” - healing the world - through her work.
Hear our conversation, see more pictures, and link to videos on Israel Seen.
(URL: http://israelseen.com/2008/06/30/deborah-friedes-interviews-noa-wertheim-and-adi-shaal-the-directors-of-vertigo-dance-company/
I just wanted to share some photos and the press release of a show I put up last week-and-a-few here in Montreal with Kyra Jean Green, my friend and collaborator who graduated with me from the Juilliard School in 2006. This was my first evening show… ever! The evening was composed of little dances that we both choreographed individually. We linked them all with interesting transitions and made it a cohesive program lasting less than an hour. We received lots of compliments and great comments. We plan to do the show again sometime soon because of the enthusiastic demand for the show to happen again. Both Kyra and I were very happy and thankful for all who made the show possible. The dancers, volunteers, and the audience. Merci!
We performed at a studio loft for the first night and ran into the problem of figuring out how to seat the audience. So Kyra decided that we should buy blow up mini-inner-tubes and have the audience use them as seat cushions. The audience loved it! They particularly loved the blown up dolphin and Dalmatian dog. It was a really fun evening!
PRESS RELEASE
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Kyra Jean Green and Bennyroyce Royon present MUSIC DANCE FUN WOW !, an exciting collaborative dance show between two talented choreographers. Both graduated from the Juilliard School and currently dance with Cas Public. The event will be presented on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 9PM at STUDIO SPACE and on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 9PM at THE POUND. They have enlisted a stunning group of Montréal-based dancers. The program, which is a little less than an hour, includes several new works by both choreographers. Musical selections include music by Dani Siciliano, Cocoa Rosie, Archive, Venetian Snares, Ellen Alien, Autechre, and Animal Collective. Ms. Green’s talents have been praised by The Washington Times stating that “CityDance Ensemble is impressive. [One of] its greatest strength[s] is new dancer Kyra Jean Green…” She has also been acclaimed by Lisa Traiger a member of the Dance Critics Association, Carmel Morgan of “Ballet Dance Magazine, and by DC dance blogger Amanda Abrams who expressed that “Kyra Jean Green was terrific… clean movements, beautiful and a compelling presence.” Likewise, Mr. Royon’s dance and choreographic talents have been applauded by the Boston Globe, the Berkshire Eagle, and by Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times who expressed that Mr. Royon’s “keenly focused, succinct way with movement” was a pleasure to watch. Kyra Jean Green was born in France and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. She received her B.F.A. in dance from Juilliard in May 2006. Upon leaving Juilliard she danced and choreographed for City Dance Ensemble of Washington, D.C. Ms. Green was one of three winners selected from a pool of 114 applicants to participate in a one-week residency to create an original work for Hubbard Street II. She has also choreographed for Bosma Dance of Washington, D.C. and had an evening of her work presented at the Kennedy Center. In September, Ms. Green will be choreographing a new piece for the Michigan based company Eisenhower Dance Ensemble. Mr. Royon was born in the Philippines. He started professional dance training at age 16 with the Evergreen City Ballet Academy and received his BFA degree at the Juilliard School in 2006. Mr. Royon joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet for its 2006/2007 season where he performed in the new production of Madama Butterfly, choreographed by Carolyn Choa and directed by Anthony Minghella. He also appeared in other MET Opera productions. In summer of 2007, he joined Rasta Thomas’ new all male company “Bad Boys of Dance” with a debut performance at Jacob’s Pillow as part of its 75th anniversary season. Mr. Royon’s choreographic works have been presented in Montréal, Maryland, Seattle, New York City, and at Jacob’s Pillow in Beckett, Massachussetts.
(Happy to tell friends about the successful evening!)
A crowd gathers for opening night festivities for TLV Fest at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
Back in February, I served as the assistant to the director on a short film by November Wanderin, and it debuted last night at the opening of TLV Fest, the 3rd Israel International LGBT Film Festival. November’s film centered around a developing love affair between a dancer and choreographer and she needed extra dancers to be in the choreographer’s company, so I also got to be on camera, stretching on a Tel Aviv beach and improvising in a rehearsal scene. I’m in it for about 20 seconds, but hey, it’s still my big screen debut!
There is an insightful article in the NY Times Arts section about Miro Magloire and the New Chamber Ballet. They are performing this weekend at City Center Studios Friday and Saturday night at 8pm. The show will also feature works by Constantine Baecher, one of which I got a good NY Times review for designing (photo below), and will also be the farewell performance for longtime NCB dancer, Christsin Hanna (center in photo below).
As many of you know, I have designed and made costumes for all of Miro’s new ballets for the last two years. It is always a fun project for me since I have to challenge myself to work to fit the particular confines of what they do, mainly LOLAstretch designs, and slowly I have made the push towards full dresses and alternately more spare and eccentric leotards with or without any chiffon attached.
{Elizabeth Brown in one of my first designs for NCB}
My designs for them must always take into account the following elements:
1. Space–they perform at City Center Studios, so there is not a stage and there are no stage lights. I want the costumes to be elegant and fabulous, but they must not overwhelm the audience, who sit quite close, or the piece. Nothing can be too “costumey” because there is no benefit of perspective. At the same time, I have wanted to expand from the sort of studiowear costumes that can be the obvious choice in such settings into what I consider actual costumes. In addition, there are also various body issues to take into account since the audience can “see” everything from where they are sitting. (This of course, has nothing to do with the dancers’ beautiful bodies, it is just a self-conscious fact of life in the dance business)
{Lauren O’Toole and Denise Small in a later concoction}
2. Budget–they are a small company and they pay me! While this is all fine and lovely this does not mean that my expenses can exceed a certain conservative amount per person, so there is always a certain level of creativity in figuring out how to achieve the look you want for the right price, not just fabric-wise but production-wise. The beauty of NCB is that they keep costs low so that they are able to present new works often. The article elaborates on this theme.
{Lauren and Damien in one of my first departures. This fabric did not really stretch which was sort of new for me!}
3. Timeline–no matter what Miro and I try to do to keep things from coming together at the eleventh hour, our production schedule seems to always get compressed. Part of this has to do with the fact I am costuming new work. So sometimes, if a ballet is coming along more slowly or being changed midway, this can affect my ability to get a headstart on designing. No point in designing something that does not go with the work. Another factor, is the schedule. While Miro has to some degree really perfected the dark art of scheduling, he still must contend with dancers and a designer that have a lot of schedule considerations, and so I don’t often get rehearsals or fittings with everyone at the same time until dress rehearsal.
{Denise, Lauren and Elizabeth in various length skirts.}
Oddly enough, I think working with these set elements has really enabled me to push myself and my creativity every time I work on something new for them. It has been such a pleasure to be able to grow as a designer with group that continues to grow as choreographers and performing artists. I really hope you can make the show–I will be there Saturday night!
CLICK HERE to read the NY Times preview article. CLICK HERE to see one of my leotard’s in a video clip that goes with the article.
This Friday is New York City Ballet’s first annual Dancers’ Choice evening, which was programmed and cast by Principal Dancer Jonathan Stafford, and features a world premiere ballet by dancers Adam Hendrickson (choreographer) and Aaron Severini (composer) among excerpts from a variety of ballets by Balanchine, Robbins, Martins, and Wheeldon.
Tickets are specially priced at $45 and $25. All proceeds from the evening will go to benefit the Dancers’ Emergency Fund, which exists to help dancers in times of extraordinary need.
There will also be a Silent Auction, as well as two film clips we’ve been working on (”The Monarch” about Adam and Aaron’s new work, and “When We Were Kids” featuring footage of NYCB dancers when they were little.)
Should be an exciting program, and it’s for a good cause. Maybe we’ll see you there!
Singular Sensation, Yasmeen’s latest work, is premiering this week in Tel Aviv. Photo by Tamar Lamm.
A video clip of Yasmeen Godder’s Sudden Birds.
If you’re part of the New York dance scene, you’ve probably stepped through some of the same doors as Yasmeen Godder. Born in Israel and raised in Jerusalem until age 11, Yasmeen moved to the U.S. with her family, attended the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City, studied at Movement Research and the Klein School, and received her undergraduate degree from NYU’s Tisch School. The Kitchen, DTW, and Dancing in the Streets have all commissioned work from her, and she was awarded a Bessie in 2001 for I Feel Funny Today.
If you’re part of the Israeli dance scene, you’ve undoubtedly felt Yasmeen’s influence and quite possibly crossed paths with her. I had heard of Yasmeen prior to arriving in Israel because of her activities in the U.S. and the acclaim which has greeted her works both in the states and Europe, and as soon as I arrived in Israel, I began to realize the impact she has made in her home country. Her name frequently came up in conversations about both choreographers and teachers, and many people urged me to see her work and take her class. So it was that I ventured down to Yafo to take technique at her studio, attended a performance there of Sudden Birds (see the video above), and went to a performance of I’m Mean, I Am at the Suzanne Dellal Center.
Months later, I’m not surprised that I heard so much buzz about Yasmeen. I found Yasmeen’s classes to be quite challenging and enormously helpful in their specificity, especially as I attempt to widen my body’s range and move with less muscular effort. She welcomes students’ reflections in class and presents her own ideas with clarity and details that enable me to adjust my mindset and body to a more unfamiliar technical framework. I also found Yasmeen’s choreography to be as challenging as her classes, and refreshingly so. Since my earliest research on the socially conscious New Dance Group, I have always been attracted to choreographers who examine social issues, but while many choreographers try to touch such subject matter, it is all too easy for their investigations to remain superficial and cursory. Not so with Yasmeen. She doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, and regardless of the subject at hand, she isn’t afraid to display even the most disturbing findings from her creative process onstage. It’s a tribute to her artistic integrity that at the second performance of Singular Sensation at Suzanne Dellal on Friday, the packed audience was peppered with dancers, choreographers, artists in other disciplines, and committed dance enthusiasts who were eager to see her latest work. The five dancers’ exploration of sensation was surreal at times - with green slime oozing down dancers’ bodies and a nightmarish section in which four dancers covered the fifth performer’s head in pantyhose and saran wrap, shoved oranges into his hands for squeezing, and pulled him into splits over a jello mold - but the applause filling the theater at the work’s conclusion was very, very real.
Back in April, Yasmeen sat down with me after a rehearsal so that we could chat a bit about her work. As in most of these conversations, we started at the beginning, talking about Yasmeen’s pathway from ballet and Graham technique through to her investigations of Klein technique, more broadly labeled release classes, improvisation, and yoga. Yasmeen had prefaced some of her classes with a disclaimer that she did not teach a particular technique, and so we talked at length about the various influences on her approach to movement. Klein features prominently in this array of influences, with its emphasis on releasing the exterior muscles and finding the bones; from Yasmeen’s exposure to this and other classes in the release spectrum, she also developed her strong connection to the floor, deep trust in space, and ability to use less effort. Yet Yasmeen also incorporates approaches that are, in some ways, at odds with the typical release practice and aesthetic. She can be shape-based at times, and through both her own process of questioning and her collaboration with a dramaturge, she ventures into a world which is more emotional and (for lack of a better word - this is admittedly inexact) theatrical. Yasmeen also discussed yoga’s impact on her training, which is evident in her use of particular sequences and stretches in the classes she teaches, and she further noted that the combination of physical, mental, and emotional aspects within yoga meshes with her own creative process and development of movement for choreographic works.
Speaking of choreographic works, we spent some time discussing one of Yasmeen’s dances which had a particularly powerful impact on me. Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder was made during the second intifada, and when I screened it on DVD in the autumn, it kept me up all night thinking and writing. I had wondered if I would see any dances here which tackled the Israeli-Arab conflict head-on, and I have found remarkably few either on stage this season or on video from previous years. Thus Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder stood out for me not only because of the strength of the choreography and its performance but also because of the subject matter. Surrounded by images in the news media in 2004, Yasmeen felt that she simply had to deal with what was happening in her country, and she assembled a series of photographs - a “catalog” of images - as a starting point. Dancers were instructed to “be” the photograph, without political or emotional comment, and each artist worked with a few photographs so that they switched roles: male, female, young, old, wounded, able, civilian, soldier. In this way, the boundaries between “victim” and “perpetrator” become blurred, just as these roles aren’t always clear or constant in the actual events of the situation here. I had recognized this particular blurring upon watching the piece, but listening to Yasmeen recount the choreographic process, my mind reached beyond the dancers’ appearances - their genders and ages - and I realized even more how complex and intense this exploration must have been.
Yasmeen continued to talk about images of war and images of heroes, raising questions both about how these subjects are photographed and how people look at and identify with these pictures; Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, she said, delved into many of the issues which were at the heart of Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder. We also discussed the response of audiences, which varied based on geographical location (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and cities abroad) as well as performance space (more intimate settings versus traditional proscenium stages which create a stronger division between the action onstage and the spectators in the house). Some Israelis didn’t perceive Strawberry Cream and Gunpowder as being about the situation here, whereas outside of the country - of course billed as a work by an Israeli choreographer - the dance was almost uniformly viewed as a piece concerning the Israeli-Palestinian situation. While audience members in any country are subject to the flood of war images these days, though, the Israeli crowds contained people who were directly connected to the dance’s source material including survivors of suicide bombings. As Yasmeen recounted one Israeli woman’s emotional response to the work, I couldn’t help thinking of how a woman mourning her young son tearfully approached Martha Graham after a performance of her signature solo, Lamentation. Like Graham before her, Yasmeen Godder knows that she may move members of the audience with her dances - and in my experience, she moves many viewers with her honest, probing work.
Read my initial response, Dancing through the Intifada, to Strawberry Cream and Gunpowderhere at my own blog.
(photo below), and will also be the farewell performance for longtime NCB dancer, Christsin Hanna (center in photo below).
