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DEBORAH FRIEDES |
A sign pointing towards Vertigo Dance Company’s studio on Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey.
Vertigo’s building.
Vertigo’s gorgeous, spacious studio.
A view from the studio - farm equipment and all!
It’s not often that you gaze out the window of a dance studio and see tractors with bales of hay - but during my visit to the Vertigo Dance Company on Sunday, that’s exactly what I saw. Located in Israel’s Elah Valley, Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Hey is home to the new Eco-Art Village, an intentional community of environmentally-friendly artists pioneered by Vertigo’s directors Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al. It’s an incredible place, but for now I’ll just leave you with these pictures and save the explanation for the interview to come!
When I was there on Sunday, I observed a rehearsal of Noa’s latest work, Ra’ash Levan (White Noise). The dance’s movement vocabulary - with influences from ballet, release technique, contact improvisation, and martial arts - kept me focused on the activity within the studio despite the temptation to look out the windows at the unfamiliar and beautiful surroundings. I returned to the Eco-Art Village on Tuesday for a school performance of Birth of the Phoenix. Premiered in 2004, Birth of the Phoenix is a site-specific work in which the company dances on a special dirt floor under a geodesic dome that is re-constructed for each show (the group has performed the work hundreds of times in Israel and abroad). Like White Noise, this work is extremely athletic with plenty of floorwork, soaring jumps, and partnering - and seeing the dancers throw themselves (at times literally!) into such full-bodied movement on a dirt floor was inspiring.
Here are a few photos to give you a sense of the setting for Birth of the Phoenix:
Me outside the geodesic dome for Vertigo’s Birth of the Phoenix
Inside the dome before the performance.
