Hydra, the newest work by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. Photo credit: Seto Hidemi.
A video clip from Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Shaker.
The very first work I saw at the Suzanne Dellal Center was Shaker, by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak. Despite my jet lag, I realized that Inbal and Avshalom’s visually stunning work was special - and when I later saw the Inbal Pinto Dance Company in Oyster (twice!) and Hydra, I knew that my initial assessment of these artists was correct. Want more proof of this couple’s exceptional talent and ability to win over audiences with their artistry? Several hundred performances after its premiere, Oyster still fills the house at Suzanne Dellal, and the Israel Festival had to add a third performance of Hydra this June because of the demand for tickets.
In between rehearsals for their new production and tours of their existing repertory, I caught up with Inbal and Avshalom to learn more about their work. You can learn more too if you tune in to our podcast!
If you’re in the U.S. next fall, you may get to see the Inbal Pinto Dance Company! From October to November, they will be touring with Shaker to Portland, San Francisco, Davis, Newport News, Gainesville, Miami, Philadelphia, Chapel Hill, Purchase, and New York. Check the Inbal Pinto Dance Company’s website for details soon.
I’ll leave you with one more treat:
Excerpts from Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s What Good Would the Moon Be,
I know I’ve mostly been writing about Batsheva and Gaga lately since I’ve been immersing myself in that portion of the dance scene here recently - and last week I got to take another great Gaga class with Ohad Naharin and see the company perform Sharon Eyal’s latest work, the very intense Makarova Kabisa! - but there is much, much more going on in Israeli contemporary dance that I’d like to share. Besides trekking to Vertigo Dance Company at the Eco-Art Village and interviewing Vertigo’s Noa Wertheim, I recently focused some of my energies on the Inbal Pinto Dance Company. Like Batsheva, this company has its studios and offices in the Suzanne Dellal Center itself, and in between rehearsals on Wednesday, Inbal Pinto and her partner Avshalom Pollak sat down with me in the center’s cafe for an interview. After seeing Oyster (twice!) and Shaker, I was excited to talk with them and see their new production Hydra kick off the huge Israel Festival in Jerusalem on Sunday. I wasn’t disappointed. Inbal and Avshalom talked passionately and poetically about their creative process, and Hydra proved to be a beautiful piece with unforgettable imagery. Now the company is off to Norway, and in the fall they will tour the U.S.; if you’re in one of the cities they pass through - I know San Francisco is on the list! - I highly recommend that you check them out. I’ll keep you posted, and you can find out more on their website - http://www.inbalpinto.com.
Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak aren’t the only Israeli choreographers heading abroad this week. Shlomit Fundaminsky is participating in the San Francisco International Art Festival (www.sfiaf.org) and will be performing there on Friday May 30th (7 p.m.), Saturday May 31st (2 p.m.), and Sunday June 1st (9:30 p.m.). I have enjoyed many of Shlomit’s contemporary technique classes at Noa Dar’s studio, and I’ve had the pleasure of viewing a few of her dances as well as her improvisational work. A little over a week ago I saw her perform Inner Pocket - the work she’ll bring to SFIAF - here in Tel Aviv, and I was quite taken with her powerful, expressive presence in the well-crafted solo. Here’s a video with excerpts of some of her work - and maybe some of you in San Francisco can see her live!
