Steps Forward: Dance Training, Israeli-Style
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DEBORAH FRIEDES |
Riding in style with the Batsheva Ensemble on the Batsheva bus!
The theater in Kfar Saba which hosted studio Zeadim’s end-of-year performances
As a dancer who performs in a variety of aesthetic frameworks, occasionally teaches technique, stages repertory, and conducts dance history research through physical as well as traditional means, I’m always intrigued by the intricacies of training. Sometimes my inquiries are bounded by time periods. In graduate school, for instance, I cast a critical eye on the nascent techniques of American modern dance in the 1920s and 1930s. Right now, though, my inquiries are bounded by geographical space: the borders of Israel.
I started my examination of dance training in Israel by taking both Gaga classes and a variety of contemporary dance classes at studios throughout Tel Aviv-Yafo. As my body absorbs the information in these settings, I better understand the particular techniques themselves as well as the ways in which they are disseminated. Yet individual classes - and particularly the classes I take, which draw a population of working dancers and/or adults who dance for pleasure - do not provide a sense of how Israel’s training system functions, how a network of studios and schools prepare aspiring dancers for professional careers. To learn more, I’ve stepped outside of the professional Tel Aviv circuit, talked with teachers of younger dance students, and attended an array of student performances: a smorgasbord of pieces performed at the Suzanne Dellal Center by dancers from a variety of studios; a selection of works performed by students from several performing arts high schools; student compositions at the highly regarded Telma Yellin high school in Givatayim; workshop performances by young dancers who are studying Gaga with teachers from the Batsheva Ensemble; end-of-year concerts by students at the Zeadim (Steps) studio in Kfar Saba; and concerts by undergraduate students at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Here are the basics, from my vantage point:
Ballet, the foundation of many dancers’ training in the U.S. and Europe, does not have strong roots here in Israel. Without a wealth of professional ballet companies and their attached academies, the country’s dance training system for children and adolescents follows a different model. There are plenty of independent studios throughout Israel, but it seems that for teenagers who are serious about becoming dancers, the key site of training is a solid high school dance department (and I mean solid - this is not at all like my public high school in the U.S., which had two classes labeled dance that primarily readied us for swimsuit season with lots of ab work set to music). The best high school programs in Israel bear some resemblance to U.S. university programs, with courses in ballet, modern dance, composition, improvisation, repertory, history, anatomy, music, and other related subjects. It’s from here that many dancers enter the professional world, further polishing their skills in workshop groups and second companies (such as those affiliated with Batsheva, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, or Vertigo Dance Company) or performing with independent choreographers. The university, which has such a prominent role in educating America’s modern dancers, is barely present in the Israeli training system. Two notable exceptions are Seminar HaKibbutzim in Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, but their programs emphasize pedagogy rather than performance or choreography. It’s important to note that the students at these colleges are older, having spent a few years - often the most formative ones in a dancer’s life - completing army service. Some dancers get out of the military in order to train and perform during this crucial phase of artistic development.
While the nuts-and-bolts differences between Israeli dance training and American dance training are intriguing, it is what is taught in the studio itself that is most fascinating. I’m not sure how some of you trained, but until I went to college, I merely had a smattering of modern dance at Princeton Ballet and Walnut Hill’s summer ballet workshops with an extra dose thrown in through a pull-out modern dance program for high school students in my county in Jersey. Here, however - at least from the look of the performances I have seen - modern (or contemporary) dance is the name of the game. I most recently went to nearby Kfar Saba for the end-of-year performances by a local studio called Zeadim (Steps). Yes, there was some ballet and some tap on stage, but there was clearly a modern dance thrust to the training and the resulting show. The school’s director, Adi Hen-Degani, talked about the influence and inspiration of the Batsheva Dance Company, and her studio’s older students actually studied Gaga, the training method developed by Batsheva’s director Ohad Naharin. Doron Raz taught Gaga to Zeadim’s teenagers once a week and set excerpts from Naharin’s work. The 12 to 15-year-olds enthusiastically danced the accumulative “Echad Mi Yodea” section that has cropped up in various productions and that you might recognize from Deca Dance, while the 16 to 18-year olds passionately broke out into full-bodied solos in the “Arab Line” section from Virus (it has also been featured in Deca Dance). As part of the connection between Zeadim and Batsheva, the Batsheva Ensemble also performed Naharin’s Seder after each of two concerts so that families might see the progression and the possibility of where their budding dancers might be in a few years. Batsheva may not have a full school in the mold of those attached to American ballet companies (and some modern companies), but the company is building links with Israel’s existing training structures and consequently, some lucky students are making big steps forward in their abilities and artistry.
Many thanks to Eldad Mannheim, Adi, Doron and everyone involved in the Zeadim/Batsheva experience, as well as to David Dvir, Netta Blumenthal, Paul Bloom, and others who gave me a glimpse at other schools and student concerts!
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Thank you Vicky- the children and ballet lovers of Indianapolis are blessed to have
Although I was so distracted and excited by the changes that I probably didn’t make a very good tour guide. I kind of wish they would do an alumni event in the dorms as well. Perhaps in the summer when they are empty (between when the year round students and the summer students are there). Isn’t that what colleges do? Can’t you visit your old dorm? Anyway…
