Curtain Up is the place to experience the diversity and vitality of the Israeli dance scene. The annual event provides a platform and showcase for independent choreographers. Co-artistic directors this year are Itzik Giuli and Hillel Kogan, the program will include 13 premieres.
Itzik Giuli selected the following choreographers: Ohad Fishof and Noa Zuk, Ido Batash, Bosmat Nossan, Or Marin, Adi Boutrous, Tami Leibovitch, and Lilach Livneh.
Hillel Kogan selected the following choreographers: Sharon Zuckerman, Iyar Elezra and Asaf Salhov, Ella Rothschild, Ido Feder, Uri Shafir, Sahar Damony.
Curtain 1
“The Garden of Minutes” by Noa Zuk and Ohad Fishof.
Dancer/choreographer Noa Zuk and multidisciplinary artist Ohad Fishof have been creating together since 2007. They state that this work originates in their connection to a specific culture of the body in which they have developed and matured as creators of dance, and from their deep connection to the language of gaga, and a passion for movement. This dance relies on an ethnographic fantasy of invented folk dances of an imaginary ethnic group, resembling dance sci-fi – the possibility of imagining cultural difference as a means of self-exploration.
“12 Delayed Checks” by Ella Rothschild
The difficulty of finding an apartment in Tel Aviv has became a burning issue in recent public discourse. Young people find themselves competing for apartments and the search for the ultimate living space invites infinite grotesque situations. Ella Rothschild’s work focuses on these moments in a humorous performance that combines text and movement. 20 dancers from the dance program at Bikurei HaItim participate in this work, moving between 20 cardboard structures designed by Zohar Shoaf, with costumes by Inbal Ben Zaken, lighting design by Omer Shezaf and music by Uri Frost.
Performances: Wednesday, November 11th at 21:00; Saturday, November 21st at 21:00; Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv. Thursday, November 19th at 20:00, Jerusalem Theatre, Jerusalem.
Curtain 2
“Wig It” by Ido Feder
Ido Feder’s new work is a work for four dancers, a group of “contemporary people.” One might call them “hipsters,” or young artists. They belong to a fucked up, lazy, indifferent, lost generation, and it seems that they are missing the one element essential to becoming an artist: expression. Through the use of distinctive, colorful lighting, a diverse soundtrack and expressive language that traverses dance styles and eras, the group insists on an artistic expressive act. They do not delve into the depths, they do not invent the wheel, and they do not have an ideology – but they know what they need and what they lack, and they go for it.
“Somewhere in the Present” by Uri Shafir
A work for two dancers and a video artist, that asks the question: what’s alive in Live? Three men and 8 video screens are onstage, moving and creating a new space, a landscape where one can look in, and out simultaneously and ask – what is happening at this precise moment? Can we be present in this moment?
Performance times: Thursday, November 12th at 21:00; Wednesday, November 18th at 21:00; Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv. Friday, November 20th at 14:00, Mayza House, Jerusalem.
Curtain 3
“בתלם”/ path / في التلم by Sahar Damoni
Dancer/choreographer Sahar Damoni is a Christian Arab who grew up in Shfaram in a traditional community, within a reality that contains many conflicts. As a woman who has chosen to realize her ambitions in the field of dance, she struggles against social conventions and rigid laws set by the community in which she lives. In “path” she seeks to present this conflict on the stage, through the body which is the site of collision between the forbidden and the permitted, the desired and the existent reality.
“The Inner Ballistics of the Infant” by Sharon Zuckerman
Sharon Zuckerman Weizer presents an opportunity to examine through a magnifying glass, those apparently simple things that are part of the mental and physical existence. As a creator who tends to the multidisciplinary Zuckerman brings onstage the musician Adam Sheflan alongside experienced dancers. Sheflan is not responsible for the work’s soundtrack, rather he acts as a body that is expressive and moving in the space. In this work, the performers examine the remnants of the infant experience and try to preserve an innocent, childlike, pure and playful approach. As they survey past moments that defined who they have become today, the patterns of behavior – social, emotional, physical – that they have acquired over the years rise to the surface.
“The March of Broken Mouths” by Iyar Elezra and Asaf Salhov
Iyar Elezra and Asaf Salhov present a duet in which a street artist asks a dancer to join him in a march. They work together to create the performance, but each one has a different idea of what this march means. One understands it as a place, the other as an experience.
Performance times: Friday, November 13th at 22:00; Thursday, November 19th at 21:00; Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv. Wednesday, November 18th at 20:00, Beit Mazya, Jerusalem.
Curtain 4
“In vitro” by Bosmat Nossan
A work for four dancers in a world that resembles a distant, frozen planet. The four move through emotional expressions that might have been cut from comics or psychological thrillers. In her work, dancer/choreographer Bosmat Nossan researches movement, emotion and imagery and a mechanical means of expression.
“The Free Builders” by Ido Batash
A duet for dancers who aspire to a utopian situation. Choreographer Ido Batash explores our possibility as individuals in society to change the normative rules of behavior from the foundation. He creates a space which is as neutral as possible, in which the dancers are required to slough off their identities through practices of the body, to dismantle their identity and reveal the human matter of which we are made.
Performance times: Saturday, November 14th at 21:00; Friday, November 20th at 22:00; Suzanne Dellal Centre. Monday, November 16th at 20:00; Beit Mazya.
Curtain 5
“Void” by Or Marin
A work for three dancers that examines the material aspect of the body, and experiments with emptying and flooding it.
“The Happening” by Tami Leibovitch
Tami Leibovitch performs in this solo work. It is an encounter between mathematical logic and the expressiveness of a living body, examining the brutal utilization of formalism, mechanism, and series of actions devoid of productivity, actions that oppose hierarchy; in a space where a white woman stands who is sometimes blonde. She drops objects and limbs on the floor, she creates sound, sometimes it is cracked.
לחוד(ים) by Adi Boutrous
Dancer/choreographer Adi Boutrous performs in this work with the dancer Avshalom Latucha and the actress Ahuva Keren. The work combines text and movement, through which Boutrous wishes to present, in an absurd manner, our desire to define the people around us, and thus create distance between us and them. In this, as in his previous works, Boutrous expresses the search for identity as an individual, and as an Arab creating within Israeli society.
Performance times: Friday, November 13th at 15:00; Wednesday, November 18th at 19:00 and 20:30; Inbal Arts Centre, Suzanne Dellal Centre. Tuesday, November 17th at 20:00, Beit Mazya, Jerusalem.
Curtain 6
“The abstraction: A Space for Joint Prayer” by Lilach Livneh
A solo that confronts the attempt to reduce the body and the contemporary hyper-image conscious culture. In a series of actions that take on a religious-ceremonial character, Livneh, who performs in this piece, takes on different images that accumulate to the point of becoming an abstraction.
Performance times: Saturday, November 14th at 19:00 and 22:00; Saturday, November 21st at 19:00 and 22:00 in Dalia Studio, Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv. Sunday, November 15th at 20:00, Beit Mazya, Jerusalem.
Accompanying the festival will be a conference on Dance, curated by Ran Brown. The conference will take place in the Yerushalmi Hall at Suzanne Dellal Centre on Friday, November 13, 2015 from 11:00 – 14:00. Admission is free and open to the public.
Curtain Up is produced by the Israel Festival, Directed by Eyal Sher and produced by Miri Manirev; the project is managed by Keren Carmel, Head of the Dance Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tickets for Curtain Up are 60 NIS per performance.
Ticket information:
Curtain 1,2,3,4,6 – Suzanne Dellal, 5 Yehieli Street, Tel Aviv. www.suzannedellal.org 03-5105656.
Curtain 5 – Inbal Arts Centre, Suzanne Dellal. 03-5173711 www.barakmarshall.com
Curtain 1 – Rebecca Crown Hall, Jerusalem Theatre, 20 Marcus Street, Jerusalem. www.jerusalem-theatre.co.il 02-5605755.
Curtain 2,3,4,5,6 – Mazya House Theatre, 18 Mesilat Yesharim, Jerusalem. www.bmz.org.il 02-6230002.
*all descriptions of performances are based on texts received from the festival, translated to the best of my ability and understanding.
