Sachki Sachki – a dance performance by Rina Schenfeld, returns to the stage of the Inbal Theatre following its premiere there two months ago. The performance will take place on Friday, March 29, 2024 at 13:00.
Schenfeld, like most of us, did not imagine that such a cruel and terrible war would break out, a war that raises so many questions, and so much fear and confusion, now – just as she had been planning to mark several felicitous events: the 45th anniversary of her dance company, the 60th anniversary of the Batsheva Dance Company (Schenfeld is one of its founding members), and last but not least, her 85th birthday.
Schenfeld states: “I kept asking myself whether the dance spoke strongly enough, and whether it has the right to exist at all in the midst of the wars and evils that people create… do I have the right to create, or perhaps, on the contrary, is it my duty to create in these times?”
“I feel a connection to the well-known phrase (in Hebrew) omanut o namut – art or death. Art sustains me, especially in these times. It is also important to me to continue creating, to reach out to audiences who need art that supports and expresses what we are all going through, art that consoles and encourages. I feel a duty to continue to create and ‘play’ – as in the name of this work Sachki Sachki (sachki means play).”
Sachki Sachki is the title of a poem by Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875 – 1943), also known as “I Believe”. The poem was set to music, and Schenfeld’s father would sing it to her at bedtime: “Rejoice, rejoice now in the dreams I the dreamer am he who speaks/ Rejoice, for I’ll have faith in mankind”*
The soundtrack for Sachki Sachki is composed of poems written by Schenfeld, who recorded her reading of the poems. In addition, there will be original music by the Israeli, New York-based composer Ari Frankel. Schenfeld is known for her creative use of objects in dance, as she does in Sachki Sachki. Newspapers are a part of the work’s visual landscape, representing the constant urge in this time of war to know what is happening, as are cellophane papers that symbolize flags as well as the way vision is inevitably filtered, and sand that represents the earth and the passage of time. Schenfeld seeks to express the disaster, as well as the desire for hope, brotherhood and quiet, she stated, “Despite the hardships and struggles, the work has a feminine power and it ends in hope and faith.”
The second work in the evening’s program will be “Hayu Leilot” (there were nights), choreographed by Schenfeld and performed by dancers and co-creators Joanna Ofer, Ayala Yaakov, Lana Rikner, Denise Klein and Dorit Kochavi. The soundtrack includes passages from Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, which expresses the post-war feeling, as the dancers in Schenfeld’s work rise from the ashes and begin the process of rehabilitation. Featured as well in the soundtrack is German composer Carl Orff’s O Fortuna.
The performance of Sachki Sachki will take place on Friday, March 29, 2024, at 13:00 at the Inbal Theatre, in the Suzanne Dellal Center. Tickets may be purchased online or call 03-5173711.
*Translation by Vivian Eden, who has translated “sachki” as “rejoice”. https://www.emjc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Tchernichovskythe-other-national-poet.pdf
