Dance

Finally Ready To Tackle Bach

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:05:00 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Israeli-born choreographer Emanuel Gat takes on ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’ in a new, evening-length work.

The Israeli choreographer Emanuel Gat has a theory about artistic creativity. Basically, there are two types of artists: one has a fairly clear vision of the work he wants to create before he begins, while the other has no idea at all. Instead, this latter type only uncovers something that already existed; he is merely a midwife, or as Gat puts it, a sort of scientist discovering hidden laws of nature that have existed all along.

Choreography Emanuel Gat

Building A Cultural Bridge In Washington Heights

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:37:00 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Jewish and Dominican teens forming bonds over the Sosúa story.

Four years ago, Victoria Neznansky was faced with a difficult task. She was the newly hired chief program officer at the YM & YWHA in Washington Heights, which serves a predominantly Dominican community. And it was her responsibility to find a way to attract families from the area’s Jewish population, which had been dwindling for decades — all without alienating the dominant population.

Museum of Jewish Heritage Washington Heights

The Choreography That Binds

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:52:52 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Ohad Naharin’s relationship with the Alvin Ailey company goes back years. Now he’s helping the troupe’s new director ‘take the next step into the future.’

In the 1970s, Ohad Naharin’s career as a dancer in Israel was just taking off when he left for America to be with his wife. Naharin was, at the time, one of Batsheva’s most promising dancers, doted on by Martha Graham, the iconic American choreographer who helped train many performers in the budding Israeli company. But then he met Mari Kajiwara, an American dancer with the Alvin Ailey company.

Two Jews Take On The Shakers

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Playwright Alfred Uhry and choreographer Martha Clarke explore the devoutly Christian group in ‘Angel Reapers.’

These days, a musical about a community where all members gather in the nude to sing and dance wouldn’t seem all that strange. After all, “Hair” has been around for decades.

But if you heard that this community was devoutly Christian, took vows of celibacy, and actually flourished nearly 200 years ago, you might raise an eyebrow. Perhaps you’d raise the other one if you heard that both the creators of this show were Jews.

Angel Reapers dance-theater performance

Dancing Between Worlds

Dara Levin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:20:00 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Acclaimed young choreographer Avi Scher has had to balance the rigors of ballet and of Orthodox Judaism. It hasn’t been easy.

When Avi Scher was accepted to the School of American Ballet almost two decades ago, when he was 10, he and his family faced a stark choice: they could stay in Israel with their tight-knit Orthodox community, where Scher was already training with one of the country’s prestigious ballet companies.

Mapping A Rich Heritage

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:38:24 +0000

Dance

Ted Merwin

Special To The Jewish Week

Ex-Ailey dancer’s ‘HaMapah’ is ‘my own drash through dance.’

Of all the arts, perhaps none surpasses dance at distilling the profound feeling of dislocation experienced by diasporic peoples.

Adam McKinney Dance DNAWorks

The Waltz Of Germany

James Besser — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:40:55 +0000

Dance

Caroline Lagnado

Special To The Jewish Week

In ‘Tides,’ an avant-garde troupe fuses dance, theater and a country’s tragic history.

It seems fitting that a German ensemble would stage a work keenly evoking terror, displacement and survival amid catastrophe. Next week the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival will host “Gezeiten” (the aptly titled “Tides” in German), a dance theater performance choreographed by the likewise appropriately named Sasha Waltz.

Brooklyn Academy of Music Dance Germany Sasha Waltz

A ‘Fool’ For Dance

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:29:14 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Israeli ex-pat choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s new piece for the Cedar Lake ballet may or may not have anything to do with shtetl life.

When the Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter moved to London in 2002, he thought he could leave his past behind. But no luck: “In the back of the mind of the audience, they know I’m Israeli,” Shechter said in a recent interview. “I feel that this is how people look at me.”

ballet Dance Hofesh Shechter

Art Spiegelman Draws A Dance

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:34:21 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

Collaboration with Pilobolus has famed illustrator working — in his own dimension — with live dancers.

About a year ago, Pilobolus, the renowned dance troupe that arrives at New York’s Joyce Theater next week, contacted Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist of the Holocaust-themed book “Maus.” The troupe’s members wanted Spiegelman to make a dance with them, and were even willing to give him creative carte-blanche. No questions asked.

A Ballet For Bugsy Siegel?

Dani Shetrit — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:15:53 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

When she was growing up, Melissa Barak hated Christmas. “I used to beg for a tree,” said Barak, a choreographer who premiered a new work for New York City Ballet last weekend.

Her mother, who was Jewish, tried to cheer Barak up by listing all the famous Jewish stars. “Joan Rivers, Barbra Streisand, she’d say. She did it to make me feel better.” It didn’t work, Barak said.

But then her mother added one more: “Well, the guy who created Las Vegas was Jewish,” Barak recalled her mother saying. That caught her attention.

Anna Halprin’s Dance Therapy

Dani Shetrit — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:03:05 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

New documentary traces the varied steps of the pioneering
modern dance choreographer.

When Anna Halprin was growing up in the 1920s, she liked to watch her grandfather pray. He would rock back and forth, his long white beard swaying, while a string of unintelligible words rushed from his mouth. As his words became louder, faster, his body followed suit, moving in what seemed like some mystical dance. God must have looked something like that, Halprin remembers thinking. And so, she reasoned, “I thought God was a dancer.”

Emanuel Gat’s Silent Treatment

James Besser — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:21:56 +0000

Dance

Eric Herschthal

Staff Writer

The Israeli modern dance choreographer who studied to be a conductor premieres a work without music.

Dance Gat