Jerusalem_office | Vertigo

One with nature.Ruth Eshel

The dancers are the real gems in Vertigo’snew work, ‘Reshimo,’ an aesthetic experiencethat projectsan energeticsense of continuity

Rachimo by Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company, refers, according to the company’s English-language website, to “the imprintof past impressionleftwithin. kabbalisticidea pertainingto the impressionof light the fine outline which remains when the lightsare gone and are no longer there.” ChoreographerNoa Wertheim sets out to giveform to the ineffable. “Reshimo” flows by like water, like lightwaves, which leave no trace and tellno story.Their presence is fleetinglyevanescent, inhabitingthe fine linebetween material and spiritual. Low, rectangularwhite lamp shades, evoking Japanese gardenor shrine, mark the boundaries of the stage,creatingan atmospherethat isclean,aesthetic,not to say ascetic.All eightdancers are on stageforthe entireperformance, sometimes sittingon the stoolsof light. There is quieton the stage duringthe dance, with flowingmotion of weight shifted from side to side.Graduallyall the dancers come togetherto forge connection ofwholeness, holdinghands in moving chain held togetherby energy. One of them utters syllable, which she repeats over and over as though wanting the sound to awaken the source of energy in the body,not relentinguntilthe palms of her hands are suffused with vibrationsand begin to shake Photos byMaayan Holam The dancers’ motions consist of small body-touchingmovements, which have characterized Wertheim’s work since her firstduet for Vertigoin .2991 These are accompaniedby virtuoso,but nevertheless soft,movements. The extremities of the body the palms of the hands and the feet are limp,as though to refrain from blockingthe inner tunnels of motion. The dancers are excellent, moving throughthe space with lightjumps as though trampoline-propelled,every motion honed and shining.Toward the end, autumn leaves cascade onto the stage,leaves that have ended theirlife and withered, dyingamid beauty,and the dancers of “Reshimo” commune with them, leapingupward intolifeand falling-rolling intothe leaves,as though desperateto disappearinto them and become one with nature. “Reshimo” is an aesthetic experience, projectinggratifyingcontinuity, without dramatic peaks.The real gems are the dancers.

Null – A Work in Progress by Noa Wertheim.AYELET DEKEL

Dance is an art form created between people. With the exception of a solo performed by a choreographer, the process of creating a dance almost always involves several people: choreographer, dancers, rehearsal director, costume set and lighting designers, and musicians. Over time, a dance company becomes a community, for the Vertigo Dance Company this sense of community is an integral part of their vision.

Founded in 1992 by Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al, the Vertigo Dance Company has found long term artistic partners in composer Ran Bagno, artistic assistant Rina Wertheim Koren, rehearsal director Sandra Baron, costume and set designer Rakefet Levy and lighting designer Dani Fishof. Their dialogue is characterized by close relationships; while always open to experience and change, welcoming new ideas, collaborators and visitors to the creative community.

In this spirit, the company invited visitors to the studio in late April to watch rehearsals in progress for Noa Wertheim’s new work: NULL. The dance will premiere on June 12, 2011, opening the Karmiel Dance Festival 2011. In anticipation of the premiere, there will be a performance in Jerusalem on June 6, 2011 at the Gerard Bachar Centre, where the company has made its home for many years.

On entering the room, one change was immediately apparent: in this work Rina Wertheim Koren had moved from the dance floor to join Noa, the two sisters and Sandra observing the dancers intently. Taking a seat alongside them, some of the dancers were familiar to me, others, who have recently joined the company, I encountered for the first time.

As the dancers moved, I recognized the impulses I have come to identify with Noa’s work: a strong connection to the ground that pushes up to leap into the air, the ever-shifting balance of power and movement between the individual and the group, a presence at once symbolic and exuberantly physical. Large movements demanding strength, speed and agility are interwoven with moments of delicate nuance: a hand spirals down the length of the torso like a feather in the wind, three hand gestures in different relationship to the body repeat like words in sign or code at different intervals in the dance, acquiring a symbolic significance.

Noa briefly commented to me that as she was in the process of editing the work, the dancers were not dancing full out, but only marking. The three women observed, reflected and commented on the dance as it took form on the studio floor, and the dancers commented freely as well. Trying out different sequences, experimenting, repeating the same section over and over again, yet each time with a subtle difference that alters the feel of the movement. The intensity of the work is difficult to imagine, commanding complete dedication of the body and mind, it is mesmerizing to observe.

When the dancers took a break, Noa took time out from NULL to tell me about the work in progress. “The music is growing with the work,” she said, “What I am seeing now is in different sequence. Two weeks ago I had 50 minutes on silence; the costumes were set up, half the info was there.”

Noa explained that in embarking on NULL, Ran Bagno, who has composed original music for most of Noa Wertheim’s choreography, “felt that the dialogue we were accustomed to in the past wouldn’t bring out this work to its fullest. I love to work with him, we’ve been working together for 15 years and I wanted him to stay with me.” The solution they found was to add a musical partner, Stefan Ferry, a former dancer with the Batsheva Dance Company who had worked with the Vertigo Dance Workshop, to “bring something new into the mix.”

The process was not always easy, recalled Noa, “We each have different languages, different perspectives. We had some difficult moments, but suddenly this week something started happening. Stefan brought another dimension into the soundtrack, layering the sound. Ran and I never worked like this before. I still don’t understand what is happening…”

In the empty space of the studio, Noa gestured to indicate the visual aspects of NULL, saying, “On the right there will be a white fabric lit from behind and also on the back two flat strips will create large walls of light, and the audience will be somewhat lit. I never saw it; I just have it in my mind. We saw a model. Rakefet Levi and Dani Fishof are working together. There will be white bathroom tiles on the fourth wall; it somehow reminds me of teeth…and some source of water like a sink that reminds me of a public bath.”

The flow of her words, images, ideas and associations is as free, fast and full of same explosive energy she brings to her work on the stage. Noa explained that in this work she began by researching the movement on silence, the advantage being that “without sound I can always play with the editing.” This process of editing, is what I had the opportunity to experience in the studio, to see the work in the eyes of the choreographer as she saw it in that moment. “Everything is open,” she said, “like Lego.”

“I always have two motives that are opposite,” said Noa reflecting on her work, “The world is always structured that way – good and bad. Mana related to the space and the new work, NULL relates to time.” She explained the kind of exploration undertaken in the work, demonstrating that “different movements contain the same energy, released in different time segments for a very different feel and impact.” She said that this work also originates in the experience of her relationship to time as a woman reflecting on her life, “All I do is listen to something deep that exists in the universe, give myself up to it, and begin to create a world, in layer upon layer, connected to time.”

Vertigo Dance Company.HEATHER WISNER

Those new people in that big white house, the ones who keep coming and going and gathering out front—what are they doing, exactly?

As it turns out, they are Vertigo Dance Company and they’re just visiting for the weekend. They’ve come all the way from Jerusalem to share a contemporary dance piece called Mana, Vessel of Light with us, and this is their first time on the West Coast, so we should be hospitable—maybe bring them a fruit basket.

But first, let’s talk about Mana, a remarkable work that choreographer Noa Wertheim has made, according to program notes, from “unique movement composed of a spiral structure that gathers energetic momentum …” There’s more, but that’s a good starting place. Mana—which takes place in and around a set designed to look like a large white house—does indeed have a spiraling motif. Some of that comes from the individual movement of these well-trained dancers, including wonderfully fluid recurring torso rolls that initiate at the waist and undulate up through the top of the head. There are also sweeping flexed-foot barrel turns, beautifully executed by men in long tunics, skirts and wide-legged trousers that wing out to the sides, expanding the movement’s radius. These, in turn, are done in larger group circles, as are big waltzy duets between the company’s four men and its four skirt-and-headscarf-wearing women.

The circular motif is punctuated by ritualistic and gestural movement, duets in which the dancers roughly manipulate their partners’ limbs and features, and a section in which the performers, performing in bright spotlight, cast long dancing shadows of themselves across the house’s front. Occasionally, a girl in short shorts slinks along the back of the stage carrying a large silvery balloon.

Who these people are, and what their relationships are to one another, is subject to debate. The plain costumes and intensely focused movement bring various international personages to mind, from whirling dervishes to Buddhist monks. The no-frills set and the music, which incorporates march and waltz rhythms into an echo-y klezmerish score, suggests something more like kibbutz dwellers. Taken as a whole, this place and its inhabitants could reflect the multicultural crossroads that is Israel. Whatever you may take away from it when you leave, Mana, Vessel of Light is a mesmerizing hour of dance—and a visit worth paying.

From Israel To Boston, The Vertigo Dance Company Takes The Shubert Stage. Lawrence Elizabeth Knox

“I never had this plan in my mind,” said choreographer Noa Wertheim, reflecting on her dreams as a young dancer at the start of her career. Yet a friendship with a fellow member of the Jerusalem Tamar Dance Company quickly developed into both an artistic and romantic collaboration, she explained in a Skype interview alongside her now-husband Adi Sha’al.

“We just wanted an excuse to meet in the studio. That’s the real story,” she said, both of them laughing. What began as a duet between her and Sha’al in 1992 has not only developed into one of Israel’s leading contemporary dance troupes, but a new way of life, a community of environmentally conscious artists.

This weekend (Oct. 29-30), 12 dancers in the Jerusalem-based Vertigo Dance Company will make their Boston debut, performing “Vertigo 20” at the Shubert Theatre as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston.

Created in 2012 in honor of the company’s 20th anniversary, “Vertigo 20” is a compilation of past works, a walk through history with pieces of choreography from the original duet to present repertoire. Through the creation process, however, “Vertigo 20” took a shape of its own. “Just the people who know the company very deep can recognize which [choreography] belongs to what,” said Sha’al, general manager and co-artistic director.

The piece is a celebration, Wertheim explained, but an element of contradiction adds an emotional depth to the theatricality of the work. The dancers are dressed as clowns, but the atmosphere remains sophisticated and heavy, she said, describing a poetic moment of 20 white balloons filling the stage.

“The question of choice, the game between heaven and earth bothers me a lot,” Wertheim said. “When you dig and find the nice place of the unknown, and you try to put it in a visual, physical way, it is art for me.” A philosophical uncertainty is apparent throughout her work, perhaps inspired by her strong connection to Kabbalah, a mystical Jewish philosophy. At one point, the dancers sit on shelves of metal. Their feet dangle over the edge, she explained, the space between them and the floor symbolizing that between our world and the world to come.

The music by Israeli composer Ran Bagno, the company’s musical director, only emphasizes the profoundness of the piece. “We see the flavor, the atmosphere the piece needs,” Wertheim said, “and then he decides the instruments and starts writing.” Incorporating music after she begins the choreographic process might seem unconventional, but neither Wertheim nor Sha’al have followed a traditional path.

Both of their careers began late — around the age of 21. “Noa because she’s coming from a religious background, and it was not considered modest enough,” Sha’al said. “Me personally, dance was not for men in this country.”

However, after completing Israel’s mandatory military service (two years for women and three years for men) and volunteering an extra year, the artists found their way to dance. Their original duet, “Vertigo,” stems from Sha’al’s firsthand experience as a pilot in the air force. “We took this feeling of dizziness, or vertigo,” Sha’al said, “and we projected it from the world of flying into dance, into relationships.”

In a way, relationships lie at the root of the couple’s work. Nine years ago, Wertheim and her three sisters created Eco-Art Village, an eco-friendly, tribal community that unites individuals of diverse populations, those with different religions, cultures, abilities, and more. The sisters live together with their families (Wertheim and Sha’al have 3 boys) at the Village, which overlooks the Valley of Elah, where David once defeated Goliath.

“We are focusing quite a lot on three pillars, which is art, human, and nature,” Sha’al said. “I think what is unique about Vertigo is this holistic way of thinking.”

The Village is not the first time Vertigo Dance Company has explored social innovations. In 2001, the troupe performed “The Power of Balance” by choreographer Adam Benjamin, a work that unites company members and physically challenged individuals onstage. Due to the show’s success, the company developed an integrated dance program by the same name.

Another branch of Vertigo is its International Dance Program, where students from around the world, ages 18-25, study Wertheim’s style of contemporary movement called the “Language of Vertigo.” Offering more than dance training, the program also encompasses the ideology of the company, and the artists live where they work — at the Eco-Art Village.

This way of life, a life of artistry, collaboration, sustainability and community, is what the couple aspires to share with audiences around the world. “It’s very real for myself, this family oneness,” Wertheim said. “The life and the art is one. I don’t separate it. I go to the studio, and it’s part of my life, part of my family.”

Vertigo Dance Company and Noa Wertheim Host. Elad Shechter

When I called Adi Sha’al and Noa Wertheim, who direct the Vertigo Dance Company, they had just landed in Israel after an appearance at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America in Washington D.C. There they had presented an excerpt from Wertheim’s Mana, which will be officially premiered in Curtain 2 along with Elad Shechter’s Roni. I chatted with the couple about their U.S. trip and their experience with Curtain Up

Dance In Israel: How was your time at the General Assembly?
Adi Sha’al: People were very moved by Vertigo’s performance, and people came [up to us] afterwards, after they were clapping hands for a long time and standing up – some people even with tears. We also talked about our social vision of the company and the Eco-Art Village . . . And we also did workshops and created connections with dance companies in D.C.

DII: What is your relationship to Curtain Up?
AS: It’s been a good relationship. Vertigo [Dance Company] has been around for 17 years now, and all of our first shows were under this title, under Curtain Up. We owe a lot to this institute.

DII: What drew you and Noa to select Elad Shechter to be the choreographer for this program?
AS: Elad used to be a dancer in our company, so we’ve known him for several years now. Once Nilly Cohen [director of the dance department in the Culture and Arts Administration] and the people at Haramat Masach came with the idea of coaching, we said basically the only one that we can really coach and we can say that it will be real for us is somebody that we know, somebody that we have a dialogue with.

AS: In a way, we are marking here two companies. One is the main company which Noa is doing a piece for, and the other one is the young company, the Vertigo Ensemble, which Elad is doing a work for, and it’s [all] happening in Vertigo’s studios under the umbrella of Vertigo’s production. And we [work with] the same co-artists. Ran Bagno is making the music for both pieces; he’s a musician we’ve been working with together many years now. Danny Fishof, he’s our lighting designer; he is doing the lighting design for both pieces, Mana and Roni. And the costume designer is Rakefet Levy; she’s doing both pieces. So we feel like it’s a production house called Vertigo, and it’s very exciting for us to do these two things together side-by-side in the same evening.

DII: Noa, can you tell me a bit about where Mana came from?
Noa Wertheim: I like to work from the movement, and I never have a clear idea, but I do have a certain attraction to something. This time, the line and the circle came straight away. After I was dealing with Ra’ash Lavan [Noa’s previous work, White Noise], where gravity was so important, it was different to work with the shapes.

Bringing Modern Dance Down to Earth. Stacey Menchel Kussell

Noa Wertheim stands onstage with the Vertigo Dance Company, adjusting a dancer’s leg and redirecting a turn. If she disagrees with a step, her head shakes a cascade of wispy, brown hair into her eyes. Wertheim is an architect. She constructs an edifice of movement, pattern and line. Working toward perfection in every rehearsal, she builds the choreography until it is unveiled after weeks, months or even years of being under scaffolding.

Wertheim does more than just build dance onstage; she relishes the connection to the ground — the dirt and the spiritual sweat of nature. She smiles when she is called a “tree hugger,” but she avoids labels. Wertheim considers herself simply a social artist, one who hopes to use dance as a creative expression to effect a deep and lasting cultural change.

Contemporary ballet and environmental activism do not often go hand in hand. The Vertigo Eco-Arts Village, however, is a place where dance and ecology come together. Wertheim’s current project fostering green renewal is a natural progression in the dancer’s life-long commitment to the earth. The Eco-Arts village is an extension of the Vertigo Dance Company, the celebrated Israeli dance group founded by Wertheim and her husband, Adi Sha’al.

Inspired by sustainable agriculture and motivated by the challenge to balance work and family life, Werteim and Sha’al constructed a community where art lives and grows in an ecologically responsible way. In 2006 they bought space from Kibbutz Netiv Ha Lamed Hei, in the valley between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The couple renovated the farm in a sustainable fashion, using recyclable materials to convert a chicken coop into a space for dance rehearsal and performance. Over the past five years they founded a school for earth building, which holds workshops on construction techniques, permaculture and gray water recycling.

The Vertigo Dance Company is one of Israel’s artistic gems. One of several Israeli dance innovators, Vertigo stands apart from its compatriots — such as the Batsheva or Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak Dance Company — through its softer visual style. In contrast to Batsheva’s expressive ferocity or Pinto’s theatrical surrealism, Wertheim’s choreography is sinuous, organic and rooted to the earth.

While the Jerusalem-based Vertigo has headlined several contemporary dance festivals in Europe, it is relatively new to the American audience. This season, the company will premiere its piece “Mana” at three different venues in the United States: White Bird, in Portland, Ore.; Art Power at UC San Diego, and in New York as part of the City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival.

Vertigo emerged on the Israeli contemporary dance scene in 1992 as a choreographic collaboration between Wertheim and Sha’al, who were then dancers in the Tamar dance company. According to an interview the Forward held with Edo Ceder, another choreographer who trained with the couple, “Noa dances with a karmic, powerful beauty, and Adi is strong and sagelike. They create work that highlights what is glorious about the human form and the way it moves.”

Wertheim has always seen dance as a way to nurture. She started with an interest in teaching children, inspired by their unaffected, instinctual movements. As Vertigo’s main choreographer, she continues to develop a repertoire that educates about personal and societal struggle. The “Power of Balance,” a collaboration with British choreographer Adam Benjamin, uses dancers in wheelchairs to explore the concept of physical and emotional balance. “The Birth of Phoenix,” a site-specific piece performed outside with a portable geodesic dome, examines the human relation to and alienation from the earth, while “White Noise,” which features dancers imprinted with large barcodes, analyzes consumer culture and the disconnection from nature.

“We never felt that we were purely an aesthetic dance company,” Wertheim explained. “We look at humanity in our dance, and seek to engage and educate the community.”

“Mana,” the tour’s featured work, alludes to a passage in the Zohar, the founding text of Kabbalah. The title means “vessel of light,” and it relates to the search for completeness. Using delicate, gestural motion and powerful, surging leaps, the dancers embody images of emptiness and fullness. Dressed plainly and pilgrimlike, they dance in front of a silhouette of a house. They represent a flock, both religious and avian, rhythmically separating and coming together.

The music is an original composition by Ran Bagno, Vertigo’s longtime musical director. The playful score features Asian lute combined with elements of jazz percussion. Bagno and Wertheim created the sound together while looking at images from nature. The music embodies the interplay of masculine and feminine forms and the fiery tension of the male-female encounter. The sound echoes the rise and fall of the dancers’ movements and enhances the beauty of their struggle.

“The piece relates to the Zohar in its search for wholeness, but we have a more universal intention,” Wertheim said. “The search for fulfillment is a human search. It relates to our creative pursuits and to our families.”

Surrounded by their three sons and the children of other company members, Wertheim and Sha’al have a commitment to family and community that has truly blossomed at the Vertigo Eco-Arts Village. Located in the Elah Valley, where David once beat Goliath, the village is the site where Wertheim and Sha’al are waging their own battle for sustainable living. The village not only serves as a home for the company and their families, but also has expanded its programming to include an artist-in-residence program, a spiritual arts center, workshops for the disabled and classes in natural construction.

Vertigo is excited to perform in the United States — not only to showcase “Mana,” but also to educate audiences about the group’s ecological pursuits. Performances in San Diego and New York will include post-performance discussions and events open to the community.

. A SPARKLING PERFORMANCE. ORI J. LENKINSKI

With the new secular year just in, many of us have stopped to take a look back at our past accomplishments. For choreographer Noa Wertheim, 2011 is both a year of creation and a year of retrospection. Her troupe, Vertigo Dance Company, which she runs with her life partner Adi Sha’al, is currently performing several of Wertheim’s choreographies around the country.

And at the same time, they are busy in the studio, developing new ideas.

This month, Wertheim has revived Vertigo and the Diamonds. The piece was premiered six years ago and is a collaboration of Sha’al, Wertheim, composer Ran Bagno and the rock group The Diamonds. In the coming season, the company will perform Vertigo and The Diamonds nationwide.

In the past half decade, all parties involved have undergone major changes. The musicians playing with The Diamonds have left and been replaced, much like the dancers of Vertigo. Nevertheless, the show remains true to its original form, explained Wertheim in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Perhaps the most extreme element of Vertigo’s evolution since the creative process for this piece is their relocation to Kibbutz Nativ Halamed Hey. Moving toward a more ecological lifestyle, Sha’al and Wertheim transferred a large part of the company’s activities from their Jerusalem studio to their large, open workspace some 30 minutes south of the city. There, the dancers use ecological toilets, drink rainwater and rehearse within four mud walls.

Although their surroundings seem to have gotten softer in some ways, Wertheim’s work has taken a turn for the morose. Both of Wertheim’s most recent pieces, White Noise and Mana, have had an intensity and seriousness that is new to her. Trading the vibrant red costumes of Birth of the Phoenix for black robes designed by Rakefet Levy for Mana, the atmosphere on stage has gone dark.

“In the past few years I have made heavier and heavier pieces,” said Wertheim. “To go back to The Diamonds was a celebration for me and for the dancers. Every time they start dancing, there is this joy emanating from their bodies.” Vertigo and The Diamonds is a theatrical work that touches on relationships, jealousy and the need for attention.

“The piece touches on all the senses and, most of all, it is fun. I think that is hard to achieve in modern dance, fun,” Wertheim went on. “It’s also great fun to perform with live musicians. For the dancers, working with live musicians is one of the most inspiring things.”

At present, Wertheim is at the beginning of a creative process for a new work, which will premiere officially in November at the Suzanne Dellal Center. She does not yet know if this new opus will have the lighter, sillier atmosphere of Vertigo and The Diamonds or if it will continue the line of her recent endeavors.

“When I create,” she said, “I don’t plan how it will come out in the end. I have no idea. We have just begun to build the music, to get into creating material. But really, I don’t know what it will be yet, not at all

Vertigo Dance Company inundates the country with “Yama.”

Noa Wertheim talks a lot about the elements.
“You are very air here, and I need you to be more earth” is a correction she has been known to give to her dancers. When she speaks about fire, she isn’t only recognizing the positive elements but the potential danger it possesses.

“The same material can be soft and smooth and also strong and destructive,” says Wertheim over the phone. It is a Sunday morning, and Wertheim’s dancers are just finishing their warm-up, preparing for another intense day. The past few months have been busy for the members of Vertigo Dance Company. With a new creation on the presses and multiple existing works being performed in Israel and abroad, they haven’t had much time to catch their breath.

The new work, which will premiere next week, is a study of the many faces of water.

“I started research on Yama a long time ago. I started to look at movements that are at the extremes of the water spectrum. If water has no boundary, it will flow and flow. It keeps moving. On the other hand, if water is closed in on, it will explode in such a powerful way that it can create a tsunami,” she explains. “At the end of the day, there are very few things in the world that we don’t have any control over, and water is one of them.”

The process, which began last year, saw a significant turnover in the Vertigo cast. Whereas Wertheim had grown accustomed to creating alongside dancers who had been with her for several years, predominantly new artists will perform Yama.

“There was a very challenging phase when I tried to explore the movement material on a group of my veteran dancers. Then, in September, I had a big turnover of dancers. We had a big tour. And then I had to pass the material on to these new dancers. I’m used to working with dancers for five to eight years. Suddenly I had a change, and the oldest company member had been here for three years,” she says. discovery of the material at hand occurred together with the discovery of her cast.

“During the research, a lot of things are revealed. It’s very interesting. I am meeting the material and also the people at the same time. Like water, when you put a person in a corner, they can become a monster,” she says.

Another revelation that awaited Wertheim in the Yama journey came from her team of collaborators.

Ran Bagno, who has worked with the company for more than 20 years, returned to write an original score for Yama.

“It’s amazing to work with someone for so long and see that they can still surprise you,” she marvels.

For costumes, Wertheim turned to fashion designer Sasson Kedem, whose black garb adds drama and volume to the movement.

The set designer, Swiss visual artist Nathalie Rodach, was the only newcomer to the team.

“Nathalie is doing theater for the first time in her life. Several months ago she came to do a residency at our ecological village in Kibbutz Netiv Halamed Hay. We got very close and had such great chemistry that we decided to work together on Yama. She went to the theater and measured, studied, learned the field. She did something very interesting that I really love,” she says.

All the visual elements in Yama are black, a fact that creates a “local, Arabic, Middle Eastern” look to the work.

“There is a sense that something is being restrained on stage, that it is about to explode,” she says.

The first shows, which will take place at the Suzanne Dellal Center and the Jerusalem Theater, will be followed by a month-long Israeli tour.

ALL THE BUZZ ABOUT ‘NOISE’. Helen Kaye

White noise is the roar of urban sound around us to which we usually pay no attention, until one or more components of it compel our reluctant, or perhaps avid, notice. The Vertigo dance company has its own interpretation of the term, depicted in its newest work, aptly titled White Noise. The dance had a preview performance at the recent International Women’s Festival in Holon and will have its official premiere at Jerusalem’s Gerard Behar Hall on March 27. According to choreographer Noa Wertheim, it’s about the “clash between inner calm plus the body’s total dedication to the forces of gravity and the racket that surrounds us… plus the ‘buzz’ within ourselves.” What she means by this seeming non-sequitur is that “gravity is part of the natural world from which we come, and that nurtures us, as opposed to the consumerist world that surrounds us and batters us with its demands (the buzz).” Part of the White Noise performance experience is a pre-show swap-meet. Audience members are invited to bring an exchangeable item with the idea that one person’s castoff is another’s treasure. How does this tie in with the dance piece? Consumerism, says Wertheim, is all about taking and getting. The swap, which was a huge success at Holon, is about giving, and of course, recycling. The dance together with the swap present the thesis that because we’re a part of nature, we must give, not just exploit endlessly. For Vertigo, this includes giving to the community. This is not Vertigo’s first ecology or community-minded piece. There was Birth of the Phoenix some four years ago that took place in an earth-packed tent, and The Power of Balance in which Vertigo dancers shared the stage with those in wheelchairs and on crutches. Vertigo’s involvement with environmental issues “was a natural outgrowth of our work with various groups of people,” says Wertheim, adding that it was environmentalist Amos Temple “who sowed the seed of eco-awareness.” Now there’s Vertigo in the Village, an environmentally-friendly, solar energy, adobe construction that serves as an ecological dance center. Established at Kibbutz Netiv Halamedheh in the Ela Valley to hold classes, workshops, performances and more, the aim of the Village is “eco-art outreach”. Wertheim, her three sisters and all their families have even moved to the kibbutz. Wertheim’s family includes husband Adi Shaal and their three sons, aged nine, five and three Today Shaal is Vertigo’s manager, and leaves the choreography to Wertheim, but when they started both as a couple and professional dancers back in 1992, they choreographed together. Vertigo, a dance about all kinds of dizziness, was their first piece, so when they established their, they gave it the same name.

Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al’s dance company rocks the stage with ‘Vertigo and The Diamonds.’

And at the same time, they are busy in the studio, developing new ideas.

In the coming season, Vertigo will also work with France-based Israeli choreographer Yuval Pick. The November premiere will be a mixed evening of Wertheim’s and Pick’s productions. Pick is the house choreographer and founder of the Lyon-based The Guests Company.

The Vertigo Dance Company celebrates two decades of innovative movement. Ori Lenkinski

Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al established the Vertigo Dance Company 20 years ago,their main motivation was to create beautiful,innovativedance performances. With theirunusual movement languageand sense of other-world Whith aesthetics,the pairset out to planttheirflaginthe budding Israelidance community.At the time, theyhad no idea thattheiractions would leadto what isbecomingan internationalmovement. The company willcelebrateits20th anniversary season thisyear,beginning with the performanceof Vertigo,02 which willbe presentedintheaters around the countryinthe coming weeks. In additionto thishomage production, Vertigowillparticipate in number ofground-breaking activities at home and abroad. Vertigo20 is kind of retrospective that marks the growthand developmentof Wertheim and her artisticstaffsincethe earlydays.With each year in the troupe’slifespan Wertheim, an intensely emotional woman, unveilednew sidesof herself. Her creationsoften revealthe struggles she has endured over the pastyears,be itas wife,mother or one of four sisters. With Vertigo,02Wertheim sought to delve into her pastand to present the moments that stand out in her memory. Long-timefansof the company willsurelyrecognize segmentsor imagesfrom past productions, such as Birthofthe Phoenix,White Noiseand Mana. The performancewas createdas coproductionwith NapoliTeatro Festival Italia,where the troupewillperformin June.With cast of dancers

including internationalimports, Vertigo20 isnot only hugely celebratory performancebut alsothe largest-scale productionthe company has ever taken on. In Israel,Vertigohas become synonymous with rare kind of ecologicalawareness. From their base in the Gerard Behar Center in Jerusalem,Wertheim and Sha’al transitionedthemselves and their dancers to the rusticenvirons of Kibbutz Netiv Ha’lamed Hey. There, the company works in mud-walled studio overlookingthe surroundingfields.The dancers drink purifiedrainwater during theirlonghours in the scenic studio and excuse themselves to the confines of ecologicaltoilets. Though the members of the company continue to create dance performances,theiroutlook on the environment has become as much partof theirreputationas the shows theytour with. In the comingmonths, following the premiere performances of Vertigo,02the company will expandits activitiesto include listof projectssuch as the Power of Balance,the Masa Programand unique collaborationwith localvineyard Power of Balance invitesindividuals with disabilities to exploremovement under the guidanceof Vertigo’s staff. Duringtheirtime in the ecological village, participants are offered workshopson dance and various environmentalconcerns. In ,2102 Vertigowas awarded the prestigious Ruderman Prizein Disability forthis project, an award that isgrantedto internationalorganizationsyear. The Masa Programisthe newest of Vertigo’s endeavors. Joiningforces with Masa IsraelJourney,Vertigo offersinternationaldancers the opportunityto spendfivemonths with the company as apprentices. These dancers are invitedto all company rehearsalsand are encouragedto participate in curriculum of dance classesthat includesreleasetechnique,balletand company repertory. The firstgroup of the Masa dancers arrivedin Israel few weeks ago. And what would 20th anniversary be without littlewine? For their celebrations,Vertigohas teamed up with the EllaValleyWineryto produce fourtypesof wine. These limited editionbottleswillfeatureimages from Vertigo’s productions and willbe on saleat Vertigoperformances around the country

Jam contact improvisation

******All last Saturday Jam , dancing free, shaking the bones, how can bodies move together in space, let’s find out**********

19:45- open doors
20:00- warm up time with Tal Shibi
20:30- 23:15- open Contact Improvisation Jam
price: 30 nis

The five rhythms

In the Vertigo studio, Gerard Becher. Bezalel 31.
On Wednesday 20: 30-22: 30.

Spring-summer series dates:
19.4, 3.5, 10.5, 17.5, 7.6, 14.6, 28.6 – a total of 7 meetings.
Cost of the series: NIS 525
The first lesson on April 19 will be possible to experience,
For a one-time fee of NIS 75 before committing to the entire series.

At the request of the crowd: in July Shung Summer is planned – four weekly lessons in a week-long sequence!

Spirituality and nature and a sense of joy and repose. Ruth Eshel

Noa Wertheim’s new choreography for the Vertigo Dance Company brings together spirituality and nature and creates a sense of joy and repose

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Vertigo Dance Company, Noa Wertheim’s new piece, One. One & One creates a synergy. The spiritual expression of movement, gently fluttering, seeking to fulfill a yearning that perhaps refers to her religious upbringing. While on the other hand, the connection to earth grounded in attention to nature and the natural course of life as reflected through the ecological village established by the company in Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Heh where state-of-the-art dance studios were built from unused chicken coops.

A dancer pours soil on the stage and creates tracks of straight, meticulous lines that cross it from side to side. Later, as if attempting to let go of the rules and connect art and life, the dancers enter the stage, cross it diagonally from all sides, pouring buckets of soil and turning the artificial linoleum floor into natural surroundings. A dialogue pursues as the dancers move their feet lifting dust from the surface, generating an air of a common place where individuals feel comfortable together.

The costumes, designed by Sasson Kedem, are casual yet elegant, maintaining the contour of the body without embellishment.

The body language is mainly introversive with rare attempts to stretch away from the center. The fine dancers intensify this contained movement as if exploring its limits to depict the inner beauty. The natural flow of movement is nevertheless unpredictable.

A solo by dancer Shani Licht is engraved in my memory, drawing the movement from an inner source of emotion or physical hunger and allowing it the time to gently permeate outwards. Likewise, the amazingly graceful duet by Licht and Tamar Bar Lev resembling two long stems in water that are intertwined. Among the fierce stage-crossing earth-lifting solos of each male dancer, Daniel Kosta features a noteworthy charisma.

The oriental dance is one of the highlights of this performance, seemingly quoting the twists and punctuate movements of the Dabke Arab folk dance. However, towards the finale, a new motif is added as the hands are gently lifted and lowered like wings. Like a congregation of Essenes whose white clothes have been painted in the color of the earth. The message may be that roots that go deep into the soil, allow for this transcending growth that leads to another place of spirituality and peace. This work of art embraces you, inducing a sense of joy, repose and receptivity.

Freer and fresher than ever, new energy and an assured hand. Ora Brafman

On its 25th anniversary, Vertido Dance Company releases a new work, “One. One & one.” by co-founder and choreographer Noa Wertheim. The piece sums up her artistic journey, witch a down-to-earth, individualistic duet and ended with her being the artistic director of the fourth largest dance company in Israel, and is a spectacle, danced on earth-covered floor.
Like all of her pieces,Wertheim’s new creation is veryaesthetic and fashionable.
Outfits by designer Sasson Kedem have a cleverly styled look in neutral and earth tones, capturingprecisely the promoted image and basic essence of the company; an earthly spirituality.
This new creation is freer and fresher than ever. It shows off new energy and an assured hand, perhaps partly to do with the spirited Israeli-Spanish choreographer Sharon Fridman, who was invited to workwith the company twoyears ago.
The production enjoys a strong cast of eight dancres, and as expected maintains that sleek, well-polished touch of trained hands and established artsticperception, and less indoctrinated rhetoric of spirituality. We savored a few exeptionally beautiful scenes, including Tamar Barlev’s solo, which ended with there men pulling her long hair and braiding it while they changed positions behind her. Aslo, the prolonged duet of Tamar Barlev and Shani Licht, wich displayed a delicate intimacy and poetic quality.
The clever, seamless way in wich the choreography integrated this duet back into the ensemble showed high craftsmanship.
Earth,as mentioned,was central element here, both metaphorically and in actuality. First it was spead in parallel furrows, then poured all over for all to breath. By the end,the sweaty dancers looked like vagabonds.
This, and materials likesand, water, leaves, grass, etc., are highly effected visually, and sometimes functionally as well. Stages cevered with such materials pop up periodically ever since Pina Baush’s Rite of Spring used peat as a conceptual statement. 40 years later, the effect had lost its luster.