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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.

One. One & One – Inevitably Political Art. Tal Levin

Tal Levin, Achbar HaIr, February 17, 2017

Aiming for a peaceful creative process devoid of social context has ironically led choreographer Noa Wertheim to the creation of a forceful artwork itching to express the pains of life in Israel

A few years ago, I interviewed the founders of Vertigo Dance Company, Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha’al, asking them about the cultural differences between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Both, who over a long period opted for the Holy City, expressed their need for a peaceful façade-free space to enable the creative process. This prerequisite was apparently attained when the company (and family) moved to Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed-Heh, where they established the Eco-Art village, incorporating artistic creation and the promotion of community relations and activities. This geographic location to a certain extent hints to the status assigned to the creative path of Vertigo in the Israeli dance scene over the years, for better or worse dismissing popular trends. While upcoming local creation leans more and more towards the performing arts, further accentuating the political thematic approach, Noa Wertheim draws inspiration from spirituality, poetics and pure aesthetics.

One. One & One, a new dance piece by the Vertigo Dance Company, revolves around the spiritual aspect. The program includes a quote from the fifth tractate of Seder Moed (Order of Festivals) of the Mishnah: “And thus would he count: one, one and one, one and two, one and three, one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven” (Yoma, Chapter 5, Mishna 4). Wertheim suggests an initial interpretation referring to the wish to be united versus separateness, the struggle between inside and outside, and so on. The opening movement accompanied by the chanting of words (“void”, “nature”, “space”, “discourse”, etc.) also resembles semi-abstract mantras. However focusing solely on this annoyingly vague interpretation may distract our attention from the actual political statement conveyed more forcefully than ever before by Wertheim who perhaps despite her intentions (whether expressing freedom of the creator or the creation) cries out the insoluble pain of the reality of our lives.

This piece begins with a dancer moving across a straight line pouring soil on the floor. Soon the soil covers the entire surface as dancers move, roll about, scattering grains in the air that become an integral part of their bodies. This choreography includes sections of restrained movement, confining the exploding energy of the dancers, as well as entire segments of raging ferocity. More than ever before One. One & One manifests Wertheim’s ability to move between these modes in a timely manner allowing the subtle moments to highlight the tempestuous and vice versa. With a precise amount of liberated motion, there is no exaggeration whatsoever, resembling a carefully choreographed no-rules wrestling with modest rhythmic and measured gestures. Likewise, the soil assumes various representations appearing as – a border, swarms of blood, a plowed field, a boxing ring and at the end – the sand from within a flapping winged bird emerges.

Even in its less powerful moments, Wertheim’s creation, inspired by the teaching of Mishna Yoma, focuses on earnest social contemplation. Not merely in the abstract sense of examining the ethical relationship between the individual and society, but reviewing the innards of “Israeliness” and the meaning of land as its source of strength as well as its Achilles heel. The fought for space as well as the substance, which is constantly ruined, wasted and mistreated.

The collaboration with musician Avi Balleli is one of the merits of this piece. In my opinion, the longstanding cooperation between Wertheim and musician Ran Bagno was beginning to show (and sound) played-out. Balleli complements this choreography with his own interpretation through music. Not merely accompanying the movement but creating a discourse, accentuating what the choreography attempts to conceal rather than the obvious. A subtle and peaceful segment transforms into an alarming battlefield simulation with the sound of firing cannons; and a reference to an Israeli pioneer dance from the early days of the establishment of the State gets an interesting twist with Arabic music. Another successful collaboration is with designer Sasson Kedem, who also designed the costumes for Wertheim’s previous work. Like Balleli, he accentuates elements, which perhaps she hesitates to express directly through her choreography. The result is a work of art that outlines a dense and gloomy climate. Nevertheless compelling us to follow the dancers to the finale, wave hands and hope for resurrection.

One. One & One – Contemplation Dance. Zvi Goren, HaBama

One. One & One – Contemplation Dance

Zvi Goren, HaBama, February 16, 2017

Noa Wertheim explores the individual’s ability to connect with the other in her new piece

The premiere of Noa Wertheim’s new piece joins at least another three milestones marking the 25^th anniversary of the Vertigo Dance Company, founded by Noa with Adi Sha’al. They first met at the Jerusalem Tamar Dance Company, danced a duet titled Vertigo later to become the name of their new founded dance company.

Nature as a Medium

Together ever since, their adventurous journey incorporates dance and the unique lifestyle that have led them to build an ecological village where alongside family members, artists and dancers, they reaffirm the link between art, human and nature. Their elaborated story published now in a fascinating album book titled, Vertigo – A Choreography of People and Dreams, written by Uriah Kadari for HadKeren publishing, is yet another well-deserved cause for celebration.

Another milestone is the recent decision of the Israel Culture Administration to award Vertigo the status of a major dance company acknowledging the remarkable scope of their cultural contribution that includes dozens of international performance tours – from China to Morocco, Ethiopia to South America, the United States, the Balkans and all of Europe.

In this new piece created together with her sister, Rina Wertheim-Koren, Noa resort again to nature as a medium. A prism that allows for further observation of the human soul, the individual’s oneness or personal unity as well as the ability and desire to connect with the other. Set across the deserts of loneliness, detachment and separation and the immense longing to reunite, this is, in essence, a depiction of the course of a social life, from the smallest cell to the collective.

Anticipating a Great Drama

Indeed, this piece opens with two separate individuals: a male dancer pours soil along the front of the stage, while a female dancer concentrates on a magnificent solo interrupted only when three male dancers embrace and lead her into the expansive realm of human reflections. Moving along a seemingly fashion runway dressed in the beautiful costumes designed by Sasson Kedem, passerby pace back and forth on a map of intertwining streets featuring random contacts, selected connections, and the inevitable separation.

Gradually, dancers add strips of land, until the entire stage is covered. This scene serves to confirm the impression that this is Wertheim’s attempt to review her roots. It seems to refer to the move to the ecological village that resembles a separation from urban living and connecting to the organic way of life, as well as to the building blocks of her distinct dance language through quotes from her early creation of Birth of the Phoenix.

Wertheim picked a thought provoking theme: “And thus would he count: one, one and one, one and two, one and three, one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven” (Yoma, Chapter 5, Mishna 4). There is a nice sound to it however, the message it conveys is quite startling taken from a text relating to the Yom Kippur sacrifices. There is also a military adaptation of this particular motto used in handling a grenade – “And thus would he count: twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three – explode”.

Dancers Exploding with Talent

From beginning to end, we can experience a great drama, not necessarily linear although in some scenes there is an apparent narrative. Throughout this choreography, voicing the inner restraints while responding to new laws that defy the old order, the movement itself is dramatic. Each and every dancer is brilliant – four female dancers: Liel Fibak, Nitzan Moshe, Shani Licht and Tamar BarLev; and four male dancers: Etai Peri, Sándor Petrovics, Daniel Costa and Ron Cohen – exploding with talent and spectacular movement.

Indeed, an explosive effect is created on the set, accentuated by but not limited to the upbeat as well as the more soothing music of Avi Balleli. The sacrifice ritual is omnipresent. Forms of structure vary from duets to trios, a solo, an ensemble, and the grand dance company, which they are. Constantly observing each other, disappearing from the setting, designed by Roy Vatury and the lighting, designed by Dani Fishof-Magenta, only to return and revive the land that was not sown with their faith and their craft.

Hence, the time has come to a festive meeting with the Vertigo Dance Company celebrating their 25^th anniversary.

Opened registration for the new year

Lorem Ipsum הוא פשוט טקסט גולמי של תעשיית ההדפסה וההקלדה. Lorem Ipsum היה טקסט סטנדרטי עוד במאה ה-16, כאשר הדפסה לא ידועה לקחה מגש של דפוס ועירבלה אותו כדי ליצור סוג של ספר דגימה. (more…)