It’s the essence of urban survival: don’t look into anyone’s eyes. Walking down the street we transform ourselves into perfect strangers, our faces masks that reveal no thought or emotion. Yet in the exquisite isolation of the city, there is no quest greater than the search for love, except, perhaps, the desire for meaning.
In the alleys of Jaffa, on the roof of HaSimta Theatre, the door opens on Orpheus in the Metro presented by the Malenky Theatre in an all black, narrow room with two rows of chairs for the …

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet of Canada comes to Israel in October as part of Tel Aviv Dance 2010, for a series of seven performances, including Jerusalem and Haifa. The company will present a program of two very different works: Carmina Burana by internationally acclaimed choreographer Mauricio Wainrot and In Tandem choreographed by Peter Quanz, an emerging young choreographer.
Canada’s foremost ballet company, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet of Canada was founded in 1939 by Gweneth Lloyd and Betty Farrally, receiving its royal title in 1953. Arnold Spohr was the artistic director during …

Balanchine ballerina Merrill Ashley will come to Israel to participate in Tel Aviv Dance 2010. The muse for several of Balanchine’s works, Ashley will present a workshop on the Balanchine technique on October 21 and talk about her life as a dancer and work with Balanchine on Friday, October 22 at 11:00. Ashley arrives in Israel with 8 principal dancers of the New York City Ballet, who will perform To Dance a selection from the company’s landmark works from October 20 – 22. All events will take place at the …

Documentary theatre is a form rarely seen in Israel, and audiences attending last night’s performance of “They Call Me Jeckisch” may not have known what to expect. What took place was a riveting, emotionally intense evening for actors and audience alike. It was apparent that the theatrical form has much in common with its cinematic counterpart, and carries a certain element of risk. Once you embark on a documentary project, you do not know what you will discover. When authenticity and accuracy are the signposts for the journey, the path …

Israeli music is celebrating – and everyone is invited! The 13th Israeli Music Celebration will take place September 11 – 15 with five days of FREE concerts in five cities: Haifa, Givatayim, Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv and the grand finale in Jerusalem.
Artistic director Michael Wolpe presents a program that showcases the richness and diversity of Israeli composers, with world premieres, works by emerging composers and the rare opportunity to hear works, such as the Second Concerto by Josef Tal, one of the pioneers of Israeli music. The festival will also …

On a hot Friday afternoon about a year ago, three young Germans on assignment took a break at a café in Florentine to discuss their project with Midnight East. This coming weekend, the results of their research will come to the stage as “Undercover Tel Aviv.” A co-production of the Beit Lessin Theatre and the Heidelberg Municipal Theatre, written and directed by Stéphane Bittoun, the docufiction will have its Israeli premiere as part of the Beit Lessin Open Stage Festival on Thursday, September 2, with two additional performances.
Research is not …

The Beit Lessin Open Stage Festival awarded development grants to two plays presented in staged readings last weekend: “The Light Turns Upon Me” by Oded Liphshitz and “A Roaring Silence” by Andrea Bauav. Initiated to nurture playwrights and offer them an opportunity to present their work before an audience, the staged readings also present a different kind of theatre experience for viewers.
The phrase “staged reading” is perhaps somewhat misleading, and evokes an image of people sitting in a row on folding chairs, clutching scripts in front of their faces. That …

One of the last music festivals taking place before the Jewish high-holiday season, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival is the perfect sendoff for a blazingly hot summer. The festival (August 31 to September 11) brings together many prominent classical musicians, both local and from abroad, for a series of intriguing concerts sure to generate interest.
Artistic director, pianist Elana Bashkirova, has put together a program this year celebrating the centennials and birthdays of Chopin, Schumann, Wolf, as well as modern composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (who is celebrating his 85th …

If these words could sing, dance and do handsprings, they might do justice to Pichefkes (literally – knick knacks), a one person show performed and directed by Nitzan Sitzer, written by Noga Algom and Nitzan Sitzer, with original music by Adi Cohen. Pichefkes is a small store of knick knacks in the middle of the shuk (market), whose future is threatened by a cell phone wielding business man who wants to replace it with a large, expensive shopping center. The play premiered at the Theatronetto Festival in April, and made …

Wild limbs and freedom of motion – a lone dancer moves on the wide floor of the Batsheva Dance Company studio. Soon the rest of the company joins her, in summer colors, tanks, shorts and T shirts, filling the studio with fast, powerful movement, their feet pounding out an intense rhythm in the August heat. Then all motion stops, hands frame a face looking out into the crowd: Welcome.
There was far more dance in the studio than words as the Batsheva Dance Company announced its new season to the press …