Emma Sandall is currently in Israel teaching, travelling and soaking up gaga, a dance technique and movement language created by Batsheva Dance Company’s artistic director, Ohad Naharin.
Emma says, “My first experience here in January gave me a taste of Tel Aviv. This opportunity then came to come and stay with my friend Yaniv, and teach at the Ga'aton Workshop on the kibbutz in the north. Irresistible. Time to travel more through the country, to teach, to photograph, to meet more people, eat more food, learn a little Hebrew and reinvest myself in gaga!”
Emma will be sending Dance Australia “postcards” from her trip which we will post below as they arrive. All photos taken by Emma.
Day 11
Wednesday morning. It is my last day. And it begins with class with the Batsheva Ensemble taken by Ohad himself. This is, for me, what Gaga is all about … what gripped me in the first place: rich physical explorations, pushing boundaries, limits and ideas. I loved this last class. Was almost moved to tears.
And so, then, a final stroll through the streets of Tel Aviv, the Karmel markets, the beach. A final dip in the sea. A final hummus.
But the dance is not over yet. We go to watch a rehearsal of Noa Zuk and Erez Zohar working towards a premiere in two weeks’ time. I love it. Their humour and playful experimentation with voice and movement is delightful, enticing and original. And they, themselves, are delightful, enticing and original - hard working but not too sincere. Creating new dance. Good dance.
Enough.
Time to go back to Ben Gurion. The checks and the questions. Not so bad this time.
I sit with a glass of wine waiting for my departure. The waiter remembers me from January. We talk of movie stars.
Day 9
Monday morning Gaga class with Uri. A little scattered. Jumping from one idea to the next. The layered explorations feel less intuitive in this class. But that is also ok. Shocks and surprises count too. I recognise Ohad Fishof taking the class near me and use him to respond to. One beauty of Gaga is the inherent responsive work within it.
The day unfolds casually. Yaniv and I wander to Jaffa. Joined by friends. Coffee and donuts. Talk. Hebrew words flying about. Jokes. Questions. Laughter.
Tonight there is another show at Dellal. This one is Vertigo20 by Vertigo Dance Company. Jerusalem based. Run by Noa Wertheim.
Another slick production. A retrospective. It brings to mind Vandekeybus and fantastical explorations of deconstructed classicism. Innovative, no. But certainly not bad. Certainly powerful. Certainly superbly executed. And following… hummus at midnight with yayin and warm company.
Day 8
Sunday and the week begins again. Today I am teaching the Israeli Ballet Company. A different Tel Aviv to Neve Tsedek, Suzanne Dellal, Batsheva. A lovely large studio. Curtains, mirrors, barres. This company is under new direction – Ido Tadmor and they are about to premiere a David Nixon ballet, Beauty and the Beast. This is another world to that in which I have been mixing and teaching. I am thrown back in time to rather archaic forms and habits. But it is clear that this company provides a balance of classicism to the potent contemporary dance scene in Israel.
My class pushes, pulls and plunges the dancers. It is not their style. But it’s been eye opening – for them and for me.
A swim in the delicious sea washes away any mixed feelings.
Gaga tonight moving with Guy Shomroni. Sensitive. Listening. Intuitive. Delicate. Subtle. I am enjoying the differences each teacher brings and explores.
And 9pm, more dance. Maria Kong’s Open Source. WOW. What Outlandish Work. This is a collective headed by Talia Landa and working with many ex – Batsheva members and contributors. Slick. Strange. Forceful. Uncategorical.
Day 7
Shabbat Shalom: May your day of no work be peaceful. The working week at an end from sundown on Friday. Cafes closed. On this day, the family gets together, eats together. Hangs out. There is something very wholesome, very smart about this day of “stopping” of “ceasing” and the sense that you are not to drive a car or cook a meal. Being able to be together, appreciate peace and reflect. Rejuvenate. Punctuate your week with a pause.
But Yaniv and I are travelling. We take a “special” taxi to the central station and then another to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) where Yaniv’s father and new family reside.
Yaniv’s dad collects us and we roar about in his blue beaten box, taking in the city’s structure – up to his new apartment high on a hill overlooking the zoo, the elephants and monkeys.
Cheesecake, cigarette smoke and coffee. Relaxing with the vista over the ancient fought-over city.
The afternoon now, and family in tow, they take me through the old town. The market alive, cramped and tight to the Holy Sepulchre Church brimming with pilgrims and tourists, camera flashes and candles, ceremony, incense and awe. Through security to the Wailing Wall, men and women separated, touch it, kiss it, leave a prayer and re-trace your steps. No turning your back.
We eat a hummus together. Mamash taim. Driving home that night, Yaniv’s sister shows me the checkpoint to the West Bank. Cars are queued up well beyond our view. Every day. They’re back and forth through these gates - to work and home.
Day 6
9am morning Gaga class with Hadar Katz. At least 40 of us assembled. Getting acquainted with the regulars. A very mixed bag of young and old. Men and women. Back at Suzanne Dellal. Looking out, the sky is clear towards Jaffa.
For me, a long swim in the Med. It’s still glorious. Pushing out beyond the black wave breaker rocks.
And another session with my Hebrew teacher… mamash taim: very tasty; metsuyan: excellent; yayin lavin: white wine; bakbuk yayin lavin: a bottle of white wine! Indeed.
And then late night Jaffa. Hitting the new bars of this once derelict, now super trendy area with a small mob of dancers. Spend a time chatting to Rani – 3rd year Ensemble dancer. She’s just started teaching Gaga. Happy to engage in slightly drunken dance “philosophications”! Bed.
Day 5
A two hour Hebrew lesson with Liat from Craigs List. Fantastic fun! Sitting in a café on Arlozorov St reciting infinitives. How much can I want in life?
I want: ani rotsa, to go: lalechet; To be: lihiyot; To eat: le-e-chol; to drink: lishtot; to speak to: ledaber; to send: lissloach; to receive: lekabel; to do: laassot; to look for: lechapes; to buy: liknot; to dance: lirkod; to work: laavod; to come: lavo; To order: lehazmin; to know: yoadaat; to remember: zocheret; to travel: loan
A lesson for you!
And Gaga tonight. Simply delicious. With Idan in the top Batsheva studio. Outlook – towards Jaffa. A magnificent sight, of clutter, forms, diversity, lights and darkness.
Day 4
Began gently. A stroll. Café shut til 3pm, what? So, the office and Nespresso. Somehow this tastes good here. Today taught the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company - the gutsy, gargantuan movers from a night ago. Full of warmth, enthusiasm, humanity and joy. Learnt more about the kibbutz and its dance programs. Some Australians have already passed trough MASA (journey), a five month intensive bridging program hosted by KCDC. Will write more about this anon but here’s a blogpost by one who has been through this.
… Back to TLV and a late night stroll to one of the world’s oldest ports, Jaffa (Yafo). Apparently inhabited around 7500 BCE.
We ate and drank at midnight, stopped in on friends, and continued our meander through the old town, past a porcupine scrambling up some steps and gangs of cats; past the wishing bridge, through the amphitheatre, gazing along the coast up to TLV. Tel Aviv, from Tel Abib – literally “spring mound”.
Day 3
Early start on the road to Nahariya. The north, two hours by train from HaHagana station and then a “special” taxi to the Kibbutz, Ga’aton. We are about 20 kms south of the border with Lebanon.
Taught the Ga’aton Dance Workshop’s 30 students. Lots of fun had with these hungry, hard working dancers lapping up a super sensorial ballet class. They then to their repertoire for the rest of the day: some Naharin and a new work by Israeli choreographer Shlomi Bitton finishing up at 10pm. Me, finishing in the Pub Ga’aton sunset over the old Kibbutz factory and then beyond to the crusader castle of Montfort and the sea. A glass of Israeli red in hand. Accommodated in modest but perfectly comfortable Kibbutz apartment.
Needing sleep. Lailoh Tov (Good night).
Day 2
Gaga People class with Ohad Fishof… floating, sensing, thickening, exploring the functioning of the body, in and out of the floor, stretches, shakes and grooves. It’s 9am. We’re a bunch of people moving together for an hour at the Suzanne Dellal Centre, Batsheva’s home in the middle of the first Jewish suburb of Tel Aviv– Neve Tsedek.
The day fills with coffee, photography, swimming and paddle boarding in the warm sea – cold they say. Hardly!
More Gaga in the evening. My friend, Yaniv Abraham teaching. Twenty of us moving, shaking and stretching together. More an end of day energy. And then to finish off, 9pm The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company presenting their new Undivided Void. We watch. Truly amazing and physical dancers. So interesting to see. Will be teaching them this week in the north, at the Kibbutz.
Dinner. Wine. Bed. Mosquitoes.
Day 1
Shalom Shabazi.
Nice hearing French vociferous amongst the Hebrew and American voices. The pace, at once mad and chilled, street lingering, mobiles to ears and scooters growling past. Shockingly long flight. A little grilling at Bangkok. And then a smiling friend at arrivals. And Sunday traffic clogged the way back to Tel Aviv. Back to work for most.
For me, coffees and bougainvillea. Eyes meeting in streets. Car horns and smoke. Dog poo. Awnings. Minty cool water gazing across at street graffiti.
And the talk… movement, gaga, Naharin, politics, Israel, Batsheva.
Seven new words: Ken – yes; Lo – no; Kan - here; Ani – I am; Eifo – where is; Tislch li – excuse me; Toda – thank you; Ani b’ café Nina.
Emma