Deborah Friedes

When I told acquaintances in the United States that I was moving to
Israel to research contemporary dance on a Fulbright grant, most of
them had the same reaction: why Israel?

When I told acquaintances in Israel that I had moved to Tel Aviv to
research contemporary dance, I received a slightly larger set of
responses:
1)      Have you been to the Suzanne Dellal Center yet?
2)      Have you seen Nolad Lirkod (the Israeli version of So You Think You
Can Dance?)?
3)      My relative/friend/neighbor/Pilates teacher is a dancer, and you
should talk to him/her!

As many Israelis pointed out to me, there is an extraordinary amount
of dance on the concert stage here.  I can now support their claims
with some concrete evidence: in less than five months, I have attended
over 45 dance performances and missed many more.  Not only is there a
lot of dance, but there is a lot of good dance well-crafted,
touching, intriguing, and passionately performed dance.  Sometimes
Israeli dance reveals the particularities of Israeli society, and
often it speaks larger truths about human nature and relationships.
Now you can hear the choreographers themselves speak about their work
as I interview them for IsraelSeen.

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