So here's the official Tel Aviv report!
Tel Aviv is a unique city in every sense of the word. Around each corner is some beautiful overlooked piece of street art next to an open bakery with piles of spiced bread and stuffed pastries. From my room I could hear hourly chimes from the Church, the echoing call to prayer, along with unnamed bell songs and the dull pop of Chanukah fire works over the ocean.
My two favorite parts of the city were by far Old Jaffa and the Carmel Market. Old Jaffa is the oldest part of Tel Aviv located in the South. It used to be a port and was the center from which the now semi-metropolitan city sprung. It's classical Middle Eastern architecture, bounty of falafel/frozen yogurt/bakery/fresh juice joints, and location right near the sea make it the most nostalgic part of the city. Although the main intersection is rather touristy, once you walk in its labyrinth the graceful cross between ancient city and trendy modernity lures you in further. Shabat (Saturday) was our day off from the Gaga intensive and a couple friends from the workshop and I wandered and ate our way around the area. We started with Cafe Puaa, where along with delicious turkish coffee and challah bread you can buy anything in the cafe (from the table to the napkins), which made for some quite funky furniture combinations. Next up we headed to Abu Hassan which brags the best hummus in Tel Aviv. It's definitely a local spot and skipped out on atmosphere in favor for the quality of food. We ordered classic hummus, some type of bean dip, and spicy hummus which was much coarser and warm. Extremely delicious and cheap! The pita in Israel was definitely a highlight, it was springy and soft almost like a crumpet .. mm.. so good!
Carmel Market is the city's main food, clothing, and tourist goods market. It's always exciting to walk through a market in a foreign country, it feels like a direct root to the culture. Tables held mounds of olives, stacks of leafy greens, boxes of juicy strawberries, trays of carefully cut baklava, and trenches of sugary candy for the picking. On the latter half of the market there were plenty of hand of Miriam trinkets, simple clothing, sunglasses, etc. Outside the market was my favorite bakery which had filo knots stuffed with spinach and honey'd chocolate croissants - yum yum yum!
Alright I think I've thoroughly made my point with the food, the other part of my time in Israel was spent in the Gaga dance intensive. Gaga is a dance language in which movement is based off of motivation and sensation. The connection to Israel is as follows: the artistic director, Ohad Naharin, of Israel's national dance company, Batsheva, created Gaga and uses it's principles to create work for the company and the company takes Gaga class every day. The 7 1/2 day intensive I took focused on the participants gaining access to the sensations that create the Gaga language. Each day would start with an hour 1/2 Gaga class (exercises that gave us the base of the Gaga language), a half hour break, two hour repertory class (learning phrases from work that Batsheva performs), lunch break, and an hour 1/2 'Methodics' class (similar to the first class, but slower, questions are allowed and with more focus on one or two specific sensations). Some examples of the sensations that teachers used would be like 'move from the action of pulling your bones apart from one another' 'try to shake something off your skin' 'float, as if you've just been dropped into still water, you don't have to try, the water supports you' 'feel the connection between your lower back, the snake of your spine, and the roof of your mouth, play with this connection' 'pull your ribs away from your pelvis, while the pelvis pulls towards the ground the rib cage rises up, the space between growing wider and wider'. We pay attention to spots that are sometimes numbed out during dancing; the back of the neck, in between the knuckles, the center of the palms, the bottoms of the feet. When we learn repertory the imagery becomes a bit more playful; in one phrase we stand still at the beginning but are told the feeling is supposed to be like just under the surface there is steam traveling throughout our body. In another phrase our stomach explodes forward, in another we are like aliens dropped on the planet for the first time - everything new and our body begins to move without us trying, in another our body movements are the music (this one is called Metronome, the movement and music - tick tick tick). It makes for quite a brain and body twister. This type of treatment of the body allows for incredible range of movement. Once we're no longer focusing on 'get your leg this high' or 'look like her' and the movement is coming from somewhere deep inside the results are really moving and a lot more interesting to look at.
A highlight of the intensive was the open improvisations they held after class. I signed up for the second day improv was available and it was a ton of fun. They have a DJ (a former member of Batsheva actually) who played a wonderfully diverse playlist and the stage was open. About 20 people had signed up for the day but I think only around 10 or 11 ended up participating, with a full audience watching (the other workshop participants). There are no rules, you can partner/touch other people or not, you can come on and off when you please, you can speak, stand still, whatever. I think someone from the intensive took a video which I'll definitely try to locate and post!
So the flip side of the wonderful experience was the exhausting toll it took on my body and mind! The work was so 'radical' that it was hard to turn it off after leaving the studio (walking down the street I couldn't help but thinking 'float your bones') not to mention it being the first real dance class in 3 months! I decided to forgo my plans to Jerusalem and instead flew home after the intensive was over. It must have been in the stars because there was a slight flight change in my original flight and I was eligible to change my flight free of charge. Traveling alone is much more emotionally difficult than I expected, when doing so in such an urban city as Tel Aviv I had to fight a bit to see the bright side. However, I did learn how much I valued the comforts I can only find at home and the dance intensive was one of the most valuable dance experiences I have had.
Next up is a week long modern dance workshop with the David Dorfman Dance Company in New York. For the spring I'm looking into farming opportunities on the East coast. I still have research to do and each step of this journey is helping me see what I value most. Very excited to do some good old release technique during the intensive! For more info check the site out: http://www.daviddorfmandance.org/workshops.php
Much love and light,
Hannah
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