Showtime 284918

The Performing Arts Center in Tel Aviv will host an intriguing cross-genre dance show from September 20 to 24.

By BARRY DAVIS
Dance 370 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Dance 370
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Dancing comics
The Performing Arts Center in Tel Aviv will host an intriguing cross-genre dance show from September 20 to 24 when Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui brings his TeZukA show to town as part of the Dance at the Performing Arts Center series.
The London-based Sadler’s Wells Theatre production is inspired by works by legendary Japanese manga comics artist Osamu Tezuka and is based on two popular manga series – Astro Boy and Buddha. The show features nine dancers, three musicians, two martial arts experts, a video artist and a calligrapher and presents a storyline that feeds off a blend of science fiction and contemporary life.
Illustrations from Tezuka’s original works will be screened on the stage backdrop, alongside the creations of video artist Taiki Ueda as the dancers animate the cartoon characters. The music for the show was written by British-Indian composer Nitin Sawhney.
For tickets and more information: (03) 692-7777 and www.israelopera.co.il
Ordinary illustrations
A new exhibition of works by illustrators from Israel and abroad has opened at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan. The show, entitled “Ordinary,” was initiated by the college’s Visual Media Department and is located at the institution’s Lorber Gallery.
The exhibition incorporates works by 39 leading artists from various fields, including comics, poster design, sculpture, photography, painting and animation.
The exhibition also features works by British artists Emma Evans, Agata Duda and Catell Ronca, as well as German illustrator Anke Feuchtenberger.
“Ordinary” is based on an examination of the concept of “the ordinary,” in its widest sense, and addresses a range of emotions, such as admiration, mercy, sadness and apathy. The works feature such themes as fatherhood, existential anxiety, religion, homophobia, violence, individualism and the way we relate to other people.
The contributing artists include Guy Ben-Ari, Teddy Goldenberg, Keren Ella Gefen and Shenkar Illustration Department head Itamar Daube.
The Lorber Gallery is located at 8 Yeda Ha’am Street in Ramat Gan. The exhibition closes on October 31.
Overseas with Bialik
The Felicja Blumental Music Center in Tel Aviv will host a performance of Me’ever Layam (Overseas) on September 20 at 8:30 p.m. It is a one-man show in which Lior Ben-Avraham presents his highly individual take on the life and loves of national poet Haim Nahman Bialik.
Ben-Avraham examines Bialik’s coming of age through the pain of separation, longing for home and the trials of falling in and out of love. Me’ever Layam focuses on Ukrainian-born Bialik in his early life and the loneliness he experienced as a young editor in Warsaw. The show also includes original renditions of some of Bialik’s poems by vocalist- instrumentalists Uri Weiss and Yaron Ziv.
Ben-Avraham says he was drawn to Bialik by their shared personal history. Both had to leave their parents’ home at the age of six, and both found solace in literature.
For tickets and more information: (03) 620-1185 and www.fbmc.co.il
Black and white and color all over
The “Black and White” exhibition has opened at Beit Gavriel on the banks of the Kinneret and will run until October 13. The group show includes works based on themes of color, and black or white silhouettes. The philosophy behind the monochrome interchange is that black and white create contrasts – one conveys light and purity, while the other evokes a sense of mystery, darkness, fear and mourning.
Most of the exhibitors employ black-and-white photography to illustrate their ideas and use shades of gray and sepia in their images. Many of the photographs were produced using a combination of monochrome and color photography development techniques. The artists in the show include Orit Gafni, Aryeh Lamdan, Carmel Tadmor and Irit Tohar.
For more information: (04) 675- 1175 and www.betgabriel.co.il