Raising the curtain on dance

This year’s Curtain Up Dance Festival has works by 10 young yet proven choreographers at Suzanne Dellal Dance Center and Jerusalem Theater.

By HELEN KAYE
kids playing in some fish show (photo credit: Courtesy Tamar Lam)
kids playing in some fish show
(photo credit: Courtesy Tamar Lam)
This year’s Curtain Up Dance Festival has works by 10 young yet proven choreographers from November 3 – 12 at the Suzanne Dellal Dance Center in Tel Aviv and at the Jerusalem Theater. The festival is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The 10 were chosen from among some 40 applicants and the work has been, as usual, divided into three “curtains.” Curtain 1 has to do with kinds of introspection and features choreographers Iris Erez with Shutters, Maya Brinner with Forest and Maya Weinberg with Some Fish (swim up the river to die).

Curtain 2 explores not only the sequences of movement but the spaces between them. It presents four short works by Roy Assaf, Noa Tzuk, Doron Raz and Gili Nabut.
Curtain 3’s three choreographers tackle the tough questions as well as the clichés of contemporary dance in Indecent Movement by Hillel Kogan, In Her Words by Rachel Erdos and The Sad Little Sensitive Jesus Man by Osnat Kellner.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary two years ago, Curtain Up did an about-face.
Rather than showcase new works by experienced and established independent choreographers, the festival took these same artists and put them in charge of the next generation. After all, new artistic directors are also essential.
Those chosen were dance veterans Tamar Borer (Curtain 1), Sa’ar Azimi (#2) and Ronit Ziv (#3) who relished, curated and led last year’s festival.