Canada can dance: Canadian dance festival in Israel

This month, the Suzanne Dellal Center will host the first ever CanaDanse festival.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
‘TELEMETRY’ BY Vancouver-based choreographer Shay Kuebler and Radical System Art. (photo credit: DAVID COOPER)
‘TELEMETRY’ BY Vancouver-based choreographer Shay Kuebler and Radical System Art.
(photo credit: DAVID COOPER)
As the international hub of dance in Israel, the Suzanne Dellal Center presents performances from dozens of countries each year. Audiences can attend a contemporary show from Turkey one night and a ballet from Korea the next. While Canadian dance companies have presented work in Israel in the past, Canada has never been put in the dance spotlight here before now.
This month, the Suzanne Dellal Center will host the first ever CanaDanse festival. The event, initiated by center artistic director Yair Vardi and Canadian Ambassador to Israel Deborah A. Lyons, will host three leading voices in Canadian dance. The first performances will be given by Ballet British Columbia. The troupe is a contemporary ballet ensemble based in Vancouver. In Israel, the deft dancers of Ballet BC will perform Petite Cérémonie by French choreographer Medhi Walerski; Solo Echo by star Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite; and a new work by company director Emily Molnar.
Next up will be Telemetry by Vancouver-based choreographer Shay Kuebler and Radical System Art. This work looks at digital media and how the body can convey the invisible communicative particles surrounding us at every moment.
Finally, Montreal-based choreographer Danièle Desnoyers and her company Les Carré des Lombes will present Duos Pour Corps et Instruments, Une [Re]Création (Duets for Body and Instruments, A [Re]Creation). Desnoyers’ work is a trio for three formidable female performers whose bodies are attached to amplifiers, thus creating the score for their movement in real time.
CanaDanse will take place from January 11-17. For more information, visitsuzannedellal.org.il.