East Meets West in Negiot

The evening will feature dance performances by Dvir along with Tamar Bar Gil and musician Clamento Muscal.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
belly dancer 88 (photo credit: )
belly dancer 88
(photo credit: )
'A meeting of artists," is how choreographer Natalie Dvir describes Negiot, an evening of Eastern dance taking place this week at Tel Aviv's Inbal Theater. The evening will feature dance performances by Dvir along with Tamar Bar Gil and musician Clamento Muscal. The three artists will showcase their individual styles in this unique collaboration. Each artist comes from a decisively Israeli background yet each has explored their "Eastern-ness" and found creative and intricate ways of resolving this dissonance - East and West, Jewish and Middle Eastern and modern and traditional - through movement and music. The two dancers describe their influences as exceedingly varied. Dvir says she began studying Eastern dance at the age of 16, during a period when this style was not popular in Israel and Bar Gil comes from a classical Ballet education. Yet together they create a cohesive language of movement that melds theatrics, improvisation and flamenco with traditional Eastern dance. Musically, this performance moves through landscapes and styles to reflect the essential dichotomy of East meets West. Flutist Clamento Muscal was raised in a family of Orthodox Jewish musicians. His artistic quest took him to Egypt, where he studied classical Arabic music and back to Jerusalem where he currently studies at the Academia. With diverse yet connected experiences, this cooperation of three gifted artists promises to be an extraordinary treat. Says Dvir, "as an Eastern artist in post-modern Western society, I touch all the worlds through the experience of breaking boundaries and making personal statements. In meetings with other artists, I touch their world as they touch mine." The Interdisciplinary Ethnic Center Inbal is located in the Suzanne Dellal Center at 6 Yichieli St. The Wednesday, May 14 performance begins at 9 p.m. with tickets at NIS 70. For more information call (03) 516-6333.