The 2017 residency program included a variety of performances, discursive events, and workshops. The first meeting was dedicated to the choreographer Hillel Kogan and included pieces from the performance “the swan and the pimp” and a talk with Ido Feder and Shir Hacham. The second event was a discursive performance event in which Avigail Sfez and Elad Bardes performed their work “from reasons of comfort” that examined the possibility of looking at beginnings as independent content. The third meeting revolved around May Zarhy’s work “the Voices” where a female ensemble of dancers and singers looked into the spaces between dance and music and between the materiality of voice and that of movement. The last meeting showcased the work of Shira Eviatar and Eviatar Said and included a lecture by the photographer David Adika; during this evening we discussed the way in which knowledge is physically embodied and the way artistic work paints a personal cultural picture. In addition, we conducted workshops, with the participation of all the residents, the exposed local primary school children to dance and movement. In the workshops the kids thought about the connection between words and movements, voice and body, and learned about traditional Yemenite dance.
Hillel Kogan. Photo: Tamar Lamm
Shira Eviatar & Evyatar Said children's workshop
Hillel Kogan. Photo: Tamar Lamm
Hillel Kogen
Photo: Gadi Dagon
Hillel Kogan (1974) - works in the Israeli and international dance scene as an independent choreographer and as a dancer. Graduated from Thelma Yelin High School for the Arts’ Theater Department. Studied dance at The Bat Dor Dance Studio and the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York City. He is the recipient of the Israel National Lottery’s 2015 Landau Prize, and The Israel Critics’ Circle’s Outstanding Choreographer of 2013.
The Swan and the pimp - Explores the centrality of the swan’s image and it's relation to the figure of the female dancer. The dichotomous split between the black swan associated with seduction and evilness and the white swan, associated with innocence and kindness - reflects the traditional misogynic division of women (sacred or prostitute). By examining this split, this work aims at revealing the patriarchal, chauvinistic, and repressive ideology veiled under the guise of aesthetics, virtuosity, and lyricism.
May Zarhy & Michal Oppenheim
Photo: Tamar Lamm
May Zarhy (1984) is a choreographer and performer. Graduate of the Rotterdam Dance Academy in The Netherlands and 'ex.e.r.ce' choreography program in France. Was assisting William Forsythe in 2015. A Founding member of the choreographic collective MAMAZA in Germany.
Michal Oppenheim (1982) - is a singer and composer. Works in a performative field which is grounded in vocal exploration. A founding member of 'Givol Choir'- – an experimental vocal ensemble. Collaborating as a performer in several works by Noam Enbar & Yonatan Levi, and a creator of the performance (soon an album) 'Eres - Lullabies For Adults'.
The Voices is the second collaboration of May and Michal which is part of an ongoing research, and has been developed within the Tights Residency. By grouping together a female ensemble of dancers and singers, they explore the space between the dance medium and that of music, between the materiality of movement and that of the voice. Thus, an alternative choir is created: one which is not limited solely to singing, but choreographs itself between the realms of voice, body and vibration, creating a third object, which is neither dance nor music, and at the same time is both.
Avigail Sfez & Elad Bardes
Photo: Selfie
​Abigail Sfez (1988) - is a choreographer, dancer, dance performances curator in alternative spaces, and a Feldenkrais teacher. Holds a BA in Movement and Choreography at the Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem. Studied a technical workshop and repertoire by Yasmin Goder and Itzik Jolie, as well as at the dance training workshop in Haifa. She has created dance works for several festivals, and has curated a dance series at the Barbur Gallery in Jerusalem.
Elad Bardes (1986) - is a musician, composer, music teacher. Holds a master's degree in contemporary composition and performance from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and a BA in Music and Philosophy from the University of Haifa. Much of his work, written and improvised, is devoted to the guitar.
Shira Eviatar & Evyatar Said
Photo: Tamar Lamm
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Shira Eviatar (1986) - is a choreographer and dancer based in Tel Aviv. She is a DanceWeb scholarship program participant and holds a degree in dance theatre from Kibbutzim College. Her research examines how we embody our past generations, traditions and cultures. She has performed her works in various festivals in Israel, France, Germany, Austria and Poland. Her works reflect the forms within tradition and the knowledge they contain, creating a meeting point between the ethnic/traditional body and the concrete/present body, an abstraction of tradition
Evyatar Said (1986) - is a third year student at the Linguistics and Political science department at Tel-Aviv University with a focus in the field of sociolinguistics. He has worked with the Artist Leor Grady in the video-art 'Natural Worker'. Said has worked as a movement consultant for Yemenite dance, including with the choreographer Shira Eviatar on her work 'Rising'. He performs Yemenite and Palestinian dances as part of 'Ars Poetica' events.
Shira/Eviatar/Said - is a second collaboration that continues to investigate the ways in which cultural bodies of knowledge are embodied in the body. Based on the Yemenite tradition, the work draws a personal cultural landscape, thus recomposes a language that is practiced as one’s heritage. As it enters the public space, this language becomes recognized, identified as "other". Hence, in his appearance on stage, Said migrates into his home: Deconstructs and rewrites somatic memories, bodies of knowledge, emotions and sensations as he celebrates the possibility of establishing an independent body in the present.