Ofra Idel's 'Sounds Alive': Dance amid conflict and resilience

In her work as the artistic director of Jerusalem’s Machol Shalem Dance House, Ofra Idel often has to dodge curve balls thrown at her by reality. Budget cuts, postponements, and canceled plans have become part of the everyday life of arts organizations in Israel.

Last year alone, Ofra and her life and work partner Ruby Edelman, CEO of the dance institution, were forced to postpone their flagship festival and cancel Jerusalem International Dance Week, which brings dozens of dance presenters from around the globe to Jerusalem to see local dance and is a staple in the annual calendar.

The ability to shift and stretch has allowed Machol Shalem to sustain a home for dance in Israel with a far-reaching global presence. Later this month, they will host their annual Mash Dance Berlin Festival at Dock 11, a prominent Berlin theater.

Idel, who is politically outspoken, has participated in panels and given lectures abroad, attempting to illuminate the reality for Israeli artists in the current situation. She was invited to the Want to Dance Festival in Taiwan, where she presented a talk titled “Art During Wartime.” Last month, she traveled to Croatia for the Sibenik Dance Festival, where she was one of a small group of artists to participate in “Encounters for Peace.”

In addition to her role as head of Machol Shalem Dance House, Idel also works as a choreographer. With this hat on, she has been able to pause from navigating the infrastructural challenges and make space to reflect upon the sadness and frustration that the past 10 months have brought. In her new creation, Sounds Alive, Idel and her two dancers explore the effects of war, specifically on women.

“Sounds Alive is a duet performed by Yulia Mejetskaya and Yasmin Gariv,” says Idel over the phone. “We were invited by the From Jaffa to Agripas Festival to make a short piece that for me was in relation to the war, although that wasn’t the direction of the festival. We wanted to work with many associations and feelings that are happening now. We went into the studio with a mountain of ideas, dealing with women in this situation, which is specific to us but also, I’m sure, touches on people who are working in other conflict areas. There is a combination of anxiety together with a great deal of power and bravery and a desire to create. We were thinking about the fragility and strength of this period, stories we heard about women and their strengths in this period, as well as the abuse of women in this period.”

Creating art from suffering

After premiering the work in late June, Idel, Mejetskaya, and Gariv felt the need to continue the process. “It continued in a very organic way,” says Idel. “We didn’t expect to make a full evening, but it just happened. We had so much inspiration. I’m not used to creative processes being so smooth and flowing. We felt that we were creating something whole.”

Part of Idel’s research delved into images that evoked the complex emotional turmoil of conflict. “We worked with our eyelashes, which is a very fragile part of the body,” she explains. In the piece, the two dancers are seen with long threads connecting their eyelashes. As the movement expands, these fibers come apart, severing the physical tie between the two women. To Idel, this image touches on perspective, on the way that no two people see reality in exactly the same way.

Idel approached musician Itay Tamarov to compose the score of the work. Tamarov put together a soundscape that weaves together Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain with an assortment of other references and tunes. “The music is a very important element in the piece,” says Idel. “It will be played...with the sound divided into four channels. Each channel will play different sounds, creating an immersive experience.”

In the coming months, Idel will present Sounds Alive several times in Jerusalem. In the first performance, scheduled to take place on August 15, all proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Hostages and Missing Family Forum.

For more information about Sounds Alive, visit www.macholshalem.co.il