Introducing Deborah Friedes: Dancer and Dance Scholar

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Introducing Deborah Friedes: Dancer and Dance Scholar

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When I told acquaintances in the United States that I was moving to

Israel to research contemporary dance on a Fulbright grant, most of

them had the same reaction: why Israel?

When I told acquaintances in Israel that I had moved to Tel Aviv to

research contemporary dance, I received a slightly larger set of

responses:

1)      Have you been to the Suzanne Dellal Center yet?

2)      Have you seen Nolad Lirkod (the Israeli version of So You Think You

Can Dance?)?

3)      My relative/friend/neighbor/Pilates teacher is a dancer, and you

should talk to him/her!

As many Israelis pointed out to me, there is an extraordinary amount

of dance on the concert stage here.  I can now support their claims

with some concrete evidence: in less than five months, I have attended

over 45 dance performances and missed many more.  Not only is there a

lot of dance, but there is a lot of good dance – well-crafted,

touching, intriguing, and passionately performed dance.  Sometimes

Israeli dance reveals the particularities of Israeli society, and

often it speaks larger truths about human nature and relationships.

Now you can hear the choreographers themselves speak about their work

as I interview them for IsraelSeen.