We hope that you are enjoying 2010 and that it rang in smoothly! As you may know, we have just returned from a jam-packed two months in Israel working on several projects that we would like to share with you.
This month:
DNAWORKS in Israel Update
Beta Dance Troupe
Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre’s International Exposure 2009
Move2Heal and IGY
The Borders Project
African Jews in the Diaspora Project
DNAWORKS Workshops
NYU in Tel Aviv
The Workshop for Training Dancers
Poetry Performance Workshop for "Palestinian and Israeli Women Creating Peace"
Beit Berl University
U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv Grant
The American Corner at the Arab Israeli Community Center in Yaffo
The American Corner of Acco
Peace Child Israel
Acco Theatre Centre
Announcements
2010 New York University Gallatin Jewish Arts Fund Grant
Castillo Theatre
HaMapah/המפה @ Schmooze
Upcoming for DNAWORKS
California Institute of the Arts: Arts in the One World
No Passport Conference
Thank you for supporting DNAWORKS!
Warmly, Daniel and Adam
Beta Dance Troupe
Beta Dance Troupe dancers Daniel Barhana, Sandake Meharat, Mazal Dimoza, and Solomon Tafte with DNAWORKS Co-Directors Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks at the premiere of "What Are We Saying?/?מה קול אחד אומר", December 30, 2009
Co-Directors Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks with Beta Dance Troupe Artistic Director and Dance Critic Ruth Eshel in rehearsal at Neve Yosef Community Center
On December 30, DNAWORKS and Beta Dance Troupe debuted the world premiere of “What are we saying?/?מה קול אחד אומר" in Haifa, Israel. In collaboration with Beta Dance Troupe dancers Daniel Barhana, Mazal Dimoza, Solomon Tafte, and Sandake Meharat, DNAWORKS’ newest devised choreographed work emerges from the dancers’ personal statements expressed in the unique language and movements of the Ethiopian communities. Costumes by Maor Zabar. To view video from rehearsals of the devised dance process, please visit our Youtube page. Stay tuned for clips from the performance soon! To learn more about Beta Dance Troupe, please visit: www,beta-eskesta.com
Solomon Tafte in rehearsal
Mazal Dimoza in rehearsal
Daniel Barhana in rehearsal
Sandake Meharat in performance
Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre’s International Exposure 2009
Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre
Adam and Daniel were invited to attend the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre’s International Exposure 2009, December 9-13, as U.S. delegates. This was a rare opportunity to connect with and watch performances by well-known Israeli choreographers and companies, such as Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, The Israeli Ballet, Rami Be'er and Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Barak Marshall, Idan Cohen, Tamar Borer, Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company, and many others. Special thanks goes out to Yair Vardi, Claudio Kogon, and Rachel Grodjinovsky for organizing a wonderful event!
Move2Heal and IGY
Yoni Raz, and Adam exploring
In collaboration with social worker and counselor for theIsraeli Gay Youth Organization (IGY), Avi Blecherman of Tel Aviv, DNAWORKS started an exciting new project using dance for community healing and creative self-expression with two young men permanently wounded in theattack on Bar Noar. Bar Noar is the safe space for GLBTQ youth in Tel Aviv, Israel, that was attacked on August 1, 2009, by a masked gunman, in which two people were killed and at least 15 injured. The 15 and 19-year old young men with whom we worked for six weeks in November and December 2009 had previously begun to study dance – ballroom, modern, ballet, and Hip Hop – and are now confined to wheelchairs, paralyzed from the chest down, rehabilitating at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. Adam and Daniel led a devised dance-theatre practicum to encourage participants to pursue and explore their love of dance in their current physical state, to use the arts as a means to process and heal from the violence of this attack, and to share this process with the community around them. Click here to view video from the workshops.
The Borders Project
Collborator Ariel Vegosen and Co-Director Adam McKinney dancing on the border wall
The Borders Project is underway! The Borders Project is a live multi-media choreographic collaboration that addresses international border and immigration issues, policies, and laws. Last summer, DNAWORKS led The Borders Project Residency in Port Townsend, WA where eight artists from North America met to create work about and discuss the effects of limiting bodies and disallowing groups access to the most natural and powerful of resources – each other. DNAWORKS was given a tour of Bethlehem by actor/playwright/theatre director Sami Metwasi, co-founder of INAD Theatre, the first professional theater in southern Palestine, on December 20. Together with DNAWORKS Collaborator Ariel Vegosen, Adam McKinney led an impromptu site specific dance performance at the border wall in Bethlehem, Palestine. Click here to view video of the dance.
African Jews in the Diaspora Project
Crown Sister Adinah Adinah in at the vegan ice cream café in Dimona.
On January 3, 2010, Adam and Daniel visited The Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona as part of their ongoing African Jews in the Diaspora Project. The Israelite community “began arriving in Israel in 1969. Led by Ben Ami Ben-Israel,” the community moved to Israel from the United Stated through Liberia as “descendants of the tribe of Judah. In the nearly 40 years since, the community has…become Kibbutz Shomrei Hashalom (Guardians of Peace)," one of the largest urban self sustaining communities in Israel” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website). The community has 3,500 members in Dimona, with additional families living in bordering towns. DNAWORKS met with community member Crown Sister Adinah Adinah who gave Adam and Daniel a tour of The Village of Peace.
DNAWORKS Workshops
NYU in Tel Aviv
On December 13, Daniel and Adam visited NYU in Tel Aviv. There, they gave a movement workshop and spoke about their recent work in Israel with 8 students and staff from the program as well as invited community members.
The Workshop for Training Dancers
On December 16, Adam taught a modern dance workshop to 25 students at The Workshop for Training Dancers in Haifa.
Poetry Performance Workshop for "Palestinian and Israeli Women Creating Peace"
On December 20, DNAWORKS presented their “B-LIVE Guide for Live Performance and Public Speaking” during a performance workshop they led for Palestinian and Israeli Women Creating Peace: A Joint Venture of Shorouq and NISPED poets in Beit Jallah, West Bank, Palestine. The presentation of the collection of poems by Yvette Nahmia-MessinasThey All Sound Like Love Songs, Women Healing Israeli-Palestinian Relations, was performed at the Yamei Shira Bamidbar festival in Midreshet S’de Boker, Israel under the section “With An Iron Pen: Poems of Protest and Poems of Peace” in Hebrew, English and Arabic by Israeli and Palestinian participants.
Co-Directors Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks with Aida Nasrallah's "Thinking Creatively" class at Beit Berl University
Beit Berl University
On December 28, DNAWORKS taught a self-expression and collaboration workshop through movement and voice in Professor and Poet Aida Nasrallah’s “Thinking Creatively” course at Beit Berl University. According to their website, “Beit Berl College is a multidisciplinary academic institution that is active in education, society, art, and culture. Jews and Arabs work and study side by side at Beit Berl, where education is considered a means for effecting social change and advancing social justice.” Thirty Arab women, Muslim and Christian, age 20 – 70, participated in the workshop, which took place in the outdoor common area between the dining room and the library. Nasrallah has invited DNAWORKS to return to Beit Berl University to collaborate on further projects.
U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
Co-Directors Daniel Banks and Adam McKinney with Lily Obadiah, Cultural Program Specialist, Public Affairs Office, U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, at the Acco Theatre Centre
In December, DNAWORKS received a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to bring our methodology of arts = ritual = healing = community to several schools and community centers throughout Israel.
Co-Director Adam McKinney with Arab Israeli Community Center Dance Workshop Participants
The American Corner at the Arab Israeli Community Center in Yaffo
On December 6, Adam taught a modern dance class at The Arab Israeli Community Center of Yaffo, which strives to break down barriers between Arab and Israeli communities through the arts. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish young women aged 14 – 17 participated in the 2-hour workshop.
The American Corner of Acco
On December 22, Daniel and Adam taught a Hip Hop Theatre workshop for ten Arab youth in Acco.
Collaborator Ariel Vegosen leading a young people's workshop in Acco
Hip Hop Theatre workshop participants in Acco
Co-Directors Adam McKinney a Daniel Banks with Hip Hop Theatre workshop participants in Acco
Peace Child Israel
Daniel and Adam taught a Hip Hop Theatre workshop for 20 youth and 5 staff in Nazareth on December 26. Founded in 1988, Peace Child Israel uses theatre arts as peaceful coexistence work with Arab and Jewish Israeli youth. According to their website, PCI educates youth and adults in “democratic values, tolerance and mutual respect. Arab and Jewish teens from partnering Arab and Jewish schools around the country meet weekly for 8 months before creating original dramas about coexistence and its challenges."
Co-Director Daniel Banks leads a movement exercise for PCI in Nazareth
Co-Directors Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks with PCI in Nazareth
PCI participants in a writing exercise
Khalid Abu Ali with Lily Obadiah
The grant also funded DNAWORKS to meet with fellow choreographers, directors, and artists to discuss possible future collaborations, including:
Adam is the recipient of New York University's Gallatin Jewish Studies Fund grant 2010 to support his work in Israel! The NYU Gallatin Jewish Studies grant was created to expand academic and artistic exploration in the field of Jewish Studies through the support of research and other intellectual projects.
Castillo Theatre
On January 10, Daniel sat on a post-show panel at the Castillo Theatre in NY about devised theatre and their piece Work/Play with the All Stars Project.
HaMapah/המפה @ Schmooze
Adam performed excerpts of HaMapah, directed by Daniel, at the International Jewish Presenters Association’s Schmooze 2010 Conference on January 12 in NYC.
Upcoming for DNAWORKS
California Institute of the Arts: Arts in the One World
Daniel and Adam will be teaching workshops at California Institute of the Arts' Arts in the One World 2010 Conference, January 20-27 in Valencia, California, and will also speak on a panel about their work in Israel and the West Bank.
No Passport Conference
Daniel is also Co-Curating the 2010 No Passport Conference, DREAMING THE AMERICAS: UTOPIA IN PERFORMANCE, to be held at Nuyorican Poets Cafe February 26-27.
Handy Withers, Jr.
DNAWORKS mourns the untimely passing of our dear friend and ardent supporter, Handy Withers, Jr. We will miss his sage counsel, constant encouragement, and passion for DNAWORKS' mission.
Thank you for your ongoing support. Wishing you all the best for 2010!
Adam McKinney and Daniel Banks, Ph.D., Co-Directors, DNAWORKS
We mourn the untimely passing of DNAWORKS friend and ardent supporter, Handy Withers, Jr. His sage counsel, constant encouragement, and passion for DNAWORKS' mission will be missed.
DNAWORKS is an arts and service organization committed to healing through the arts and dialogue. DNAWORKS catalyzes performance and action through the arts. In our work and global initiatives, our philosophy is:
ART = RITUAL = HEALING = COMMUNITY.
DNAWORKS is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of DNAWORKS may be
made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation on behalf of DNAWORKS.
