ESHET CHAYIL (A WOMAN OF VALOR)
Premiere: Between Heaven and Earth Festival 2012, Jerusalem | Artistic Directors: Daniella Michaeli and Ronen Yitzhaki
On stage, a woman prepares the traditional meal for the coming Shabbat (Sabbath). Her daily routine becomes an inner journey into her body, through which feelings, memories and expectations surface and crystalize into a dance.
"Woman of Valor", Eshet Chayil in Hebrew, is a hymn from the book of Proverbs in the Bible, customarily recited on Friday evenings, after returning from synagogue.
The Shabbat dinner and the Jewish tradition represent an organized and structured framework that can also be broken. The encounter between them and the individual body enables a reexamination of questions concerning the place of the woman between the private and public – what defines my "self", and to what extent does this definition depend on me or the society I live in?
Eshet Chayil offers a look into a woman's secret world and sketches the depths of her body.
Creation and Choreography: Iris Nais-Hadar and Galit Liss
Performer: Iris Nais-Hadar
Artistic Accompaniment: Daniella Michaeli and Ronen Itzhaki
Soundtrack: Moshe Shasho
Piano: Yoav Ilan, Tomer Hadadi, Dr. Naama Oshri
Stage, Props and Costume Design: Iris Nais-Hadar and Galit Liss
Set: Gabriel Hadar
Photography: Tammy Weiss
Duration: 20 minutes
The performance was made possible with the support of Between Heaven and Earth Dance Festival, the Ministry of Culture and the Choreographer's Association
REVIEWS
“Another good performance is "Eshet Chayil" by Iris Nais and Galit Liss… In the beautiful concluding scene, the table is covered with a white tablecloth and on it are wine glasses for Kiddush. This time, the dancer is on the table. She is the master. She progresses on all fours, spreading her arms and legs. She is flexible, changing directions, not holding back in her desire to spread wings, but at the same time does not damage the fragile glasses. Tension is created here between the awareness required for movement in the restricted area and the danger of breaking the glasses and getting hurt. Everything is open to interpretation, and perhaps this is the solution found by the woman who seeks fluid and expanding movement but also strives to preserve a territory identified with tradition”.
Ruth Eshel, Haaretz, 23.12.12