South Floridians will be the first in the country to see the Jerusalem Ballet perform live.
The Israeli dance company will make its U.S. debut with a series of four terpsichorean presentations in October and November at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
First up will be “Houdini — The Other Side” on Oct. 25-26, which explores the life and inner struggles of escape artist Harry Houdini. Then a week later, “Memento” will take to the stage on Nov. 1-2 relating the last defiant acts of Franceska Mann, a Jewish-Polish ballerina killed in Auschwitz.
The Jerusalem Ballet Co. was founded in 2008 by Nadya Timofeyeva and Marina Neeman, four years after Timofeyeva’s mother, the former Bolshoi Ballet dancer and choreographer Nina Timofeyeva, had created the affiliated Jerusalem Ballet School.
Today, Nadya Timofeyeva — a graduate of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and former soloist in the Kremlin Ballet Co. in Moscow — runs both the Jerusalem Ballet company and school.
“I was searching for some way how we can be special in such a rich field of the dance,” Nadya Timofeyeva told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “And then finally we found ourselves. We are narrative ballet and neoclassical ballet company. We have in our repertoire our special ballets that are on a Jewish theme.”
For “Memento,” 16 Jerusalem Ballet dancers will be joined by two performers from FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance: Claudia Hammes from Boca Raton and Tyler Williams from Orlando.
“This is really exciting for our students, that they’re going to have the opportunity to work with Nadya in an intimate setting and see how she choreographs on them,” said Aidan S. Nettles, FAU assistant professor of dance.
An opening reception is planned before the first performance of “Houdini” at 5 p.m. Oct. 25. In addition to savoring hors d’oeuvres and wine, guests can meet artistic director Nadya Timofeyeva and dancers from the company. There will also be a special appearance by Adam Greenfeld, Israel Defense Forces veteran and guest artist, as well as a private opening of the exhibit, “Art Amidst Darkness: Holocaust Testimonies from the Yad Vashem Collection.”
“We also will have some tokens that the dancers will be bringing with them [for] people, if they would like to purchase something to take home [as] a specific gift,” Nettles said. “Often in ballet, you see, professional ballet dancers will have some pointe shoes that they can no longer perform in, and it’s very common practice for someone to ask for an autograph on a pointe to be able to take that token home with them and remember the experience.”
Here is more about the upcoming shows in a Q&A session — edited for clarity and length — with:
- Aidan S. Nettles, assistant professor of dance at FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance
- Nadya Timofeyeva, artistic director and choreographer of Jerusalem Ballet
- Ayelet Giladi, chair of Jerusalem Ballet
- Martin Schoenberg, deputy artistic director of Jerusalem Ballet
Q: What do you think makes the Jerusalem Ballet particularly unique?
Schoenberg: “That’s something … that I am specifically very, very proud of. We have very young dancers, and we have dancers all the way up to 70 years old, and it brings so much nuance and intensity to these performances. Frequently ballet companies discard the experienced dancers, and it’s a huge loss.”
Giladi: “The first performance of Jerusalem Ballet that I saw was ‘Houdini — The Other Side.’ The narrative, the talent, the dance and the ability to express words, thoughts, hopes, emotions and even vision through one universal language captured my heart. The repertoire of the dancers, each of whom brings with them a personal life story — like Misha, who came to us during the war between Ukraine and Russia with his two small children; or Adam, who became disabled in the Yom Kippur War and today dances with us in a wheelchair — made me realize that Jerusalem Ballet has the power to bridge cultural gaps. The talent and the partnership of Nadya and Martin in creating a unique language of ballet must also be shared in distant places.”
Q: What brought FAU and the Jerusalem Ballet together?
Nettles: “We’re good family friends with Ayelet. And my parents told me, ‘Did you know that Ayelet is the new chairwoman of the Jerusalem ballet?’ I thought … this is my second year at FAU, we’ve got really passionate students that have interest in so many different forms of dance … this would be a fantastic organization to connect with, to provide opportunities to my students at FAU who might be interested in study abroad and to have access to [Jerusalem Ballet’s] incredible training.”
Giladi: “So I joined as a chairwoman with the Jerusalem Ballet a year ago … and they were inviting me to see the ‘Houdini’ performance. I was amazed with the potential of the theme, taking it out not only in Israel, but outside of Israel — to start using the materials that we have to bridge over cultures. And since I am familiar with Aidan’s parents, this is one of the talks that I had with them … And then a week later, I’ve got this interest from Aidan. … She said, ‘Ayelet, there is a great interest here.’ So it’s actually a vision that we’re trying to promote with the Jerusalem Ballet, that our art will bridge anything, even now with Israel during a war. We will come, we will do, we will overcome. We will share what we have, and we will do a partnership to encourage art between nations, between communities.”
Q: What makes “Houdini” and “Memento” perfect for this debut in the United States?
Schoenberg: “I feel these two ballets represent Nadya and her sensitivity to big, big themes and stories. … These are narrative ballets, they carry a very, very strong emotional, psychological and historical message. And she does that very, very well. She weaves it together very beautifully. So I think that that’s what needs to be said. She’s very clever at creating narrative values.”
Q: What was the ballet scene in Jerusalem like around the time that the school and company were created?
Timofeyeva: “When we came with my mom, it was already here, the ballet company, the Israel Ballet. The director was Berta Yampolsky, and it was already this professional ballet company in Tel Aviv. And it’s a lot of the modern companies like Batsheva Dance Co., that’s a completely different field. [But] in Jerusalem, there was no ballet company, and this was my mom’s goal: That we will build in Jerusalem a professional ballet company. We found our niche in the field of the Israel dance. Now everybody’s dancing. We have so many companies in our country. I don’t know when the people [are] working because everybody’s dancing.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT/WHEN: Israel’s Jerusalem Ballet presents two shows:
- “Houdini — The Other Side” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26
- “Memento” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2
WHERE: University Theatre at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton (inside the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters building)
COST:
- $54 for general admission
- $44 for FAU faculty/staff and $36 for students (using FAU NetID credentials)
- $144 for Oct. 25 premium ticket (includes pre-performance reception; to order, purchase assigned seating in rows c, d and e)
INFORMATION: 561-297-6124; fauevents.com
