Movement, No.1 – Closing Event

Engel is an Israeli and international choreographer, dancer, actress, and entrepreneur who lives and works in Jerusalem. She has been creating and performing for the past 20 years in Israel, Europe, the USA, Africa, and the Far East, initiating international projects and collaborations around the world. Engel's works are characterized by a unique interpretation and design, rich virtuoso performance, and by the adaptation of the Israeli experience in its entire diversity into interactive, universal, and place-dependent work. As a Jerusalemite, she draws artistic and intellectual inspiration from the complexity and multicultural nature of the city where she also acts as a cultural entrepreneur: in addition to founding and managing the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival, she founded the Angela Dance Company in Jerusalem - an artistic body that serves as a home for contemporary activity that stages original dance works alongside international projects. She also developed the concept project LoveINg Your City, which documents true love stories from cities around the world through original dance and performance works in public, staged, and digital spaces. Engel is a member of the board of directors of AMI, CEO of the Dance Space Association, and a member of the Choreographers Association, and served as artistic director at Mazia. Alongside her original productions and many performances, she is invited to create, perform, and teach in various institutions around the world.

Ben-Dor is a Uruguay-born international conductor who immigrated to Israel in 1973. She graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and continued her studies in the United States at Yale University School of Music. She made her debut after completing her studies conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in a concert recorded by the BBC in London and broadcast throughout Europe. She currently lives in the United States and performs as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world with a repertoire of classical, 20^th-, and 21st-century music, as well as with South American classical music. Ben-Dor plays a crucial role in reviving and promoting South American music, which she performs with orchestras in concerts, festivals, and recordings.

Elkhater is a pianist, composer, lecturer, and conductor who has conducted dozens of orchestras in Israel and around the world. In 2014 he founded the Harmonica Association devoted to making music studies accessible to populations in Lod. In addition to staging productions throughout the country, the association operates more than eight projects adapted for different populations. Between 2004-2009 he studied for his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and in 2021 he began studying at Bar-Ilan University for his PhD. Elkhater won the Prime Minister's Prize for Composers in 2021 and his work "Mediterranean Suite" was performed at the Vatican by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in 2022.

Ateek is a Nazareth-born soprano singer. She holds BA and MA degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance where she studied under Mrs. Anat Efrati and Dr. Ido Ariel. Her operatic repertoire includes the roles of Queen of the Night, Femina and Papegna in The Magic Flute, Serpetta in The Pretend Garden-Girl, Susanna and Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Adele in Die Fledermaus (Strauss), Norina in Don Pasquale (Donizetti), Clorinda in Cinderella (Rossini), Angel in Talitha, Come Back! (van Loonen), The Sand Fairy and the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) and other roles. Her concert repertoire includes, among others, the solo role in Mozart's Requiem and Fauré's Requiem. She was a member of the Meitar Opera Studio and currently performs as a soloist in various concerts with the Raanana Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and in other settings.

Sandler is a singer who sings in a variety of languages and styles. He has been performing all over the world for 30 years. During his extensive career, he shared stages with Charles Aznavour, Lionel Ritchie, Boney M., and Smokie. He is currently running tribute shows to Queen, Gazoz, and Doda, as well as a 60's music performance.

VIDAVÈ Dance Company is an Italian-based project of the duo Noemi Dalla Vecchia and Matteo Vignali. The dancers-choreographers work together since 2019, building a hybrid choreographic aesthetic they call “spoken dance” which bridges between movement languages from the street and contemporary dance styles, integrating the use of words to enrich the micro-dramaturgy of movement. Their chief works include “With Another with You”, "Hansel&Gretel Alteration," and "Choreographic Figures," which have been performed at platforms such as Teatro Comunale of Vicenza, TanzArtOstWest, Teatro Fontana, the Istanbul Fringe Festival, 10Sentidos, Linkage, International SoloTanz Theater, Tanzplatform Bern, Teatro Mercadante, and 2023 Stimmung. Their performances have been selected by Anticorpi XL 2020 and 2022 Festivals and won the ADEB and Prospettiva Danza prizes, as well as the Biennale Danza production award.

Fundaminsky is a choreographer, a researcher and practitioner of movement improvisation, a dancer, and a dance teacher. She holds a B.Ed and M.Dance in choreography and is currently a lecturer and head of the Choreography Focus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She was an artist and visiting lecturer at the University of San Jose US on behalf of BAMAH, and in 2022 won the Ministry of Culture Award for performing the solo “Big Hand Little Hand”. She also participated in the artistic direction of the "Shades in Dance" festival at the Suzanne Dellal Centre. Fundaminsky creates interactive works for children in collaboration with Einat Gantz; initiates and directs the "Shlombel" workshops for release, improvisation, and performance techniques; supervises the "Fresco" troupe dancers in improvisation; and dances in the improvisation collective "Octet".

Luque is an Argentinian performer and choreographer based in Iași, Romania. His artistic journey spans between Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Ellison Ballet (New York City), and the Romanian National Opera. He explores movement identity through a blend of telluric expressions, classical lines, and contemporary flow. He took part in festivals of theater, folkloric dance, and contemporary dance such as the Florence Dance Festival, Istropolitana Project, Skopje Dance Fest, Tango in Castle New York, and the National Chamamé Festival in his hometown, Corrientes. Luque has collaborated with choreographers like Margarita Fernandez, Guido de Benedetti, Liliana Belfiore, Luis Marinoni Lopez, Răzvan Mazilu, Paula Dunca, Iliana Iliescu, Ioan Tugearu, Sandra Mavhima, Nestor Assaf, and Sergio Segura. He holds a BA in Choreography from the National University of Arts George Enescu where he studied under Prof. Lorette Enache.

Laufer was born in the United States and received her BA from the Point Park Conservatory in Pittsburgh. Next to performing her own works, she performed in the Israeli Opera under the direction and choreography of Itzik Galili and the Cameri Theater with Andrea Martini, and is currently dancing with the Avshalom Pollak Dance Theater.

Ben Dror studied classical ballet and modern dance at the Bat Dor Dance Company. He began his professional career with the Ballet de Tours under the artistic direction of Jean-Christophe Maillot and has performed as a soloist for renowned choreographers such as Mats Ek with Cullberg Ballet, Nacho Duato at Spain's National Dance Company, and Ohad Naharin with Batsheva. Ben Dror also creates dance works for groups like Batsheva, São Paulo City Ballet, Osnabrück Tanztheater, Lisbon City Ballet, De De Dance, Vertigo, and the Jerusalem Dance Theater Company. His work "Temps Blanc" was awarded the Minister of Education, Culture, and Sports Award. Between 2007-2009 he served as artistic director of the "Shades in Dance" festival at Suzanne Dellal, and as of 2023, he is the artistic director of the Jerusalem Dance Theater Company.

After graduating from the Dance and Fine Art School of Győr, Gláser continued his education at SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance). He has collaborated with choreographers and creators such as Michikazu Matsune, Helder Seabra, Paul Blackman, Christine Gouzelis, Christine Hassid, Hillel Kogan, Francesco Scavetta, Stephanie Thiersch, Robert Wilson, Lili Raubinek, and Adrienn Hód. He worked with the Bodhi Project (Austria), KALE Companhia de Danca (Portugal), Salzburger Festspiele, and the Wiener Staatsoper. At the moment, he is based in Budapest and works as a freelancer with Hodworks, Hollow Systems, and Imola Kacsó, as well as the AHA Collective which received the Rudolf Laban prize for their first work, “Dense Piece” in 2023.

Kacsó is a Budapest-based artist and dancer. After graduating from the School of Dance and Fine Arts in Győr, she continued her studies at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD), and since 2019 she has been a member of the Bodhi project. Throughout the years, Kacsó participated in projects related to the Salzburger Festspiele and the Wiener Staatsoper and has collaborated with artists such as Stephanie Thiersch / Asasello Quartett, Hillel Kogan, Robert Wilson, Michikazu Matsune, Helder Seabra, Paul Blackman, Christine Gouzelis, and Hollow System. Since 2020, she has been working with Adrienn Hód (Hodworks) and is currently a member of the AHA collective (founded in 2021) and is creating works together with Márton Gláser.

Gelber, a New York-based choreographer, started training at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts before continuing to refine her skills at the Boston Conservatory. Her work "In Finite Space" premiered in 2014 as part of The Boston Conservatory's Alumni Commissioning Project. Gelber's choreography has been presented at festivals and theaters nationally and internationally, including The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Summer Dance Series, Chop Shop Bodies of Work, The Houston Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, The Boston Dance Festival, The Austin Dance Festival, The Mexico City Dance Festival, Gdanski Festival Tanca, Solo Dans Ankara, and the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF). Most recently, Gelber has finished producing her debut dance film “If I Were You” which continues to circulate at festivals worldwide.

Born in Athens, Zafeiropoulou studied at the State School of Dance and the National Conservatory of Greece. Thanks to a scholarship from the Greek Ministry of Culture and the S.S.D., she received her Diploma in Dance Theater at the Laban Centre in London where she studied with D. Lommel, S. Paxton, C. Mantafounis, Z. Nikoloudi, G. Metsis, and L. Konstantinou. She has danced with some of the most prominent ensembles in Greece, gaining awards and distinctions, and toured in important dance centers all over the world. In 2002 she founded the ELDOR Dance Company. A dance teacher since 1994, she was vice president of the Greek Choreographers Association and a member of the International Dance Council and the Athens Conservatoire Musical Society. She is currently the director of the Athens Conservatoire Dance School.

The Jerusalem Ballet Company, under the artistic direction of Nina Timofeyeva, presents a diverse repertoire of works in the classical, neoclassical, and contemporary ballet styles, created by international choreographers alongside works by the artistic director and other Israeli choreographers. The company’s repertoire stands out in the Israeli dance landscape with works on Jewish and Israeli themes such as "Fiddler on the Roof", "Memento" (Holocaust), and "He Walked in the Fields" (novel by Moshe Shamir). The company performs before the general public as well as students in morning shows, and in studio performances and workshops at its headquarters at the Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Ballet School, which operates beside the company, raises dancers, many of whom proceed to professional dance careers in Israel and abroad.

Liebman-Sharon is an Israeli choreographer, artistic director, and curator. She holds B. Dance and M. Mus degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, specializing in choreography. Her work has been presented at festivals and residencies in Israel and around the world: the Israel Festival, the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF), Machol Shalem’s Jerusalem International Dance Week, From Jaffa to Agripas Festival, Hazira Dance Arena, and the Dan David Award Ceremony (all in Israel), the Zagreb Dance Center in Croatia (ZPC), Se.s.ta Center (Czech Republic), JSKD (Ljubljana), the 1927 Art Space Gallery (Athens), Solodanceankara Festival (Turkey), and many more. Her work has also been presented in museums and galleries such as the Israel Museum, Haifa Art Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Museum of Muslim Art, and Moscow Museum.

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, now in its 87th season, was founded as the Palestine Broadcasting Service Orchestra in the late 1930s. In 1948 it became the national radio orchestra and was known as the “Kol Israel Orchestra”. In the 1970s, the orchestra was expanded into the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Authority. As a radio symphony orchestra, the majority of the concerts which the orchestra holds at its resident hall – the Henry Crown Auditorium – are recorded and broadcast over (Kan) Kol Ha’musika station. The current Music Director of the JSO is Maestro Julian Rachlin. The orchestra has had nine musical directors hitherto: Mendi Rodan, Lukas Foss, Gary Bertini, Lawrence Foster, David Shallon, Frédéric Chaslin and Steven Sloane. The orchestra maintains a varied repertoire which ranges from the Baroque and the Classical periods through the Romantic period, extending to contemporary composers, many of whom have received their Israeli premières with the JSO. The orchestra is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Jerusalem Municipality.  

Dr. Shen is the creator of the “Geo-Choreo” practice that looks into movement cultivation by feeling and articulating the movement distribution, density, viscosity, pattern, and tendency within the practice. She aims to help people enjoy serenity through dance and dancing. By incorporating her practices with Qiji Daoyin, Shen attempts to generate a two-way channel where the performer and the audience are receiving and giving in every possible form of message. Such a channel blurs the duality of the two roles and activates the suspension of their gazes and judgment. They both simply feel the spiritual reign by themselves where everyone can be healing, healed, and energetically radiant.