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.

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.

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.

Gasparotti is a contemporary dancer, performer, and choreographer based in Israel. She has been a dancer for artists such as Neta Pulvermacher, Ronen Izhaki (Between Heaven and Earth), and for the Kaiser-Antonino Dance Ensemble, and is currently working with the the JDT – Jerusalem Dance Theater Company. She has a BA in Dance and Education from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (IL) and a Diploma in Performance and Choreography from the Dance Theater Course of Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi – Milano (IT).

Marin is a choreographer, dancer, designer, teacher, and founder of the “Or Marin Dance Theater Company” and of “RE-SEARCH” – A three-year professional program for creative dancers. Her work is known for its visual aesthetics and use of vocal and textual work and is created from the notion that a piece must be total in all its components to create a complete, emotional and visual experience.
Her creations include solo and multicast performances, short and full-length works, screen productions and site-specific projects, and are performed in Israel and abroad, including RIDCC, Quinzena de Dança de Almada, MASDANZA de Gran Canaria, DOCK11, Tanzmasse NRW, INTERPLAY Fest, and Exiter Fest.
Marin’s works won many prizes, and her company is supported by the Israeli Ministry of Culture. She is also a permanent associate of the Israeli Choreographers Association.

Danielis is a Slovakia-based choreographer, media artist, and director of the “Radical Empathy” company. His work, together with the company, focuses on developing works of art as sociological tests, with a longstanding emphasis on themes of empathy, coexistence, questions relating to the perception of freedom, and language. Danielis’s works have been presented in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. As a performer, he has collaborated with cie W. Dorner, Olivier Py, Sasha Waltz and guests, cie. F. Ruckert, Freyer Ensemble, Granhoj Dans, and others.

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.

Beck is an independent dancer and Choreographer. Her works include “Saudade” and “Ma’atzama” (for the Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak company), “The Botany of Desire,” “W,” “Colonia,” “Esters,” and “HHH” (for the Bat Sheva Ensemble), as well as “The Moon is A Girl with the Sun in Her Eyes,” and “A Glimpse into a Trilogy in the Making.”

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.

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”.

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.

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.

Lyga completed his master’s studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the Nonverbal- Department. He is Prague-based and works with companies such as Tantehorse, Studio Damúza, and many others. During his studies, he created the well-known improvisation company “We Boys Who Walk Together” with Šimon Pliska, Lukas Blaha, and Václav Wortner. The company specializes in improvised “freeform”, and its performances are oriented, among others, toward child audiences. Since 2022, he is also a member of the “Losers Cirque” Company. For his first solo project, “A Fairytale for the Brave”, Lyga was nominated for the famous Czech Thalia Award 2023 in the Alternative Theater Category for Outstanding Performance, as well as in the Talent of the Year Category at the Theater Critics Awards 2023.

Harari is a flamenco dancer, teacher, and creator who sees the art of flamenco as an understandable and universal language. Harari immigrated from the US to Israel in 1992 and lives in Jerusalem. She danced with the Spanish Dance Company in Boston and performed in clubs and festivals as a soloist in New York. Her broad background in dance includes classical ballet, jazz, modern, and folklore dance, and she studied with leading flamenco teachers in Madrid, Granada, and Seville.

In Israel, she has promoted projects combining flamenco with Ladino, Arabic, and classical music. She performs with Israeli and Spanish flamenco artists, manages learning centers, and produces events. Beyond her artistic endeavors, Harari has taught and performed in many community frameworks: community centers, schools, retirement homes, associations, and shelters.

Zarhy is a freelance choreographer whose work ranges between the concrete and the abstract – from functional, daily movements to ones that we could call “Dance”. She is a graduate of Codarts in Rotterdam and the ex.er.ce choreography program directed by Xavier Le Roy and Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier. During her studies, she worked as William Forsythe’s assistant in Germany. Later, Zarhy co-founded with Ioannis Mandafounis and Fabrice Mazliah the trio Mamaza (2009-2014), with which she created and performed around the world. Since 2014, Zarhy created around 15 pieces, including “Witness” (Ballett Chemnitz, 2024), “Presencia” (2023), and “Ausencia” (2021), which were presented in festivals and theaters in Europe and Israel. Between 2021-2023 she directed the postgraduate choreography program at Kelim Center and is currently teaching at Tanzfabrik Berlin, Promornings in Suzanne Dellal and more.

Helfer is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and experience-designer. He produces albums (for Camilla, Arik Aber, Oren Lavi, Gon Ben Ari, and others), and designs soundtracks for dance (Fresco, Vertigo, Sharon Friedman, Shlomit Fundaminsky, Anat Grigorio) and other artistic fields. He also releases original music under the names “Helfer” and “Age is a Box”. In recent years, Helfer has initiated, produced, and directed many artistic events that combine different art types on various platforms, including Capsule, Blender, the opening of the Ariella House, One Moment Library, and more. The recurring theme in his work is breaking the standard performance format and challenging the familiar audience experience of stage art.

Cohen is a contemporary movement and circus artist, creator, and choreographer. She specializes in aero-dynamic technique with an emphasis on the aerial hoop element. She explores the physical-mental body as a tool for individual and collective healing processes by combining effortless dynamic techniques, synchronized and relaxed respiratory work, and deep listening to the body’s changing center points. Developing her performance and language of movement, she challenges the ongoing integration between circus disciplines and the fields of dance and physical theater, using images, quality of movement, sound, and writing.

Cohen completed a year of studies at the “Kelim Center” for choreographic work and is engaged in the production of independent projects. She has also created and collaborated with the Canadian Cirque du Soleil and the French Cirque Plume.

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.

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.

van Rossum is from the Netherlands and received his BA from the Amsterdam School of Arts. As a dancer, he worked with and performed the works of choreographers and theater makers such as Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, Itzik Galili, Eyal Dadon, Olivier Fredj, Ariel Wolf, Jason Danino Holt, Andrea Martini, and Lotem Regev.

Weissman is an Israeli choreographer and performer based in Berlin. She graduated from the Dance Department at The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (2015) and the “Maslool” Professional Dance Program (2017) and holds a diploma in choreography from the International Choreographic Exchange postgraduate program at SEAD Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (2018). Weissman participated in artist residencies at SEAD (2019), Studio Alta (CZ), Sadnaot Habama (IL), Tanz Station (DE), and Cie La Baraka (FR), and received the Neustart Kultur #TakeHeart residency funding from Fonds Darstellende Künste and Flausen+Bundesnetzwerk residency at Schloss Bröllin.

Her work “AGADA” (Premiered 2022), was performed at Acker Stadt Palast (2022, DE), Dock 11 (2022, DE), and Habait Theater (2022, IL). Her work “Prisma”, a piece for young audiences supported by Explore Dance, premiered in Munich in March 2023.

Bessoudo Greck is a French-Israeli artist who began her career with a classical education from the Grace Princess Academy of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. In 2013 she moved to Israel to deepen her study of movement, and since 2016 she has been conquering the global audience as a dancer in the Kibbutz Dance Company. Her talent for choreography sets her apart, having created acclaimed works such as “Who am I” for “The Kibbutz 2”. Bessoudo Greck collaborates with institutions such as the Czech National Theater Silesian-Moravian and currently serves as rehearsal director of the Kibbutz Company. She is known for her animalistic and powerful yet highly sensitive body language. She fosters creativity and dissolves boundaries thanks to her emotional intelligence, desire to connect with people, and sharing in movement.

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.

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.

Martínez graduated in classical dance from the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona (1991-1997) and studied HBO dance at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague (1998). In 1999, after dancing with several Catalan contemporary dance companies (Avelina Argüelles, Danat Dansa, Trànsit, etc.), he joined “Cia. Mar Gómez”. Since then, he has been a choreographic director and performer in all the company’s shows, presenting hundreds of performances nationally and internationally. At the same time, between 2002 and 2008, he regularly collaborated on various projects directed by the British artist Lindsey Kemp, working as a performer, choreographer, and/or assistant director in the staging of operas in Spain and Italy, sharing the stage with Lindsey Kemp himself in the director’s creations.

Gómez is the director and founder of “Cia. Mar Gómez” and a student of fine arts and classical and contemporary dance. She founded her company in 1992 after working as a dancer in various companies (Cía Peatones, Madrid; Cia Didier Theron, Montpelier; Cia Dominique Bauet, Montpellier; Cia Avelina Argüelles, Barcelona), and after one of her creations was awarded the 1st Prize at Madrid’s “Certamen Coreográfico” in 1991 and Barcelona’s Ricard Moragas Contest in 1992.

Gómez’s work is located in the field of dance theater. Her work is known for including narrativity, meticulous construction of the characters through physical theater and choreographic work, an intense physicality, and her personal use of a sense of humor in each and every one of her pieces.

Alegria is a Spanish band with an oriental flavor. The show combines Spanish classics, Ladino love songs, and Latino favorites. The band’s repertoire is wide and ranges from romantic, nostalgic, and touching songs to energetic and joyful ones, motivating the audience to sing and dance. It includes the best hits of the Gypsy Kings, flamenco songs, and influences from Andalusian music, Greece, and even Yemen.

The show is suitable for all types of audiences and all ages since it combines songs from different periods, thereby connecting old and new and taking the audience on a journey that is lively and energetic but also emotional and tender.

The ensemble consists of three musicians – guitarist Roy Weisglass, guitarist Joe Taylor, and drummer Gilad Amsalem, and will host choreographer and flamenco dancer Michaela Harari.

Roy Weisglass is a professional guitarist and leader of the band Alegria. Throughout the years he has performed in festivals and shows with various bands and projects and is also a music teacher for kids at the conservatorium in Beit Shemesh.

Gilad Amsalem is a darbuka artist who specializes in a variety of styles from around the world. He played in various bands, including the Andalusian East and West Orchestra, Firkat Eleanor, Guy Cohen’s Revolution Orchestra, and many more.

Joe Taylor is a British guitarist, singer, and songwriter specializing in Spanish guitar and flamenco. He led the “Ted Conference band” and performed in important frameworks such as the Jerusalem Orchestra East and West, the Glastonbury Festival, and many more.

Buzaglo is a dancer and dance teacher. He was born and lives in Eilat and holds a bachelor’s degree in dance and teaching from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He is currently working with independent choreographer Romi Alon on her work “A Woman Walks into a Repair Shop” and dances in the Fresco Dance Company under the direction of Yoram Carmi.

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.

Oddes is a dancer and independent creator in the field of dance. She holds a B. Dance specializing in choreography and a teaching certificate from the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. Oddes is active in a variety of interdisciplinary artistic projects, chief among them is the Marliman Collective in Jerusalem. Her works have been performed at festivals in Israel and abroad, including the Between Heaven and Earth Festival, Festival Tranås at the Fringe, STOFF-Stockholm Fringe Festival, BaAzak Festival, MRFF- Mitzpe Ramon Film Festival, Beita Version and more.

Koren is a Jerusalemite, freelance choreographer, dancer, body lover, movement researcher, DJ, and producer. She explores the body as concrete physical matter and thus the formation of matter that changes and moves. Koren has performed at the Jerusalem Fringe Festival, the Jazz Festival at the Israel Museum, and the 40th anniversary event of the Anna Ticho House.

Haskey (born 1996) is a choreographer, dancer, and movement teacher. She explores questions about body patterns, relationships and intimacy, aesthetics and physical expression, and practices contact-improvisation, release, and improvisation techniques as a way of life. She also teaches contact and improvisation techniques. Haskey is a graduate of the “Pulse” School of Theater and Creativity in Mitzpe Ramon and a graduate of the “Zygote” program for creative dancers. She is currently nearing the completion of her bachelor’s degree in dance in the Department of Movement at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.