Block - creating dance, poetry, music and video art
A solo, performed by Orly Portal, appeared in a short version at the Israel Festival.
Inspired by "Icarus’ Monologue" by Shimon Adaf.
" Only loveless places are worthy of absolute love " – writes the poet Shimon Adaf in his poem "Sderot". His words bring choreographer Orly Portal back to Kiryat Shmona, her hometown.
The block where Portal grew up in Kiryat Shmona, with its exposed concrete walls, defined her identity, and at the same time imprisoned her soul in it. In the choreography for one dancer, Portal returns to the aromas, sounds and sights of northern nature that accompanied her first steps as a choreographer and instilled in her the desire to move in a ritual dance free of definition. Accompanied by live poetry in Arabic-Moroccan and video work that opens a window to the mud-stained "spritz" walls, the "block" echoes cultural baggage from home, revealing the joy of a primal and pure creation, which was there, that is here, that is not subject to time or place.
Sderot
It took me twenty years to lovethis hole in the middle of nowhere.
The cotton balls spread a white flame
and there was an ill wind in the cypresses
until for the first time I saw,
with a just eye,
the unsophisticated houses under the roof of clouds,
until I heard
the wonderful murmur of the street.
The last whisper emitted by the waves of asphalt
mingled
with the bang of the evening on the ground,
like the voice of a forgotten woman that had betrayed her
and told the truth she tried
to hide in her face.
Decades of wear and tear
have taught the children to caress the water in the stone,
to float paper boats in puddles with ridiculous hope.
The circus past of the girls bloomed in the swirl of a skirt
when the gaze of the crowd sawed through it.
Only loveless places are worthy of absolute love.
Translated from Hebrew by Vivian Eden
Shimon Adaf, "Icarus’ Mologue", "Sderot" – Gvanim Publishing.