"Everything you have is yours?" investigates the construction of Israeli identity through gestures appropriated from Palestinian and Yemeni culture. Hadar Ahuvia and Mor Mendel imitate and translate instructional videos of Israeli folk dances by Israelis and American Christian Zionist, embodying distance and proximity to Israel, Israeliness, and enacting the feedback loop through which national identity is disseminated and sustained. In their performative mirroring of these videos, they reveal the subtext of dances, making explicit the Otherness at the kernel of Israeli identity, and the tangible consequence of theological misappropriation.
Hadar Ahuvia Artist Statement
My work investigates history and memory through embodied, vocal, and textual practices. I rehash codified forms to contend with gender, class, and national identities. I’ve contrived techniques to challenge the neutral body and the virtuosity of classical technique. I’ve performed cleaning to expose the isolation and exploitation of domestic workers. Through the re-figuring of Israeli folk songs and dances I encounter a Zionist legacy. I work through the body and its inseparable social, political, and emotional dimensions to rewrite personal and collective mythologies.
Hadar Ahuvia is performer and choreographer and progressive Jewish educator living in Brooklyn. She performs for established and emerging choreographers in NYC and abroad. Her work has been presented at NYLA, Movement Research at the Judson Church, and other venues throughout NYC and the northeast United States. Raised in Israel and the U.S., Ahuvia trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She was a 2012 DTW/NYLA Fresh Tracks Artists, a 2015 Movement Research Artists in Residence, a 2016 LABA Fellow at the 14th Street Y, and is the recipient of a 2017 CUNY Dance Initiative residency. She can be seen performing with Kathy Westwater and Reggie Wilson/ Fist & Heel Performance Group.
Mor Mendel is a Brooklyn based dancer, performance artist and educator. She received her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Mor earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, including a teaching certification in Dance Theater in Israel where she performed and taught in various venues and schools. She was awarded "The Best Final Performance" at the “Cova Festival” Tel Aviv as part of her BFA. These days Mendel is creatively engaged with artists Patricia Hoffbauer and Tamar Ettun.
Gil Sperling is a multimedia artist and a LABA fellow. He has created multimedia performances for the Target Margin Yiddish Lab and the Berlin new music festival, Video Design for shows at HERE Arts, The Chocolate Factory and the Cologne Opera, and vieo installations in New York, Dresden, Kyoto and Ein-Harod. www.gilsperling.com
Rowan Magee is a performer, puppeteer, and director. BA Sarah Lawrence College. New York credits: BAM, La Mama, St. Ann's Warehouse. He has toured internationally and nationally with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Forhardt's The Pigeoning, Dan Hurlin's Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed and will be in the opening ceremonies of the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games in Azerbaijan this May.
Funding Credits
The project “Everything you have is yours” was made possible through the Movement Research Artist-in-Residence Program funded, in part, by the Jerome Foundation, by the Davis/Dauray Family Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
“Everything you have is yours” was made in part through support of Donna Uchizono Company's Choreographic Shared Practice program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
“Everything you have is yours” has been incubated by LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture at the 14th St. Y
“Everything you have is yours” was developed through research conducted and taught at Kolot Chayeinu’s Children’s Learning Program.
Recent Engagements Movement Research at the Judson Church, NYC, March 2017 LabaLive at the 14th St. Y, NYC, March 2017 Movement Research Fall Festival at Danspace Project, NYC, December 2016 Co-moderate Panel “Appropriate Citations”, Movement Research Studies Project, April 2017
Recognitions Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee 2017 CUNY Dance Initiative 2017 Resident Laba Fellow at the 14h St. Y, Laboratory for Jewish Culture Movement Research Artists in Residence 2015-2017 Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Grace Paley Organizing Fellow 2017 Jewish Voice for Peace, Artist Council 2015