I am now less than a week away from my dancing adventure in Israel...I will leave on Saturday to study for five months with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and I'm entirely psyched about it.
The KCDC "Dance Journey" program is essentially an apprenticeship/training program with the modern dance company in northern Israel. About twenty-five of us from around the world will study alongside the company members and take technique class from the directors, create choreography of our own, learn KCDC repertoire, and perform around Israel. I have already begun communicating with some of my fellow dancers...So far, I have "met" (and by met I mean via Facebook) dancers from all over the States, the Netherlands, and Australia. I can't wait to meet them in person and learn and dance together. We will be living on a kibbutz, which is an Israeli commune/village--This one is dance-centered, which is possibly the coolest concept ever. :)
The technique classes will be mainly ballet and modern, but will also encompass other Israeli forms, that I think/hope will include Ohad Naharin's Gaga technique...oh how I want to get back to Gaga! I will also spend four days in Tel Aviv before I head north to the Kibbutz, and I definitely hope I'll have the chance to revisit Gaga at the Batsheva studio (If you want to know more about Gaga, read this post here: http://artinmotionblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/gaga-class-in-tel-aviv.html).
When I was first accepted to this opportunity abroad, I was ambivalent and nervous, worried to leave home for so long and unsure about the opportunities back in Chicago that I will miss. Now, of course there is still a part of me that feels this way, but I have reached the point where most of what I feel is excitement and an eagerness to welcome what has come my way.
I will be blogging about the experience here...Read and check in with me, and keep in touch.
"It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to." ~Bilbo Baggins in JRR Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring
