Today I had the pleasure of watching a Hubbard Street rehearsal for Decadance. They were rehearsing Minus 16 with a representative from Batsheva. This piece--which I have seen Batsheva, HS, and Alvin Ailey perform--never gets old for me. Today I saw the dancers, who I usually view as stars--as people. They laughed and joked. One fell out of the chair in a particularly exuberant moment. They shouted and worked on their pronunciation of "shebashemaym u'vaarertz." They arched again and again.

I saw Minus 16 for the first time as a sophomore at U of I, when Batsheva came to Krannert. I fell in love with this grinding groove of rock-Hebrew-folk, a song I knew since childhood. It strikes me as irreverent and yet somehow completely spiritual. I love it, and it was amazing to get an insider glimpse of the rehearsal process.