It is over a week since the Karov's largest scale She festival to date.
With a rotating audience of over 120, every nook and cranny from the kitchen to the foyer with blindfolded performance art and contorting women in glass balls in the spaces between, SHE was pure Karovian magic at its height.
The night before we had the tech with all 5 of us, plus Dorit. As Pazit Yaron Minakovski breastfed her newborn baby in between her kitchen 'Pass the Salt' monologue, I really thought how truly "she" it all was with no pretense beyond the practical, and that really was special. Her baby was very well-behaved as well, even during Sara Sidoni's scary bit with the torch in the corridor leading to the bathrooms. She charted the experiences of a harassed woman breaking into bits of 'I Feel Pretty' in between, switching between English and Ivrit. Naomi Ben Asa...the lady using the glass bubble/ball and dance music soundtrack...is one of the warmest people I have ever met in my life. Her other full-time work is as a psychotherapist. Meredith Nadler from Germany asked half of her audience to orally describe her dancing to a blindfolded partner. She had just worked a few weeks in Haifa and has now gone back to the States. Dorit herself performed with renowned sculptor Yakov Chefetz, exploring the differences between live and recorded performance. Each year Dorit revives the SHE with strong recognition and memory of her friend Tali with whom she co-founded the idea 6 years ago. Tali subsequently passed away from cancer 2 years later. To experience not only the SHE process but its passionate legacy through the expressiveness of Dorit and her belief in the women she involves is pretty unique.
We each performed a small section of our shows. Afterwards Sara Sidoni commented, on Undressing Cabaret, that there was no distinction between the "performance" style and the singing that accompanies the getting dressed/getting undressed. The only difference was the type of song and the prime emotion (cute vs angry, I suppose) whereas the focus belonged to the state of mind...that of performing and projecting 2D-type sexiness versus not performing - the songs coming from inside as and when the preparation/unwinding process took place.
So afterwards, the night before the festival, Dorit and I went back to work. Before that I spent a good hour playing with her kids Mika and Yarden - two extraordinary little girls of 8 and 6 with all their mother's gumption, energy and intelligence. They gave me one of the best playtimes of my life and I have had many, many, many amazing playtimes in my life.
When Dorit's husband Effi finally took the kids home Dorit said, 'Alexa, look. You have to trust that what you do is interesting. When you are removing the eyeliner or putting on the shoes, it is a show in itself...it is watchable and special without the singing from deep down that then becomes crazy. If you want to show a woman who acts desperately in her dressing room and then goes out and tries to perform like Marilyn Monroe then that is fine and we will change the concept, but that isn't how, where and why we have worked so far. Let the songs just come to you, I beg of you.'
So that is what I did and it wasn't easy and it wasn't difficult - just different different different. Before the show I could watch all the audience congregating in the Tahana Merkazit to watch the six women in the dress (pictured here) and it was so exciting to see them arrive...all the different people. It was packed out...beyond capacity...and people were sitting on the pissed-on floor in my room which must have been nice for them.
I couldn't believe how many of my new friends came...it meant so much to me. I had invited Moti Sandak who is Director of All About Jewish Theatre - a network connecting Israel and Jewish arts all around the world. He liked SHE and we are now talking about using the Karov to forge a Next Generation section of his website in which young Diaspora discover Israel and its arts scene in a specific educational/professional opportunity.
For my own part in site-specific singing, I will now start to develop an idea in Tel Aviv which I will propose to a special Israeli festival I heard about some months ago. The chances of its being accepted are slim but I need to continue learning about my own processes of working. I need to learn how to risk in the way that is right for me.
Photos by Erika
