Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Art City at Karmiel Dance Festival

Last Wednesday night, August 5th, the Art City dance group performed in front of more than 10,000 in the Karmiel amphitheatre. It was one of 9 groups chosen to be in the performance/competition. Ira was there and told me that the competition was intense. None of the groups were announced by name or place of origin. They just performed--one dance for about 4 or 5 minutes. The dance needed to have some sort of traditional Jewish theme. Art City's was music from the end of the Seder, and plain white rectangles which represented tallitot were a part of the dance. Ira said that the dance was quite complex and dramatic--with different blocks of the 20+ dancers doing different, complex things at the same time.

The competition was quite stiff, with groups of teen dancers representing the major cities in Israel. One did an amazing performance, with dancers representating different animals in Noah's Ark. Ira thinks that they took the top prize.

While the Art City group did not win any of the top three performances, they were "ooo-ed" and "awwwwwed" by the audience. They did an amazing job, holding their own among the stiff extremely talented national competition. I was so excited to hear Ira describe what they did and how the audience reacted, and I can imagine how excited all the teens were to be able to perform on that stage and in front of so many people.

It is hard to believe that this dance group began less than two years ago. Kol hakavod to them and to TIPS for supporting this amazing endeavor.

The Kiryat Malachi Art City Dance Group Tzuza won second place amongst 60 groups competing for the best in jazz on Thursday evening. There competed against 60 other groups, so the 2nd place award was VERY impressive.

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