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Post by Admin on Aug 11, 2014 14:56:05 GMT 2
As you may know, the situation in our region is complicated at the moment.
These days we painfully live and cope with the violent situation in Israel and Palestine. We are aware of a multiplicity of voices, perceptions, strong emotions and opinions.
As practitioners of CI and as human beings we believe, however, in the value of sharing, listening and an open dialogue.
We invite anyone who feels the need for a heartfelt dialogue, sharing and questioning to join us in communication.
For a while we were talking among ourselves about what is the value of CI in this reality,
Thinking about how we continue the practice of CI,
And how can we open a door for communication.
We offer this page to the CI community as an open space for sharing thoughts and concerns about the situation in and around Israel and Palestine.
This page doesn’t represent any single opinion or interest.
Each text represents its own writer. As ICIF we support dialogue but we do not represent any group-agenda.
We hope and believe that until December things will be more quiet and clear.
We are committed to continuing the work we are doing here.
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Post by Ady Elzam on Aug 17, 2014 18:07:21 GMT 2
Hey all
Well it's a complicated and emotionally intense situation in Israel
There is many things to say about it
I would like to share a story of a dance I had at ECITE 2014
I believe that from our practice in movement we can explore our feelings and perspective in a new and different way
A way that in words maybe not so possible...
So here it is:
Waltz with Corinne
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In ECITE 2014 there were two Israelis boys, Matan and me (Ady).
In ECITE 2014 there were two Lebanese girls, |anonymous| and Corinne.
At the beginning I did not think there will be any issue,
but once the war started there was tension,
especially in my feeling of one of the girls, Corinne.
She was very sad and we had a hard time communicating,
Ulli tried to bridge the gap,
He talked to her and saw she was afraid this will go in to Lebanon,
for me it was wired and Ulli pushed me in to telling her my opinion,
We still had a hard time communicating.
One of the jams had a focus 'playground',
I was moving on all 4 exploring movement with high muscle tone,
I passed next to Corinne that was dancing with a ball,
until we noticed each other we were very close,
the ball fell between her leg and my hand and stayed,
there was a feeling of strong presence in the room,
slowly slowly we started moving with the ball between us.
It felt somewhat symbolic that the ball is our way of touch,
there was an unspoken "law" that touch is only through the ball,
we didn’t touch also when we could.
The ball rolls between hand and leg,
between pelvis and back,
between chest and head,
slowly we are closer,
it becomes softer,
clearer,
pleasanter.
We run and kick the ball,
Sending it from hand to leg to head and pelvis,
It feels symbolic again,
And during the world cup…
Someone sees us and tries to join in,
We don’t let him,
Now the two of us are working together to continue having our game,
It's us together and we don’t want him to join,
The ball jumps and Corinne sits and holds it close to her belly,
There is tension in the air,
I take my head closer to put an ear on the ball,
She says "RED!"
-the jam has guidelines, if someone says red it’s a sign to stop. (Again its feels symbolic to the color red)
I stop,
And sit next to her,
Not to close and not too far,
Corinne is holding the ball close close to her belly,
Hands are shaking,
It looks defensive,
My hand goes slowly closer to the ball,
Fingers first,
Soft and slow,
Open to hear another "RED",
But it doesn’t happen,
The hand touches the ball,
Fingers only,
Corinne releases her hands slowly from the ball,
I hold the ball that it does not fall from her belly,
Corinne's hands open to the sides,
She knows the ball will not fall.
We roll around with the ball and sent it around,
We don’t need him anymore,
He did his part,
Now it's us.
The ball leaves us and us him,
Our eyes meet,
There is so much sadness that I want to cry.
Corinne stands behind the pole and hides half her face,
I do the same from the other side.
We go around the pole,
The feeling of slow sadness,
Everything is condensed in to our gaze,
The military,
The occupation,
All the wars,
My dad telling me stories about his time in Lebanon,
Me sitting in a stakeout on the border and thinking about dad,
Pictures of soldiers going in to war,
Years of booming in the north,
Waltz with Bashir,
Ron Arad…
All the things that was pumped in to my brain all my life,
All of it is in between us,
In our gaze.
Corinne is walking back and I'm after her,
Still around the pole,
Until I change side and surprise her from the other,
It makes her laugh,
She smiles and immediately tries to conceal it,
This makes her laugh even more,
We bought burst in laughter.
It feels almost forbidden.
Almost like a mistake.
All the pictures are erased from my mind.
We start to move in space,
I'm in love in this dance,
And it feels strange,
Like I don’t allow myself,
Like something inside of me is afraid.
She back me forward,
Me back she forward,
Moving in space,
Moving together in space,
Corinne gets to the wall and stands with her back to it,
I see it and stand next to her – I don’t want her with her back to the wall,
We are so close,
Almost touching,
But there is still a long way between us.
Corinne walks to the wall in front of us and I understand I've been following her all night,
Maybe she wants the space?
Maybe I'm too pushy?
Maybe it's my aggression?
Am I thinking only of myself?
I will wait for her,
I will wait for her action.
Eyes are still connected,
From the other side of the room,
So much sadness in her eyes,
It breaks my heart.
Time passes,
There is not feeling of it,
It's just time and her eyes in front of me.
I go down to the floor,
She goes down to the floor,
I go closer to the pole in front of me,
She goes closer to the pole in front of her,
Both our poles are holding the ruff and between them a beam.
Corinne is leaning to her pole and me to mine,
We play with our poles,
The gaze is still present,
She climes on her pole to the beam,
I clime to my side,
Between us a beam,
Above us a roof,
Beneath us a jam.
I start to climb on the beam towards her,
Tring to stay hanged and not fall to the floor,
Corinne slides on the beam towards me,
I reach her from below.
Corinne is lying on the beam and I'm hanging under.
I go down to the floor and she sends hands down to me,
My hands a close to hers,
Almost touching,
But not yet.
Legs are sliding down from above,
I support the ankle on to my shoulders,
She stands up,
She stands on me.
I start to walk in space,
Corinne is supported by the beam and I'm in a different world.
She slides down to sit on my shoulders,
We walk around in space,
She slides down to a hug.
We are in a hug in the middle of the space,
Time is long gone,
Silent and loud,
W E A R E I N A H U G!
The hug opens slightly to a leaning stile tango,
She on my hands,
Me on her hands.
We are one body moving in space,
Corinne closes her eyes,
Moving in space and her eyes are closed,
She knows I won't let anything happen to her.
Moving becomes running,
I lead and Corinne is with me,
Afraid but not opening her eyes,
All her body is shaking,
And so is mine.
Running from wall to wall,
If she slows before I'm with her,
If I keep going she is with me,
Total listening.
Suddenly Corinne stops.
It's enough.
Hands release and she walks to the far wall,
The gaze meets again,
Sadness is still there.
I go back and shake my body.
The dance is over.
Waltz with Corinne.
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Post by simone on Aug 18, 2014 20:17:24 GMT 2
Hello there,
it's true, it's a very difficult situation and we could talk about it for hours without reaching, probably, at any solutions... There is no solution which could be easy for one part or the other anyway...
I'm a juggler, from Italy, I love juggling convention and juggling people and I would love to see how are conventions outside Europe... But not this one!
I cannot come to a country that I consider illegal, terrorist, offensive, unjust and so so so on... The only thing that I can do with my little self is to avoid and boycott everything concerning
Israel, its products, its money, its businesses... It's probably not for you guys, jugglers, open minded people, that I cannot come but because I think it's immoral to come to Israel, now and however untill the governament will change its mind on the Palestinian situation. It's not for you, probably, girls and guys, but I think that nobody should go to your convention from abroad.
Thanks for reading,
Best hopes for your lifes!
Simone
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Post by Ady Elzam on Aug 19, 2014 2:53:00 GMT 2
Dear Simone
Thanks for sharing,
Personally I can understand you for feeling this way about Israel, I sometimes feel the same!
And boycott is a legitimate way of expressing your protest..
However, as you said, we are open minded people, that are looking for a change, looking for help from where ever we can find it...
Sometimes it will be hard to express ourselves from within this crazy reality, but we are here and we are trying.
So thank you for not boycotting us in this forum, and I personally hope you will come to be with us here in Israel, we need more open minded people like you to stand with us for the possibility of a better future.
If we open our minds and the minds of the people around us, we may see the change we all want.
Hugs
Ady
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Post by Martin on Aug 28, 2014 14:38:38 GMT 2
Ady, thank you for sharing. Your writing is touching me.
Having just come back from Freiburg festival, I am wondering: what can this community do? What can we do to support peace in the region? Is there something that the practise of CI could offer to this troubled area and its people at this time?
What are your thoughts?
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Post by tommaso on Sept 8, 2014 8:50:58 GMT 2
This forum is a nice initiative. I hope it will become more lively and that you eventually take into account the feedback received.
In my opinion 'business-as-usual' is not an option for the ICIF this year. Business as usual would simply mean accepting / agreeing with you country's politics. In oter words it would be choosing one side, and not being really 'open' or 'neutral' as you aim at being. Discussing is OK, but hard facts are needed to mark a difference.
So, first option: don't do ICIF. Second option, do it outside of Israel maybe Cyprus or wathever (symbolically 'ICIF in exile'). Third option: do it in Israel but give all the money earned to war victims' families (in the actual proportion between palestinian and israeli victims).
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Post by Sei on Oct 19, 2014 22:49:20 GMT 2
Hei, I was happy to see the link to this forum - and disappointed as the discussion has fallen a sleep. It turned out to be such a work to form my words that I cannot say more now.
Tommaso's forming "In my opinion 'business-as-usual' is not an option for the ICIF this year" was touching. I would maybe not give the same options how to interpret this sentence, but I sincerely encourage you organizers to let Palestine exist during the festival. It is not possible to escape politics. And as we have seen and heard in and about history, silence is a strong way of making politics.
Thank you every one for sharing.
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Post by Sei on Oct 19, 2014 23:10:47 GMT 2
I just need to continue that I'll be happy one day to hear announced Contact Palestine on the road. What is the story of the Land you want to tell taking the people on the road? Which paths you choose and who you plan people to meet?
I do not talk about organizing an info tour. But everything becomes info or every sight you take "tourists" (or yourself) to writes one chapter more to the story. Which is your viewpoint? Are there other viewpoints to the same piece of Land?
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Post by Daniel J. Hayes on Oct 20, 2015 21:38:20 GMT 2
Dear Israeli CI Festival Team,
I want to share that I was moved by the email I received today.
It warms me to find this space here and to see your openness to share about the difficult situation you find yourselves in.
I can really appreciate your commitment to "see dance, touch and CI as a powerful tool that may be used to build connections between people, between worlds, between cultures." as I know that for some even the idea of a need to build bridges is heresy.
I can appreciate the fine balance you have to walk between sensibilities both in Israel and outside and feel encouraged by your pro-active stance to invite all those that wish to speak to do so.
I hope that your dance of dialogues inspires and motivates you to stay on this path and that your (and all of our) dances help to shape the world we wish our children to live in.
As the Persian Poet Rumi said: "Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
much love and compassion,
Daniel
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Post by Chiara on Oct 28, 2015 20:13:43 GMT 2
hei
i'm Chiara, and i remember those days in Ponderosa, during the ecite, the worldcup, and the bombing in Gaza
and i remember Corinne scared, and Ady sad, as many others, me too.
and i remember many many beautyful crazy liberating dances
so what to do, we can't escape politics, as we are human beings, everything is politic, the choice we make everyday,
and: where we decide to focus,
how is our public life organized is politic
Much much much support and respect to who is trying to change the things from there inside
YALLA!!!
governmental politic will never be our businness, even if they make us think it is, by making people going to vote...nothing to do
we better step out of it, or we all should ask ourself: do i agree with the desisions of my government , and if not, am i doing something to make things change??
let's go for people, one by one.
Much respect for you people..sooo much!
May all the walls fall, may all the churches become great theatres, and the parkings big sk8 parks, and
may the barriers we all create in our mind, made out of compilations from the medias, may also those fall down. They don't lead anywhere.
best wishes for the festival
Namaste :-)
Chiara
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