History Lesson: Bat Sheva Dance Studio 2011
This image was a joint production by Neil Folberg and Gidi Dar, an Israeli film maker.
When it was built in 1920, this was a girl’s school, the first Hebrew language school in Tel-Aviv. It became the headquarters of one of the pre-state armies that were fighting the British in 1947-8. Now it is a studio of the Bat Sheva dance company. All periods are represented in one staged image, using actors, dancers, original props and costumes.
The image was conceived from the viewpoint of the girls, who are conscious of their pioneering status in the nascent Jewish state. The girls can see neither the dancers or soldiers; the dancers and soldiers, also, are aware only of themselves. Yet there is one little girl (see the detail) who is day-dreaming: she senses the presence of something else in the room that she cannot visualize. Her concerns and fears are actualized by the soldiers, her hopes of freedom and future happiness by the dancers.
Though they are unaware of each other, the dancers almost mock the soldiers. The negative energy of war becomes wild, free movement in the dancers. Stress and trouble can be overwhelming but they can also be used as forces for imagination and creativity. That is the metaphor for contemporary Israeli life.