Sally-Anne has been called the Empress of Israeli Dance
Posted on September 30, 2007 ? By Jennifer Lawson
Category: Art and Culture, FeaturedComments
When Sally Anne Friedland got THE phone call in the summer of 2005, she hit payola. Artistic director and choreographer of Israel?s Dance Drama Company (DDC), Friedland was being invited to present her troupe at a prestigious Manhattan dance event ? an invite she says resulted from a chance, New York layover the year before.
?I stopped into the 92nd Street Y dance offices and dropped off a tape of my dance troupe performing,? Friedland recalls. ?I hoped someone would view the material and be impressed enough to invite us to the annual showcase.?
Months later the telephone rang and months after that, her company was off to the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival ? an annual event featuring top tier, expressionist, dance-multimedia, modern and dance drama companies hailing from the U.S. and now Israel. Funded by heavy hitters like Capezio, The Village Voice and The Harkness Foundation, the festival relocated in recent years to Manhattan?s prestigious Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater.
?It was unbelievable,? claims Sally-Anne of the experience.
South African-born Friedland grew up in a liberal household during the apartheid era and began studying dance at age three. She danced with Capetown?s ballet company and at twenty-two traveled to Europe where she caught the ?modern dance bug? via exposure to performances and classes. But her background remained at the fore.
?Here was this well known, Martha Graham teacher in Germany teaching class and she was a black woman! I?d never seen anything like it before. The blacks in South Africa were servants. Here, we danced with them and ate with them,? Friedland recounts. ?It was amazing.?
She returned to Capetown for a brief stint and then made her way to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. She started a family, carved a name for herself as a dancer and in 2001 seamlessly transitioned to the role of dance architect.
?When I started creating, I was starting from zero,? Friedland relays. ?I had to go inside, dig deep and find out what my dance is. This is my thing and these are my ideas. I take the layers from the library in my mind and when I start to work physically, they come out in stories. I?m communicating through dance.?
In August she celebrated five years of choreographic creation with a gala event at Tel Aviv?s Suzanne Delal Center. Celebrities and friends turned up to view her company?s hallmark Red and her most recent Concerto for 4 Dancers and Orchestra incorporating dancers and Raanana Symphony Orchestra members on the same stage.
At that gala, Eli Mizrachi ? a fellow judge alongside Friedland on Israel?s popular ?Dancing with the Stars? television series ? sent her a congratulatory SMS message; She was sitting on the backstage steps maintaining a low profile. ?I didn?t really mingle with the audience so I?m not sure who was out there,? she confides.
What does the future hold? Friedland recently completed work on Bereysheet Children?s show ? a traveling event for 5-8-year-olds showing throughout Israel during the September holidays. In 2008 she?ll debut new works.
Until then, mum?s the word?
Links to Works
?One of 11 premieres in this year?s Maholohet festival, Sally-Anne Friedland?s A Private Collection was first performed at Suzanne Dellal on July 19th. Now the work is heading to Jerusalem on August 20th and returning to Tel Aviv?s Suzanne Dellal Center on August 22nd.
My preview of A Private Collection was first published as ?A Public Premiere? in the Jerusalem Post on July 17, 2009.?
A Public Premiere
When choreographer Sally-Anne Friedland was commissioned to make a work for her visit to the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theatre in New York City, she created a short dance called Borders. ?It was like an unfinished symphony,? Friedland explains, ?I knew I would come back to it one day.?
Three years later, Borders has become what Friedland calls the ?cornerstone? of her latest creation. Like its predecessor, A Private Collection investigates ?intimate borders, personal borders, how far we can go and what we need for protection.?
But this new work goes deeper, with three sections that take the audience on a multi-layered, visually luscious journey. Opening with dancers spread across the floor in frozen positions and covered with pastel-colored sheets of tulle, ?Yesterday? conveys the sense that something has already happened. The dancers soon come alive, cleverly manipulating the nets to become bustles or bridal veils.
In ?Today,? the middle section, Friedland provides an often humorous take on life through a series of situations. One duo dons gloves to box each other, three dancers portray sisters and another dancer acts like ?a bride running around, looking a bit like Miss Havisham from Dickens.?
Closely based on Borders, the final section, ?Tomorrow,? moves away from the parody of ?Today? into a more elevated realm. Friedland reveals that long curtains of tulle ?stand like bars on the stage? and provide privacy for each dancer. These curtains eventually lift, reflecting the choreographer?s own optimism. Friedland explains, ?My hope is that everybody?s borders, whether they?re international borders or private borders, are respected and accepted, and there?s an open space, free for everybody.?
It took a collection of devoted artists working in diverse art forms to bring Friedland?s rich array of ideas to fruition. ?It?s not a one man show,? the choreographer gratefully acknowledges. For this production, Friedland worked with six gifted dancers from her Dance Drama Company and also enlisted the talents of costumer Sasson Kedem, set designer Paula Miovdovnik and lighting designer Shai Yehudai to create her visual effects. Sound designer Shashoo developed an eclectic score blending Franz Schubert and Philip Glass?s compositions along with music from the movies Kill Bill and Full Metal Jacket.
While such partnerships are often an integral part of dance-making, Friedland also found some more unusual collaborators in video artist Liat Freund and photographer Pnina Even-Tal. Freund and Even-Tal attended every rehearsal, documenting the choreographic process. Friedland notes that at times, seeing the work through others? lenses gave her a push in a new direction and spurred her onward.
Rather than keep this process secret, A Private Collection offers glimpses into Friedland?s creative workings by interspersing Freund?s short videos in between sections. Here, nothing is hidden from the audience. Laughing, Friedland recounts that Freund ?saw the good, the bad and the ugly in the rehearsals, and she?s put it all into this video.? The video, which includes some of Even-Tal?s photographs, also takes a cue from movies and gives each artist proper credit at the end of the performance.
Although the video certainly will enable the audience to connect to A Private Collection, Friedland believes that the essence of her dance will also attract viewers. As she prepares for her premiere at the Suzanne Dellal Center, Friedland explains, ?I hope that my message is positive, and that each person will find their own private collection in this work and be able to identify with the work. Especially in the part of the necessity of intimacy and privacy.?
DDC Dance
Name of Theatre: Sally-Anne Friedland
Director: Sally-Anne Friedland
Theatre Mission: A home for the company. A studio that can seat 100 people. The optimum space is 250 meters
Theatre History: company began officially in 2003
National and International Cooperation: Foreign ministry; ministry of culture and art; Haypais lottery for the performing arts; the Israeli choreographers union.
Repertoire 2007/8
?GENISIS ? THE DANCE OF CREATION ?(AGES 5-10)
?CONCERTO FOR 4 DANCERS AND ORCHESTRA?
?RED?
Workshops of company repetiore.
School program : ?A Dancer, artist and person?
Questions to the Director
Q: What makes a good Theatre Director?
Sally-Anne Friedland :Some one who understands that perfect timing is the essence of all drama and comedy
Q: From your perspective, what is the future of Jewish Theatre?
SAF :Has always been good and always will be good, its part of our tradition
Q: What are your career highlights?
SAF : New York season of ?Borders/Red? of the company 2006
?THE 7 DEADLY SINS? by WeilL, performed and choreographed by Sally-Anne Friedland for the Israeli New Opera
Q: What were your career disappointments?
SAF : Never having taken up the opportunity and invitation to dance in the Alvin Ailey Company
Missing the audition of Pina Bausch in Wuppertal , on purpose.I was afraid of the city and of being Jewish
Q: What was your best business decision?
SAF :Having a good company manager
Q: What was the best piece of advice you received?
SAF : Keep it simple
Q: What is the best advice you can offer?
SAF:Simplicity
Q: If you weren?t doing this, what career would be involved in?
SAF:.Design
Q: What would your friends be surprised to learn about you?
SAF: An ardent Zionist
Contact:
Name: Sally-Anne Friedland
Address: Dov Hoz 19
Apartment;3
TEL AVIV 63416
e-mail: SALLYANNE49@YAHOO.COM