Israel’s all-male Ka’et Ensemble is a unique dance troupe of religious men who merge the worlds of spirituality and movement.
If the dance movements of Israel’s Ka’et Ensemble bring to mind the rhythmic swaying of Orthodox prayer, that’s by design. Ka’et (“Right Now”) is a unique troupe of religious men who merge the worlds of Jewish spirituality and movement. When dancer-choreographer and movement teacher Ronen Izhaki first saw the seeds of this unusual genre in a group of yeshiva students preparing a performance at the Akko Theatre Center nearly 14 years ago, it immediately transported him emotionally to the boredom he associated with the synagogue of his childhood.
“I didn’t like it at first. But after 15 or 20 minutes I fell in love with the movement language, and it took another few weeks to fall in love with the people,” Izhaki tells ISRAEL21c at Jerusalem’s Ephron Dance Center after a rehearsal of the ensemble’s newest performance piece, “Beggars’ March.” Seven years after choreographing for those yeshiva students, Izhaki was approached by some of the young men to teach them. Eventually he founded a dance theater school for men, Kol Atzmotai Tomarna (“All My Bones Shall Say,” from Psalm 35) and became the director of Ka’et for some of his most talented disciples. “It happened slowly, from the bottom up, without any big vision,” Izhaki explains. “I was slowly seduced to move from my other projects and put my energy into this.”
Ka’et will perform on October 30 at the DocDance Festival in Jerusalem; and December 18 at the Jaffa Port.
אנסמבל כעת בערב פתיחת הביאנלה לאמנות יהודית עכשוית בירושלים, 16/09/2013
