A dreamy world is conjured up by the deconstruction of local war images  into an alternate reality, one with the same aesthetics but with new and  personal connotation. The desire for this project came with the need to  bring to life, resuscitate, the grotesque and disturbing images which  have become inseparable from our lives, and in their repetitive nature,  have brought us to numbness. A look at local imagery as local mythology,  through its flat cartoon-like representation, the work attempts at  bringing back these images into a three-dimensional world. 

Source: Yasmeen Godder

More information: www.yasmeengodder.com

Yasmeen Godder  was born in Jerusalem in 1973 and moved with her family to New York  City in 1984. Growing up in NY, Godder studied dance at the LaGuardia  High School for Performing Arts and was deeply connected to the punk  scene in downtown Manhattan. Godder received her BFA from the Tisch  School of the Arts at NYU while attending a variety of workshops and  classes at Movement Research which have impacted her approach to dance  making until today.  While still in school she began presenting her  choreographic work at Downtown Arts Festival and Gowanus Arts Exchange.  After completing her BFA she continued to work as an independent  choreographer in NY, and was commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s  Freshtracks and Splitstream Series, Dancing in the Streets, and the  Kitchen. During this period she was a 1999-2000 Movement Research Artist  in Residence.

In 1999 Godder was invited to present her solo, Aleena’s  Wall, at the Gvanim (Shades in Dance) Festival at the Suzanne Dellal  Center for Dance in Tel-Aviv.  The solo was well received and she was  immediately commissioned to make a work for the HaRamat Masach (Curtain  Up Festival), Israel’s leading festival for independent dance makers.  Since 1999, Godder has been commissioned eight times by the Curtain Up  Festival, supporting her continuing research and developing artistry.  This continuous platform allowed Godder to establish her company which  over the years has received local and international acclaim for the  works’ depth, impact, and complexity.

To date Godder has created fifteen evening-length works:  Hall (2001), Sudden Birds (2002), Two Playful Pink (2003), Strawberry  Cream and Gunpowder (2004), I'm Mean, I Am (2006), Singular Sensation  (2008), Love Fire (2009), Storm End Come (2011) and See Her Change  (2013). In 2014 she created two new works which deal with her own  choreographic archive: Climax, commissioned by the Petach Tikva Museum  of Art, a three-hour performance piece and Lie Like A Lion- a solo work  exploring the archive in her own body. In May 2016 Godder premiered in  Theatre Freiburg the work - Common Emotions, an artistic outcome of a  year-long project involving dancers, scientists and people living with  Parkinson’s disease, researching together movement disorders. Another  outcome of this project was the creation of Simple Action- a  participatory choreographic action inspired by Stabat Mater. In 2018  Godder returned to the stage with the work Demonstrate Restraint,  performing alongside a long time collaborator Tomer Damsky. Emerging  from different fields, these two female performers use their extensive  artistic practices as a tactic to crack open and engage with loaded,  exhaustive and explosive political content, shifting between the urge to  protest and self and external silencing. 

In 2015 Godder founded “Moving Communities'' - a community  outreach initiative, inside the Yasmeen Godder Company, which places  emphasis on opening the studio to varying populations and life  experiences and sharing the medium of dance as a means of creating space  for dialogue, empathy, joy, and social activism. “Moving Communities”  includes weekly contemporary dance classes for people living with  Parkinson’s disease, International Conferences, and commissions of  mixed-ability performances. In 2020 a new initiative was added titled  Na’ot Ma’ Ba’ad (Moving Together ,נעות مع بعض ) - dance classes for  Palestinian Arab and Jewish women living in Jaffa, in co-direction with  the choreographer Nur Garabli. In 2022, Godder and Garabli established  the Na’ot Ma’ Ba’ad Festival - a 3-day event for local women and girls  in Arabic and Hebrew,  incorporating workshops, artist talks, and  performances at the Madel Arts Center in Jaffa. 

Since  early 2019, Godder has been involved in a project titled Practicing  Empathy, out of which a series of outcomes have being created:  performances, workshops, and events. Each of the outcomes is set to  explore the notion of empathy through a variety of perspectives and  approaches, attempting to look at what opens us up emotionally and how  can we create new practices, rituals, songs, and choreographies, which  may open up our ability to take in complexities without fear and  distrust. This research has evolved into three works: Practicing Empathy  #1 ( a group creation)  Practicing Empathy #2by2 (an interactive format  for 2 performers and 2 audience members) and Practicing Empathy #3 (a  solo for Godder). In addition it has begun a process which led to  building Na’ot Ma’Ba’ad (Moving Together)- weekly dance workshops for  Palestinian and Jewish women in the Yasmeen Godder Studio in Jaffa and a  three day festival under the same title, in co-artistic direction with  the Palestinian choreographer Nur Garabli. In addition to  creating for her company, Godder has been commissioned by the Batsheva  Dance Company, Theater Freiburg, and most recently by the Candoco Dance  Company- a well-established mixed-ability group based in London.  All of  her works have been presented in Israel and at numerous venues  throughout the world including: Lincoln Center Festival, Sydney Opera  House, Montpellier Danse, Hebbel Am Ufer, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, The  Place, Tokyo Festival, and many more. In recent years the Yasmeen Godder  Company’s productions and initiatives have been fortunate to have  wonderful partners: Tanzhaus NRW - Bettina Masuch,  b-Motion Festival,  Bassano del Grappa Italy-Roberto Casarotto, Mousonturm Frankfurt,  Matthias PeesSpring Festival in Utrecht Holland- Rainer Hofman and  Théâtre Garonne, Toulouse France- Jacky Ohayon.

Godder is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2001  New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for her work ``I Feel  Funny Today'', presented at Dance Theater Workshop. Other awards  include: the Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for Young Choreographer  (2001, 2003); The Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for Best Small  Ensemble in Dance (2003, 2009); The Tel Aviv Municipality Rosenblum  Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts as “Promising Artist” (2004)  and “Excellent Artist” (2009). Yasmeen was a Chosen Artist of the  Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation (2004-09), and in 2005 she  received the prestigious Michael Landau Prize for the Performing Arts  from the Tel Aviv Municipality. Most recently Godder received the  Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for “Best Creation” in 2015 for her  work CLIMAX. In 2018 Godder was chosen to be a Valeska Gert Guest  Professor for Dance And Performance at the Institut  fürTheaterwissenschaft (drama department) at Freie Universität Berlin.

Source: Yasmeen Godder

More information: www.yasmeengodder.com

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon