Reut Shemesh – GERMANY |  ATARA and GOLA 3rd Movement
Featuring a new work with the Maslool – Professional Dance Program- Bikurey Ha’Itim

In ATARA, choreographer Reut Shemesh directs her gaze onto the world view shared by women who live according to the rules set forth by Jewish orthodoxy and those who take a secular approach. Together, they ask what femininity, female sexuality and their place in society could be. How do they find their destiny, or how do they fail in doing so?
Reut Shemesh grew up in a mixed orthodox and secular family. Through reenactments of events from her own surroundings, as well as photography, text, and movement, Shemesh presents an oscillating dialogue between different outlooks. Clichés, prejudice, and one’s own lifestyle come into question in equal measure.

GOLA 3rd Movement is a work featuring the second year dancers of the Maslool – Professional Dance Program – Bikurey Ha’Itim. GOLA is inspired by the form, rhythm, and dogma of national ceremonies that are very familiar to young adults in Israel. National ceremonies function as a public theater to transmit notions of collectivity, grief, victory, and above all, pride. In GOLA, Reut Shemesh plays with the mechanisms of the performative elements in these ceremonies using recurring themes and movements such as flag-waving, marching, standing formations, speeches and hymns, adapting them into a modular, contemporary dance language. These elements, which are largely synchronized, emphasize the nature of a collective action, upon which we all grew up. The creation is based on the piece GOLA, created in summer 2017.

SINGULARITIES, is a project co-produced with: Quartier am Hafen & Suzanne Dellal Centre & Reut Shemesh funded by the Office of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for Economy, Science, Education, Youth and Culture in Israel & Quartier am Hafen.

Reut Shemesh is an Israeli choreographer based in Cologne. She received her BA from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem (NL), and holds a Master’s in Media and Fine Art from the Kunsthochschule für Medien (KHM) in Cologne (DE). Her works were exhibited and performed at tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Kampnagel Hamburg, Tanzhaus Zürich, Suzanne Dellal Centre Tel-Aviv, the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Theatre Lab NYC and the Korzo Theater in Den Haag. She is a guest lecturer for the University of Cologne, University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf (HSD), and the Center for Contemporary Dance in Cologne (ZZT). She was nominated for several prizes and her piece LEVIAH won the Cologne Dance Theater Prize 2016. Her video work was presented in 2017 at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and at the Art Cologne. In April 2019, Shemesh created the piece ATARA during the residency program at K3|Tanzplan Hamburg and which was then invited to the Tanzplattform Germany 2020. In October 2021, HELLERAU Dresden presented a collection of her most recent pieces and installations in cooperation with the Jüdische Kulturtage (Jewish Culture Days) 2021 under the heading: Portrait: the Choreographer Reut Shemesh. Her first piece for a resident acting ensemble BAD MOTHERS recently premiered at the Oberhausen City Theatre. Shemesh is a Factory Artist at the tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf for the years 2020-2022. In 2019, she was announced as one of the year’s ‚promising artists‘ by the magazine “tanz”. 

The Maslool School of Contemporary Dance is a professional education program in Tel Aviv, “Bikurey Haitim”. The Maslool collaborates with well-framed dance companies and institutes worldwide.
It has over 40 performances a year, including an international repertoire and original Israeli creations. Maslool Graduates are members of various leading dance companies and successful independent choreographers.
Artistic Directors: Offir Dagan, Niv Marinberg
Dancers:
Shira Arbel
Maya Asraf
Yuval Bar Lev
Maya Barda
Noam Hetsroni
Mila Levy
Guy Olszanski
Tal Pochkov
Hila Rom

ATARA 
Concept, Choreography, Text, Photography: Reut Shemesh
Creation: Hella Immler, Tzipora Nir, Florian Patschovsky
Performance: Hella Immler, Johanna Kasperowitsch,  Florian Patschovsky
Composition & Sound Design: Simon Bauer
Dramaturgy: Matthias Quabbe 
Mentoring: Anne Kersting
Video, Stage, Light: Ronni Shendar
Costume: Marie Siekmann
Production Assistant: Valerie Witt
Photo: Reut Shemesh, Hella Immler
Financial Director: Béla Bisom
Production & Management: Sabina Stücker
Songs: Tsiltsulei Pa’amonim (Text & Music: Ahuva Ozeri, B’shem Ha’shem Text: traditional religious song, Music: Carlebach, arranged by Tzipora Nir)
Text 2: Reut Shemesh, Hella Immler, Florian Patschovsky
Text 3: Based on ten interviews with orthodox and secular women from Hamburg, Israel, New York City and Family members.
Text 4: Reut Shemesh 

Production: Reut Shemesh
Coproduced by: K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg and  tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf
Funded by: Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Kunststiftung NRW, Stiftung Zurückgeben, KunstSalon Stiftung / Step Up, RheinEnergie Stiftung Kultur and Hamburgische Kulturstiftung
Supported by: tanzfaktur köln, iDAS NRW, Machol Shalem Jerusalem, Quartier am Hafen

Special thanks to Hilla Shemesh Rathaus and Florian Egermann 

GOLA 3rd Movement
Concept and choreography: Reut Shemesh
“Maslool” 2nd Year Dancers: Gili Berezowitz, Leo Terris, Liya Mor, Maayan Goren, Noa Lee Ashkenazi, Shelley Stolpner, Tamar Ben Aharon, Yaniv Oirech, Yuval Avraham
Music: Simon Bauer
Costumes: Ifat Kanfi
Stage & Light: Reut Shemesh & Simon Bauer
Rehearsal Manager: Dafna Dudovich
Artistic Directors of the “Maslool”: Offir Dagan, Niv Marinberg
Photo: Öncu Gültekin