Taken by the Moment

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The multidisciplinary artist Yael Cnaani invited me to participate in her event Exhibition for a Moment where she presented video works, paintings, and a notebook containing ideas and thoughts regarding her daily life and drawings. The notebook was published in 2021, in a joint process with the poet, translator, researcher, and dance teacher, Liora Bing-Heidecker.

Ten movers participated in this event from Israel, England, Poland, Spain, and Canada, seven of which created short solos at their studio, yard, terrace, etc. These were filmed and sent to Yael. The other three danced at the opening of the exhibition, which took place on the 9th of July 2022 at Cabri Galery, Kibbutz Cabri, Israel. Most of us participated during the Covid pandemic in Yael’s solo projects Sketch line & The spaces of a Lone Minute, and naturally reintegrated into the new task.

I rehearsed my solo on the highest terrace of my house in Mediona, Spain, and called it Taken by the Moment. As a starting point, I decided to embody the movement of the wind, by hanging a large, thin plastic sheet on a clothesline. First I spent time observing and waiting, like a surfer, for the wind to blow. When it came, the plastic fabric moved, changing the whole space, challenging rhythm, and changing qualities. Slowly but surely, with my movement, a duet started to immerge. At a certain magical point in the solo, I was taken by the moment and to my complete surprise, was able to precipitate the wave of the wind and join it. Being able to catch the unexpected, is a result of greater awareness achived by practice of improvisation.