ODC Theater: hadar ahuvia – nefesh

nefesh sutures generations and genres, bridging the worlds of contemporary performance, dance, eastern european Jewish music, and feminist mysticism. The work reclaims millennia old diasporic traditions and cultures almost destroyed by anti-semitism and Zionism to imagine Jewish futures. nefesh invites audiences to inhabit the very fleshy experience of being, and at times the breath and vitality of being itself, as ahuvia corporealizes Ashkenazi chant and wordless melodies, and considers the power of each utterance to create material reality.

About the artist

hadar ahuvia is a dance artist and Jewish educator and ritual leader. She creates performances, workshops, and rituals that forefront the role of the body in political, social, and spiritual action. Her essay “Joy Vey” on choreographing a diasporic Israeli identity beyond Zionism is featured in the Oxford Handbook of Jewishness and Dance.

ahuvia holds a Bessie nomination for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, a Dance Magazine “25 to Watch” in 2019, and is the subject of a forthcoming documentary by Tatyana Tenenbaum, Everything You Have Is Yours. Her choreographic credits include NYLA/DTW, Danspace Project, 14th St Y, Gibney Dance, Temuna, Malta Festival, and La Mama. Her work has been supported by residencies at Yaddo, Movement Research, Brooklyn Arts Council, Art Stations Foundation, Mana Contemporary, and Baryshnikov Arts Center. As a performer, she has had the honor of dancing with Sara Rudner, Reggie Wilson/ Fist and Heel Performance Group, Donna Uchizono, Jill Sigman, Kathy Westwater, Trisha Brown and Lucinda Child’s Dance, and co-creating and collaborating with Shira Eviatar and Tatyana Tenenbaum.

ahuvia has shared her research at AJS, ASU, UM, City College, Whitman College, and Yale, Hofstra. She is a currently a rabbinical student, an organizer with Rabbis for Ceasefire, a service leader at Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, and artist in residence at RUAH Community Health where she teaches contemporary approaches to Yiddish dance