Come Along recounts, through movement, music, video, and text, Orian Michaeli’s search for a Palestinian artist with whom she could collaborate on a theatre-dance piece. Through her small, personal story, she examines the possibility of Jewish-Palestinian dialogue.
Between 2016 and 2022, Orian Michaeli approached sixteen Palestinian artists and offered each to collaborate on a dance-theater piece. Some refused, some didn’t respond, some started an artistic collaboration, but in all cases, the Palestinian artist stopped the process. Come Along charts, through movement, music, video, and text, Michaeli’s quest, the frustration it brought, and the beautiful, intimate moments of partial and interrupted collaboration along the way. In the work, I continue to examine the possibility of Jewish-Palestinian dialogue within a space that makes such collaborations difficult, and in a political reality that does everything to prevent them. Through her small, personal story, she continues to invite me and her, you and us, to come along.
Orian Michaeli is a choreographer, dancer, actress, and Feldenkrais teacher. Since 2009, she has been a freelance choreographer, dancer, deviser, dramaturg, and actress, working with various choreographers and directors in Israel, Canada, and England. Michaeli choreographs for dance, theater, musical performances, and films.
Credits:
Choreographer: Orian Michaeli
Performers: Orian Michaeli, Smadar Yaaron
Spoken Word – Writing and Performance: Fidaa Zidan (video)
Artistic accompaniment: Smadar Yaaron
Rehearsal Manager: Alon Karniel
Music: Ilan Shalom and Orian Michaeli
Songs lyrics: Orian Michaeli
Videos: Hadas Neumann
External Eye: Fidaa Zidane
Costume consultation: Daphna Munz
Artistic Consulting: Laura Kirshenbaum
Letter text: Siwar Awwad
Created with the support of the Hapais Council for the Culture and Arts and the Acre Theater Center.
Thanks to Maya Michaeli for her guidance and support at all levels, to Shmulik Sheintoch, Geffen, and Aviv Sheintoch Michaeli, to Moni Yosef, Sigal Dahan, Rabaka Talhami, Siwar Awwad, and Wiaam Khater.
Thanks to sixteen dear women.
The parts screened/filmed in the production are from Hands Above, which premiered at the 2020 Intima Dance Festival at the Tmuna Theater, under the artistic direction of Merav Dagan and Stav Marin.