Can you imagine with me how wondrous it is to insee, for example, into the very core of a dog as it passes by… not to slice through it with a glance and emerge on the other side—as if it were a window onto the human—but to enter, to let oneself precisely into the place out of which he exists as a dog, begins to be a dog. Still, one has to be sure to leap out at the final moment, before the world seals shut around, and you become the dog within the dog—lost to everything else” (Rilke 1914).
Language often falters before the complexity of our experience, pointing to what is missing, brushing against the shadow of an absent thing it represents.
Like hunters, we track the footprints left behind by what has already vanished.
Passion is a lonely hunter pursuing a meaning for the unnamed.
A chase of that which resists all possible symbolization. Perhaps, in the end, only the hunt remains.
Passion is a lonely hunter pursues a meaning for the unnamed.
Michael Getman is a Tel Aviv-based choreographer exploring the interplay between movement, language, and thought. The son of Dora and Zechariah, who immigrated from Soviet Leningrad after a failed plane hijacking by young Jewish dissidents to escape the USSR in 1970, “Operation Wedding.”
He examines the intricate interplay and relationship between ideas, words, and embodied knowledge, encouraging a range of physical and emotional arousal. Alongside his creative work, Getman is regularly invited to lead workshops,, and courses at professional dance institutions. He began his training at the Bat-Dor studio under the direction of Jeannette Ordman and, at 17, joined the Batsheva Ensemble under the artistic direction of Naomi Perlov. He later danced with the Batsheva Dance Company and Ballet Freiburg Pretty Ugly, Amanda Miller.
Michael holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) from the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield, England. His thesis focused on the interplay of words, ideas, and gestures in contemporary dance practice through a comparative study of the geometric method developed by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
Choreography: Michael Getman
Artistic collaborators: Bosmat Nossan, Matan Cohen, Evyatar Omessy, Ori Mbazbaz, Mila Levi (Apprentice)
Dramaturge: Yael Venezia
Light Design: Nadav Barnea
Costume Design: Omri Alvo
Art: Laetitia Boulud
Sound Design: Michael Getman
Text: Michael Getman
Stage Manager: Michal Ben Bassat
Photography: Asya Skorik
Videography and Editing : Nir Weiss
The work was created within the framework of Suzanne Dellal Centre’s residency program for Tel Aviv Dance Festival 2025
