Opening Performance
Orly Portal
Al Atlal
Sun 4.8
21:00
55 Min
Dellal Hall
80-160₪
The Work
“Give me my freedom, release my hands / I gave (everything) and left nothing behind / Oh, your chains have bloodied my wrists / Why would I leave them and what is left for me in you?”- Ibrahim Nagi, Al-Atlal.
With a contemporary translation and in the voice of Umm Kulthum, mother of the Arab nation, a cry is directed at a forsaking god. In a time when culture is being displaced, the muses are silent, and the heart is heavy, the motivation to create is replaced by the need to survive and to exist, and seeds of beauty sprout within the shreds of war. The creation arises from the ruins. Bodies are wrapped in shrouds, in stomping feet and bound hands, with blows to the chest, demanding freedom. Disharmonious rhythms meet in the transcendental beauty of the masterpiece “Al Atlal.”
This dance is a lament of lost lives and lost faith. “And the earth was without form, and void”. The dancers moan and beseech for healing the pain of two nations. Two languages are woven, tones blending into a communal reading, exposing their primal union. The music, the language, and the voice infuse the dance to become “Tarab”- an ecstatic elevation. The poem, initially about a dying love between a man and a woman, becomes a story about a decimated world, the relationship between man and place, Earth, and Nation.
The Artist
Born in 1969, Orly Portal, a Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance graduate, began her professional career as a dancer in the ‘Kol VeDama’ ensemble under the direction of Moshe Efrati and the Batsheva Ensemble. Portal, one of the founders of the Improvisation Ensemble, has delved over the years into the study of Arab folklore, dedicated two years to studying Arabic music at Bar-Ilan University, and traveled to Morocco to learn the original dance of the Gnawa and Berber tribes. Portal performed on many stages in Israel and worldwide, collaborating with leading artists. In 2009, she founded the ‘Orly Portal Dance Ensemble,’ for which she created original works applying her research insights. Currently, she is collaborating and engaging in mutual projects with Morocco, Mexico, and Brazil.
Photo: Efrat Mazor
Choreography: Orly Portal
Performers: Orly Portal, Artour Astman, Maya Tamir, Lal’el Pillora, Noa Gronich, Daniel Costa
Music: Al Atlal - performed by Umm Kulthum, composed by Riad Al Sunbati, lyrics by Ibrahim Nagi
Original music: Ori Alboher
Singing and vocals: Orly Portal, Artour Astman, Maya Tamir, Lal'el Pillora, Noa Gronich, Daniel Costa
Translation of the song lyrics to Hebrew: Latif Bartov
Lighting design: Nadav Barnea
Costume design: Rossello Shmaria
Production: Mor Messeri
