Noa Eshkol 100th Anniversary

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Noa Eshkol’s birth. Born in Kibbutz Degania Bet in 1924, she was the daughter of Levi Eshkol, the third prime minister of Israel. Noa Eshkol, an Israeli choreographer and fine artist, invented the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation and founded the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group, which continues to perform today. Her revelatory body of textile wall carpets has gained international acclaim and cast new light on a unique relationship between choreography and visual art.

The Tel Aviv Dance Festival is proud to present, for the first time, a unique program encompassing Eshkol’s body of work. This program stems from a pivotal point in Eshkol’s career during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when the only male member of her Chamber Dance Group, Shmulik Zaidel, was conscripted into the army. This led Eshkol to suspend work with her other dancers, stating, ‘This is no time to dance; we shall wait until the war is over.’

Given the brutal and unstable reality we have been subjected to since October 7, the Chamber Dance Group will perform ‘A Warrior & A Dreamer,’ a series of intimate studio performances. These will be followed by a presentation about Eshkol’s life and artistic practice. The program also includes the launch of a new print edition of MOVEMENT NOTATION (1958) by Noa Eshkol and architect Avraham Wachman, edited by Mor Bashan and Krist Gruijthuijsen, which includes contributions from Eshkol’s colleagues alongside archive material contextualizing EWMN, and embedding it in contemporary discourses on dance and movement. The festival will also screen Uri Zohar’s 1976 TV show, discussing her innovative movement notation system with Eshkol’s collaborators and other experts.

The wall carpets will be exhibited in the Yerushalmi Building from August 1st to the 10th, with the screening, performance, talk, and book launch taking place on August 10th.