Acting Our Age by Yael Flexer and Galit Liss

About Acting Our Age 

Acting Our Age has grown organically through ongoing conversations and a shared interest in the ageing body in performance. A co-production choreographed by Galit Liss and Yael Flexer in collaboration with an intergenerational cast of performers aged 26 to 76, Acting Our Age is interested in performers’ relationship to dance and the stage at different points in their lives. Through the lens of the world of dance in which Liss & Flexer both operate, they examine the way in which age(ing) is experienced by the dancing body personally and socio-politically. Made over a three and a half week period at Kelim Choreographic Centre, Israel, Acting Our Age re-visits  performers’ past works, drawing on the body as a living archive, at once personal and collective. During this time the cast dived into experiences and dances that formed their professional and personal identity. Reflecting from the perspective of time and age raised questions such as: What memories are retained in the body? What is ‘danceable’? What is the dancers’ relationship to their changing body? And what is our relation to dance and the stage in the present moment.

Running time: 1 hour
Latecomers: for the first 15 minutes

Other Acting Our Age events
Join Yael Flexer and Nic Sandiland in conversation with Galit Liss in our Dance Dialogues event at 4.15pm on Tue 16 May.Take part in a dance workshop with Galit Liss for Acting Our Age class participants and interested adults aged 55+ at 3pm on Tue 16 May.Find out more at southeastdance.org.uk
 

Credits 
Choreographers/directors: Yael Flexer & Galit Liss 
Composer: Karni Postel 
Dramaturg: Nataly Zukerman 
Performers: Luke Birch, Yael Flexer, Sarah Dagan, Corrie McKenzie and Fiona Millward
Original cast also included: Orit Gross & Tirtza Shpanauff-Many
Original Lighting: Rotem Alroy
Production Manager: Suzi Burrows
Photos: Eli Passi 
Design: Nurit Brande
Creative Producers: Lou Rogers& Alina Feldman
Flexer & Sandiland co-artistic director: Nic Sandiland

Biographies:

Galit Liss: Choreographer
Galit is an independent choreographer, artistic director and founder of The Gila Project, an artistic space for mature women. She's a member of the Israeli Choreographers Association. In 2022 Galit received the prestigious Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. As part of her artistic and social agenda, Liss creates with elderly women who are non-dancers. Her performances focus on the physiological aesthetics of the mature body in contemporary dance and have been performed in festivals in Israel and abroad. Galit is the creator and artistic director of the Gila Dance School for movement and stage art for mature women. There she brings the GILA practice - her unique methodology for working with the elderly body that she has been developing for the last 15 years. Her latest performance Blue Zone premiered at the Israel Festival in 2020. She is a graduate of the programme Artists for Social Change at Musrara School of Photography and holds a M.Mus in arts from the Academy of Music and Dance, Jerusalem. Alongside her artistic work, Liss lectures and presents at artist gatherings that explore creative processes, the connection between art and society, dedicated to challenging stereotypes, particularly around ageing.

Yael Flexer: Choreographer and Dancer
Co-Artistic Director of Flexer & Sandiland together with digital artist Nic Sandiland. To date she has created 14 full-length touring productions for the company touring throughout the UK and internationally. Recent company productions include Imagining Otherwise (2020-2023), Curiouser (2018-19), Disappearing Acts (2016) and the interactive works Border Control (2022) Trip Hazard (2014-2021), The Hum (2017-2020) and Weighting (2016-2017) by Nic Sandiland. Flexer & Sandiland are align artists at South East Dance and resident artists at Chichester University and work in partnerships with festivals and venues across the UK and internationally. Commissions as an independent artist include among others: E-Werk Tanz Festival (Freiburg, Germany), Trinity-Laban, mapdance, Motus Dance Festival, Scottish Dance Theatre, National Youth Dance Company Scotland, Maslool, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Recent comissions include London Contemporary Dance School, The Place, Dance East CATS, Hull Dance, Sandnes Kulturhus and Stavanger University, Norway and the over 60s dance companies Three Score Dance & Encore East. Yael has recently been appointed as Reader in Dance at The University of Chichester where she directs the University’s postgraduate touring company.

Luke Birch: Dancer
Luke began his dance training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and then went on to complete his BA Hons degree at Laban in 2008. In 2009 he joined postgraduate dance company Edge at London Contemporary Dance School. Professionally he has performed for a variety of companies internationally alongside working with visual artists performing in galleries (Tate and Hayward Gallery). His choreographic work has been shown at Canterbury Festival, Saddlers Wells (Damn Fine Dance at Elixir Festival), The Place, Siobhan Davies Studios, Move it 2016 and Arts Depot. Luke also has a passion for teaching and has delivered classes and workshops with Greenwich Dance, The Place, Circus Space, Independent Dance, Trinity-Laban, Surrey University, London Studio Centre, Salzburg Academy of Experimental Dance, Shobana Jeyasingh and Candoco.

Sara Dagan: Dancer
69 years old, Sarah lives in Nahalal. She is married, a mother of three children and a grandmother of three grandchildren. Sarah has had movement as a defining constant throughout her life. A graduate of the Movement Institute at the Kibbutzim Seminar, Sara is also a certified therapist in the Albaum method, Shiatsu and reflexology. She undertook further training in the Feldenkrais method, movement therapy and creative movement. Formerly an owner of a holistic treatment clinic, Sara used to conduct well-being movement classes for women and men as well as movement classes for children. Sara dances at the Gila dance school for movement and performance art for mature women and performs in the work Blue Zone (2020) by Galit Liss.

Corrie McKenzie: Dancer
Originally from Edinburgh, Corrie graduated from The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance in 2018. During her training she toured work internationally and nationally with the National Youth Dance Company of Scotland. In 2018/19 she started her postgraduate training with Mapdance, working with the likes of Jose Agudo, Liz Aggis, Anthony Missen and Didy Veldman. In 2019 Corrie was a company dancer for Harry Parr, performing in Resolutions Festival 2020. Corrie joined Flexer & Sandiland as apprentice artist in 2019 and became a company member in 2020. During 2021/22 Corrie was in creation with artists Bar Groisman, Nikki Watson (In collaboration with Ashley Peevor) and Sam Burkett. 

Fiona Millward: Dancer
Fiona has worked as a teacher, performer, and maker since 1985 and values immensely the alchemy of collaboration that underpins these various roles. She has had the pleasure of working with a range of choreographers, such as: Gill Clarke, David Dorfman, Yael Flexer, Deborah Hay, Alex Howard, Stephen Koplowitz, Rosemary Lee, Victoria Marks, Charlie Morrissey and Fin Walker. Her own choreographic work has received a variety of awards and commissions from funding bodies, festivals, companies, and venues. She has taught in a variety of settings for dance companies and organisations in the UK and abroad, for the British Council in Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, Russia, Bulgaria, and Crimea, as Dance Lecturer at De Montfort University and as Head of Movement at Oxford School of Drama. In 2001 she was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts for Outstanding Contribution to Dance in acknowledgement of her work as Co-director (1996-2015) of the dance research and training organisation Independent Dance. She runs a private practice as a Certified Rolfer™ and Rolf Movement™ Practitioner.

Karni Postel: Composer
A critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, cellist, experimental artist and producer Karni has had a long career as a musician, playing cello and singing with Assaf Avidan, Assaf Amdursky, Dana Berger, Aviv Geffen, Berry Sakharov, Vered Klepter, Shalom Hanoch, The Friends of Natasha, Alona Daniel & various experimental ensembles. In 1994 she partnered with Laroz to form the duo Bikini, which released two albums. Postel launched a solo career in 2001 with a self-titled album which enjoyed significant airplay in Israel. She composed original musical scores for numerous dance companies & choreographers including, Bat-Sheva Dance Company- Ohad Naharin, Yasmeen Godder's, Noa Dar, Rina Sheinfeld, Iris Erez, & Tmuna Dance Theatre, Tel-Aviv. She has composed extensively for TV, cinema & documentaries, winning the music category in the Jerusalem Film Festival. A member of the Dorlir String Quartet, this year she also established the Karni Postel Quintet with sell out performances at Heychal Hatarbut. Karni received the “Ofir” award for original music composition for the movie ASIA.

Nataly Zukerman: Dramaturge
Born in 1978, Nataly Zukerman is an independent Performance Artist. She has created and participated in the last fifteen years in various performance and theatre works around the world. She makes interdisciplinary works, combining devised theatre, live art, dance and autobiographical materials. In her works, she deals mainly with the notion of identity and disability. In the last few years, she created and performed in the shows: Practice Makes Perfect for which she won best performer at the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre in 2015, A Family Tree and The Other Body for which she won best performer at the Israeli fringe awards 2014. Zukerman also directed the shows: Talking to the Bartender, Willo & Robo (Wrap House, Norway), Are You Cold? (The National Review of Live Art, Scotland), It All Depends On Who Plays The Leading Part (Tramway Theatre and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She performed in the works by Lilach Dekel-Avneri, Daphna Zilberg, Tamar Raban, Jason Danino Holt and Yair Vardi. Zukerman also works as a lecturer in the Theatre Department of Tel Aviv University and in various programs for children and adults, as a freelance dramaturg (working with artists such as Daphna Zilberg, Amit Levy, Ran Bechor and Galit Liss), and is one of the initiators and artistic directors of Talooy Bamakom – a site specific festival and of Night Beat as part of the White Night celebrations in Tel Aviv. She has a first degree in education and directing from The Kibbutzim College of Education, and a BA degree in Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2015 she received her Master's degree in Theatre Studies from Tel Aviv University.

Suzi Burrows: Technical Manager
Creator of technical wonderment, across theatre, dance and music since the age of 14. The Swiss army knife of technical production management, in a convenient tiny package of marvellous excitement. 

Orit Gross: Dancer (original cast)
Born in 1955. Orit is a therapist, a non-dancer dancer, a creator and a writer. She has participated in the following works: The Hysteric performances – Chapter B by Adili Liberman (2022), Blue Zone by Galit Liss, performer and co-creator, (Israel Festival 2020). Suddenly, You Smiled at Me by Adi Shildan (2019), Go by Galit Liss, performer and co-creator, (2017).  Observation Room by Galit Criden (2017), 557 by Galit Liss, (2014). Orit has published four books of prose in Hebrew: Behind Your Back (2003), Transparent Skin (2006), Sand Floor (2012), Tenants Assembly (2019).

Tirtza Shpanauff-Many: Dancer (original cast)
Born in 1947, Tirtza completed the movement studies programme at the Kibbutzim Seminar, Tel-Aviv & the dance programme at The Academy of Music & Dance, Jerusalem. She also holds an MA in Buddhism & East Asian Studies from Tel-Aviv University. She was one of the founding members of the School of Dance Arts at the Kibbutzim Seminar, Tel-Aviv, establishing a degree programme and teaching for over 40 years. A dance therapist & Feldenkris teacher Tirtza lectures in the Dance Therapy department & at The Academic College for Arts & Society, Natanya (originally affiliated & accredited by Lesley College, USA). Alongside Tirtza has studied & practices Relational Somatic Psychotherapy, Jungian Analysis & Martial Arts.

Rotem Elroy: Original Lighting Design
Working as a lighting designer and technician since 2010, with theatre and dance performances at Tmuna theatre, Hazira, the Train Theatre, Hanut 31, Habait-Theatre, Cameri Theatre, Tel-Aviv University, Kibbutzim College, Goodman Acting School, Israel Festival, Puppet International Festival in Jerusalem and various independent productions. Collaborating with Galit Liss for several years in her works GO and Blue Zone.

Lou Rogers: Creative Producer, Flexer & Sandiland
A Producer with over 25 years’ experience. Lou was a Senior Producer Artist Development at South East Dance & was Creative Producer at NPOs Stopgap Dance Company & RIFCO Arts. Lou created & curated the iF (Integrated Fringe) Platform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015 alongside British Council & Unlimited - a unique platform showcasing the best UK disabled artists & integrated companies, featuring Jo Bannon, Marc Brew, Rowan James & Stopgap, 'A brilliant initiative' Lynn Gardner, The Guardian. Lou’s Producer credits include Kriya Arts, Root Experience, Spun Glass Theatre, Lila Dance, Casson & Friends. Lou is also mentor for Clearcut Dance Producer Maddie Wilson & Thick & Tight. Lou was the Creative Producer for Hubble Bubble's successful show Spin - A Skatepark Adventure. An inclusive urban sports show featuring disabled & non-disabled performers. 

Nic Sandiland: Flexer & Sandiland 
Co-Artistic Director is a UK based artist whose work explores new choreographic forms through installation, performance and film. He originally trained as an electronics engineer before studying dance and performance in the late 80s. Over the past 30 years he has made movement-based works focusing on simple pedestrian choreography. He is particularly interested in engaging the everyday movements of the viewer in a choreographic context, often creating works which draw on interactive digital technology to do this. His work has been commissioned by such organisations as: the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican Arts Centre, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and The Brighton Festival, and his film work has been shown worldwide and has been regularly broadcast on UK TV (Channel 4). Nic is also a senior lecturer in fine art at Middlesex University.

Support Us 

Did you know we are a non-profit making charity? We rely heavily on donations to keep our activities accessible to every body. If you care about the difference dance can make, please donate today. Thank you.

To give £5, textSED5 to 70711

To give £10, textSED10 to 70711

*you will be charged the chosen donation amount plus one message at your standard network rate. South East Dance will receive 100% of your donation less processing fees. You can provide consent for South East Dance to claim an additional 25% tax benefit known as Gift Aid on your donation by following the link provided. 

 

southeastdance.org.uk