Le Radeau

A Hard Garment (working title) is a work of performative archaeology, an excavation of my personal Jewish history and the politics of archaeological digs. Through Kabbalist songs, experimental noise and dance, we revisit the Jewish folktale of the Golem, a mythical hero/antihero made of clay.

With Gambletron, Thea Patterson, Maxine Segalowitz, and Daph Bendavid V'yosef, we will explore the Kabbalist philosophy of sacred heresy, and gematria meditations to shatter calcified Jewish artefacts, remembering that, above all, culture lives in the people. This new work explores doikayt, a Yiddish term meaning “hereness”, strengthening jewish communities wherever they live instead of focusing on founding a separate ethno-nation-state.

We will create a clay golem from shattered artefacts, scan for angel messages on ghost radios, learn sung prayer poems (piyyut), and remount dances from ancestral muscle memory.

Credits

• Choreography, performance Nate Yaffe
• Music, performance Gambletron
• Dramaturgy Thea Patterson
• Dramaturgy, music, performance Daph Bendavid V'yosef
• Performance Maxine Segalowitz
• Production Le Radeau
• Creation residencies Devenir(s) corps, CCOV & K3 Tanzplan (DE), La Cité des hospitalières, Fabrik Potsdam (DE)

Financial support

• Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec