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Miri Ben-Shalom was born in Israel and studied Theater at Tel Aviv University. Since 1973 in New York. Miri has been a documentary filmmaker and editor for more than twenty years. She worked for the major TV networks, as well as many independent productions. She co-produced and edited the documentary preserving the Past to Ensure the Future that was nominated for an Academy Award. For other works she is a Telly Awards recipient, a US International Film and Video Festival winner and received a 1998 National Headliners Award. She also wrote several feature length screenplays. In the last three years Miri returned to her original interest – theater. Currently, the play I Want the Whole World to See that I Can Cry through her non-profit company From Home to Homeland, Inc., she is working on producing this play for the stage, as well as a touring educational version for high school and college students to enhance the teaching of the WWII Holocaust curriculum. www.icancry.org . Miri is also the Literary Liaison of The Genesius Theatre Guild www.genesiusguild.org . e-mail : mirib@earthlink.net  

What intrigued me initially about Abravanel, an hour long dance piece inspired by the music, culture, and history of the Sephardic Jews, was the fact that none of the creators seemed to be Jewish. Presented by Syren Modern Dance and Choreographed by Kate Mehan, Abravanel seeks to capture the journey of the Jewish people during the Middle Ages, forced by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to convert, to leave, or to die. Many died trying to leave, many died trying to stay.

The dance started with a haunting melody sung by Ofra Haza and for the next 60 minutes I was totally enthralled. I am not sure I was able to comprehend the story line, or to sense the pain and havoc the Sephardic Jews endured, but through dance, music and lighting the performance was compelling, dramatic and intense. Having no professional dance credentials, I asked Elizabeth Keen, a veteran dancer/choreographer on the faculty of the Julliard School, to join me. She filed this review: ABRAVANEL is a beautifully crafted, choreographic construction. This dance was not made overnight; a great deal of experiment and planning went into its final form. The music, costuming and lighting were equally well considered, and except for two black-outs, which created false-endings, the dance was successful in many ways.

As it begins, five dancers gradually join a solitary seated figure. These six often dance together, but also appear in smaller units of varying number, including solo and duet passages. The well-designed and inventive movement motifs often re-occur, at times interwoven with folk dance elements. Individuals portray sadness, longing, and occasional wariness. The group is clearly a community, which interacts in a deeply caring manner. The result is a dance of harmony and consonance. What is missing is the wrench of displacement, the loneliness, loss, dread, strife and danger that attend forcible eviction. It is this level of investigation that would have brought ABRAVANEL to a deeper place. As it is now, ABRAVANEL presents the Diaspora from a vantage point of considerable tranquility, which is not to say it doesn’t have its own special beauty.

On a cold February day I sat down in a cozy café in the heart of Greenwich Village with the Artistic Directors and co-founders of Syren Modern Dance, choreographer Kate Mehan and dancer Lynn Peterson, along with Lindsay Lee, one of the dancers in Abravanel. Kate and Lynn befriended each other in college and upon graduation, instead of trying to audition for other people’s work, they decided to follow their dream and create their own work. “Nothing out there seemed as enticing, so we thought, why wait?”

And in the spring of 2002 they formed their company, Syren Modern Dance. (Syren is an alternate spelling of Siren – a sea nymph of classical mythology.)

The urge to explore the Sephardic Jewish culture has been lurking within choreographer Kate Mehan since she was a student at SUNY Purchase. “I heard a children’s choir sing this piece of music while I was working as an usher. I ran down and looked at the playbill. The piece was “Adijo Querida”, and under it, it said ‘Sephardic folksong’. I had never heard that word before. I had no idea what that was. So I did a little bit of research to know who those people are”. But Kate was too busy with school at that time and did not pursue it further. “By the time I graduated we had done a few Syren shows, and then I actually came across that piece of music again, and the same thing happened – I was just so inspired by that piece of music. I googled ‘Sephardic’ and I found some more music.”

Kate came across the group Divahn and heard some of their music posted on their website. “I was just so taken aback. I thought it was some of the most beautiful music I’d ever heard, because it just had so many different rhythms, so many different overlays. It was such a rich textured music.” Kate ordered their CD and when she found out that the group is based in New York, she contacted vocalist Galeet Dardashti, the founder and leader of the all-female ensemble Divahn. This was the beginning.

While attraction to the music sparked Kate’s interest in Sephardic Jewish culture, delving into their history turned it into passion. Their plight during the inquisition in 1492, their struggle to stay true to what was most sacred to them- their families and their faith- evoked deep sympathy and imagery. During her research she read about Don Isaac Abravanel ( 1437-1508) : “He worked for the king and queen, and was a very wealthy person; he had everything situated and he got along well with the court. He, like the rest of the Jews, was forced to convert. At the court he was implored: ‘please, just convert. We just want you to stay and work with us.’ He said, ‘No,’ he offered up money, anything he could do to keep him and his people there. And they said, ‘No, just convert.’ But he wouldn’t. He took his whole family, and he financed other families and friends to go away. They left everything behind and made a life for themselves, a new, fruitful life where they settled. It just was incredible to me that, given the choice, and this life that was very comfortable for him in Spain, he still kept his family and kept his faith, and took it with him, and made it happen somewhere else.”

Kate, who is not Jewish, was so inspired that she decided to tell this story though her own creative language: dance.

“I feel that through these people, their music, their story, this piece allowed me and us all to grow as artists,” added Artistic Director Lynn Peterson, a member of the dance ensemble, who is also not Jewish. Though on a different level, she compares the physical and emotional journey that they as dancers went through to the hardships the Sephardic Jews endured hundreds of years before them:

“We were working together for so long on it, we were digging deeper, making a full length work as a choreographer, as a dancer, as an actor, singer, and there was an extra level of commitment and discipline. I learned about perseverance. We all worked on conquering something. In a way it was our version of what they did. Here, in New York, in this climate, in this generation, with all of the things to compete against. It’s sort of our own version, in a very, very different way, obviously – not to take away from what they did, but their struggle was our inspiration, because it was very true to what we all go through.”

Lindsay Lee agreed. The piece was so demanding physically, mentally and emotionally that in a way she felt they were traveling the journey the Abravanel family traveled. She drew strength from their strength. She felt that the experience bonded the ensemble like family. “We’ve all been friends a very long time, but it was the first time I felt cohesive. Among the six people, this work created such a bond. We couldn’t have done it without all six dancers and each other’s support. I needed these people in order to do this piece. I would not be able to do this process, and do these sections, and perform for you, if I didn’t have these wonderful, beautiful five other people carrying me through.”

This cohesiveness and strong connection was apparent throughout the dance.

“This is a story of perseverance. It is a relatable story,” Kate interjected. “It could be told in different languages, from other people’s different histories, with different music. But this one was an inspiration for me. This was a place and a time and a moment when I was inspired. By this music and these people and this history. So I thought, let me tell this story. Let me tell this inspiration with this music, with these textures, with this moment in history, and use these dancers right here – this family of us.”

At the core of the performance, leading the dancers’ journey on stage was a powerful selection of ethnic music performed in Ladino, Hebrew and instrumental by Ofra Haza, Galeet Dardashti and Davka. The traditional costumes and dramatic lighting enhanced the intense atmosphere, leading to the powerful conclusion: the six dancers kneeling in a diagonal line across the stage, embracing both the past and the future. “I wanted to set them up on this diagonal, and have them each look over their shoulder in the direction they have been traveling, with their chin strong and their eyes up and focused forward, while their arm extended to the path that they have come from, in reverence of the memory of where they’ve come from.”

It is quite common for artists to be influenced by their roots and heritage and to expose it to the world through their work. It is less common, and I find admirable, to draw such inspiration and strength from the history and culture of people other than your own, and to immerse yourself deeply into it, to find strength and solace within, and to relate it to others.

ABRAVANEL is a beautiful work, and a remarkable achievement for Kate Mehan and her young company, Syren Modern Dance.

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