nefesh נפש (in progress)

nefesh is a performance project emerging from my exploration of Ashkenazi singing, rabbinic prayer, embodied spiritual practice, and diasporic politics.

The project sutures across generations and genres, weaving together contemporary dance, traditional music, feminism, and neo-Hasidism. This work reaches back to my orthodox, Yiddish-speaking grandfather and great-grandparents, reclaiming cultures almost destroyed by anti-semitism and Zionism. 

nefesh lingers in the details of shuckling, vocal sliding, unmetered singing and krechtsing, distinguishing the eastern European jewish soundscape. It foregrounds the labor, sensuality, and life-giving nourishment of sacred service, and the wisdom of the body, our wandering - navenaden - altar.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my mentor in Ashkenazic vernacular and cantorial singing, klezmer multi-instrumentalist, ethnomusicologist and faculty at the New England Conservatory, Hankus Netsky. Thank you, also to my classmates and the faculty at Hebrew College.

The Boston showing of nefesh was supported by CJP Arts and Culture Impact Grant and a Projects and Festivals Grant to Hebrew College from the Mass Cultural Council

The Brooklyn premiere of Nefesh at the Center for New Jewish Culture is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

Collaborators

Melissa Melpignano, Dramaturgy

Storm Thomas, Sound Design

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Upcoming Performances

State of Play, ODC, San Francisco August 2024

Center for New Jewish Culture, Brooklyn, TBA 2024

Press

Tanz Magazine May 2023, “Wurzelwerk” by Wendy Peron

photos above by Sid Keiser, and Hofstra University

Past Showings

Ruah Community Health Studio, Hebrew College, Newton MA, May 2023

The New Shul, NYC May 2023, photos by Itamar Dotan

Yiddish New York, December 2023

Workshops at Hofstra University and Rutgers University, September 2023