nefesh נפש
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 showing of nefesh with Jesse Zarrit was presented by The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life and 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.
nefesh was also supported by Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and by Ruach Community Health, where hadar is Artist in Residence.
nefesh at Sukkot in The Neighborhood, Brooklyn, October 19, 2024
By hadar ahuvia
Performed by hadar ahuvia and Jesse Zaritt
Sound Design: hadar ahuvia
Costume Design: Athena Konoronis and the team
Outside Eyes: Niall Jones
Stage Manager: Logan Schulman
nefesh at State of Play, ODC, San Francisco, August 3-4 2024
Choreography, dance, voice, traditional music arrangement: hadar ahuvia
Sound Design: Tatyana Tenenbaum
Lighting Design: Jennifer Fok
Costume Design: Athena Kokoronis
nefesh at the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music, The Boston Synagogue, May 22, 2024
Choreography, dance, voice, traditional music arrangement: hadar ahuvia
Sound Design: Tatyana Tenenbaum
Lighting Design: hadar ahuvia and Tatyana Tenenbaum
Costume Design: Athena Kokoronis
nefesh at Hofstra University, September 2023
Follow the process on instagram
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
