Back Moving Communities by Camea Smith (telavivian.com)
Camea Smith
31.12.2017
Moving Communities
Yasmeen Godder is an acclaimed Israeli choreographer and dancer. She is the artistic director of her dance company which rehearses in the Yasmeen Godder studio in Jaffa. Since its opening in 2007, the studio has become a home for open classes, workshops and performances for professionals and non-professionals alike. Godder strives to make dance accessible to new audiences and as a part of an ongoing research of movement disorders she has initiated contemporary dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease.
For the last three years, the weekly dance classes have gradually created a close-knit community of dancers and people coping with Parkinson’s disease. Employing a wide range of movement practices, the fruitful collaboration between dance teachers and participants will be celebrated in an upcoming conference, “Moving Communities.” The conference, planned by Shiri Teicher and Sigal Bergman, will invite participants to re-examine the connection between dance and well being. Celebrating art as a transformative force in society, the conference will challenge the stereotypical concept of dance as a practice designated for the able-bodied.
Among the guests are David Leventhal – a founding teacher and program director of Dance for Parkinson’s Dancers, Edan Segev, a Computational Neuroscience professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Monica Gillette, a dancer and choreographer, as well as the co-artistic director of multi-disciplinary research projects connected to dance. The conference will take place in the Yasmeen Godder Studio, Mandel Cultural Center, 2 Hatchiya Street, Jaffa on Thursday, January 18 and Friday, January 19.