NETTA YERUSHALMY / WRITINGS & PRESS

“We feel the energy of the two women as they bound towards us or when one paints the other's back in slashes or dots of scarlet and slams her down onto a sheet of paper--surely an alarming form of printmaking. Over 25 minutes, the movement involves quirky, rubbery effects and various clinches and entanglements, suggesting volatile inner states and external connections. Boundaries will be violated. There will be blood.” (Eva Yaa Asentewaa, Infinite Body)

DISPOSITIF

“The dance “Dispositif” by Netta Yerushalmy deals with apparatuses of separation that control our lives. The entire theater is divided into dancers and observers – some are watching the audience and others are following the dancers. It is a fast dance, with surprising ways of intertwining, a plethora of details, and manipulative relationships. The movement vocabulary is interesting and is executed very well…” (Ruth Eshel, Ha'aretz)

“Netta Yerushalmy, an American who grew up in Israel, also made use of the audience, inviting several members to sit facing the rest of us for an excerpt from “Dispositif” (2006). Lucky them: They had an up-close view of Ms. Yerushalmy, a striking dancer who lashed her body through fierce lunges, wicked little pelvis rocks and explosive kicks, to a mashup of a score by DJ Kishak that included snippets of spoken French and the song “Dulcinea.” But not all of these audience members were what they seemed. Ms. Yerushalmy briefly tangled with one man onstage, then another gentleman abruptly left his chair and walked upstage, leaving her to sink into his place and stare out at the rest of us through the fading stage lights.” (Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times)

7:36

“A collection of fellows, each rehearsed separately share the space for the first time during the first night of performance. The Cagean strategy here helps to create a level of fuzz or noise absent from the work structured coherently from a single perspective. All the men's material relates somehow, and many seem to follow a similar progression, but the timing and the spacing of their correspondence is intricately jostled. All in white, occasionally the boys shape shift into little buddhas, especially Lawrence Cassella, who spends a good deal of time becoming a cross-legged marble. In the intermission preceding the dance, they played cards. Kayvon Pourazar lost the game and had to dance his material twice. The lone white mouse left in the maze, he retraces his steps until the next piece is ready to begin. Simplicity and curiosity again meet remarkable performance and vibrancy.” (Karinne Keithley,OffOffOff.com)

“…five guys from the upcoming 7:36 played cards; the loser would have to keep dancing the longest. (As I’d guessed—and hoped—the always fabulous Paul Matteson lost. Bet he cheated!)” (Eva Yaa Asentewaa, Village Voice)

CRATER IN US

"Crater in Us" has a frictionless relationship to the coordinate plane of its craft and composition. Complicated, full of sense but undiagrammable, "Crater" is legitimately joyful. The experience watching the work is not one of a person sitting in the audience zone watching something occur in stage space, but of being in the room in which a serious event is happening.”….“Beautiful the way a scraped up and muddy eight year old is, this work is full bodied and "dancey" without employing any of the tired types of "beauty" that traditionally circumscribe dancing.” (Karinne Keithley, OffOffOff.com)

THRESHOLDS

“Best shown in the finely calibrated interlocking movements of a women’s trio in Thesholds, Yerushalmy’s flights of fancy and explosive style rely upon a sturdy infrastructure.” (Eva Yaa Asentewaa, Village Voice)

“The dance works in much the same way, placing a pair exploring light intertwining curvatures against a trio of women part cut-out dolls, part automatons, part good traditional soldier girls. Jane Gotch and Mindy Nelson's costumes further support the distinction. A visual work finding abstract interest in people and cities, the feel is inquisitive. Like all of Yerushalmy's work, there's a vitality derived from taking real pleasure in movement.” (Karinne Keithley, OffOffOff.com)

THERENESS

“A quartet for women that follows the making and breaking of circular form most clearly belies the strong influence of Doug Varone on Yerushalmy's choreography. But rather than creating a work that is derivative, this piece feels to be a working-through of ideas of craft and development- a lesson in an approach to building a moving mass. Performed beautifully, it is an excellent piece of concert dance.” (Karinne Keithley, OffOffOff.com)

AFARSEK

“...this quartet, for four outstanding performers, slips unexpectedly in and out of intricate unison patterns, leading to a compelling feeling of timeless cycles of birth and death. Yerushalmy combines her high level of choreographic craft with an unerring trust of her own instinct...” (Vanessa Paige Swanson, danceinsider.com)

NETTA DANCING FOR OTHER ARTISTS:

DOUG VARONE AND DANCERS

“Netta Yerushalmy flashing through the hilariously rapid Twelve Dreams for Rent is a knock-out. She also nails some darker roles in Chapters that would be full, complex dances on their own.” (CVNC / Kate Dobbs Ariail)

“…best of all - a panoramic one-woman show entitled Twelve Dreams for Rent (expertly delivered by Netta Yerushalmy)” (Oberons’ Grove)

“The gravity is real enough, and several of Mr. Varone’s dancers (Netta Yerushalmy and Julia Burrer in particular) cut finely etched lines as they are blown hither and thither” (NYTimes, La Rocco)

"fully engaged, resolute performers—particularly Ryan Corriston and Netta Yerushalmy, solo or together—bear the burden of making the gamble pay off" (Dance Magazine, Eva Yaa, Asantewaa)

“…guided by an energy so boundless the audience feels lifted up into the air along with them. Eddie Taketa, Natalie Desch, Daniel Charon, and Netta Yerushalmy all stand out.” (Dance Magazine, Christopher Atamian)

“…Natalie Desch and Netta Yerushalmy were standouts” (Berkshirelivingmag.com)

NANCY BANNON THEATER DANCE WORKS

“A lithe woman (Netta Yerushalmy) danced wildly, writhed on the floor and grasped my hand.” (Bloomberg News, Philip Boroff)

GUEST APPEARANCE WITH ABD

“...on the particular evening (April 19th) that I’m describing, Netta Yerushalmy enters the stage … to find the others in a circle waiting for her. Yerushalmy, a member of Doug Varone’s company and a gifted choreographer herself (she was just awarded a Guggenheim) dances for them. She’s a compelling mover, with a gift for merging precision with something freer, softer, and more risky to create a dynamically rich flow”

“…in the end you cross your fingers that Yerushalmy will be able to perform everything she’s been learning all this time and do it with distinction. And, although a clearer statement about the process in the program would have made Yerushalmy even more of a hero, when she dances her final solo and the piece ends, the audience applauds enthusiastically” (Deborah Jowitt, ArtsJournal.com)

MARC JARECKIE DANCE

“Dark, sleek Netta Yerushalmy’s direct, take-charge presence paired fierce physicality with cool determination” (Gay City News, Gus Solomons Jr.)

“Their dancing is purity without preciousness, without saintliness. They have force like water has force. Their presence is not performative, but neither is it self-effacing. They define completely the terms of the piece. They never falter, and dance this thing of great difficulty and duration without comment, indulgence, or relief.” (OFFOFFOFF.com/ Keithly)

PHOTOGRAPH: Eryc Perez de Tagle