{"id":29279,"date":"2022-06-30T11:38:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T08:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogtogether.com\/passerelles-%d7%92%d7%a9%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%9d-%d8%ac%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1-the-story-of-rabaa-and-sharon-a-shared-life-connecting-through-dance\/"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:38:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T08:38:59","slug":"passerelles-%d7%92%d7%a9%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%9d-%d8%ac%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1-the-story-of-rabaa-and-sharon-a-shared-life-connecting-through-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogtogether.com\/en\/passerelles-%d7%92%d7%a9%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%9d-%d8%ac%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1-the-story-of-rabaa-and-sharon-a-shared-life-connecting-through-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Passerelles \u05d2\u05e9\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd \u062c\u0633\u0648\u0631 \u2013 the story of Rabaa and Sharon \u2013 a shared life, connecting through dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabaa Murkus and Sharon Eskenazi created \u201cGsharim-\u062c\u0633\u0648\u0631\u201d an Arab-Jewish dance company. The company performs dances that bridge intercultural, national and class rifts. The two advanced their dream of a shared troupe with the French \u201cdancing without borders\u201d group. I heard about the group from Sharon\u2019s mother who is an activist working to promote good neighborly relations between Arabs and Jews in the Galilee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with an Aperitif (as this post has a French twist\u2026), a few pictures of Israeli dancers, both Arabs and Jews together with dancers from Lyon, France all coming together from different religions and neighborhoods\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rabaa from Kafr Yasif and Sharon from Cabri met in the 90s at a dance studio in Ga\u2019aton. There they connected on the personal, artistic and professional levels. In time, Sharon turned to teaching and Rabaa became a professional dancer and choreographer. Their paths have crossed several times since then with their students on shared projects about territory and identity. While Rabaa went on to open her own dance studio in Kafr Yasif and following that also created the first (and only at this time) dance program in Arab society, Sharon taught in the Ga\u2019aton dance program. The two began a collaboration between their programs. They set joint meetings, workshops and traveling to see performances together with their students. The collaboration lasted two years and was fraught with difficulties and instances of racism. In 2006 Sharon moved to Lyon in France, but despite the physical distance, her friendship and ideological partnership with Rabaa continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sharon, who believes in the power of dance to create a break-out, open and human intersection in places laden with conflict and strife, searched for a way to continue her work with Rabaa in France. Together with the Centre Choreographique National de Rillieux-la-Pape, CCNR, she created a dance company called \u2018Dancing without Borders\u2019. The group consists of young people from needy neighborhoods as well as youngsters from more established neighborhoods. This diverse group allows for a meeting of cultures, classes and religions.<\/span><\/p>\n

During these years, the Gsharim – \u062c\u0633\u0648\u0631 group was created in Israel\u00a0establishing a unique and strong connection between Jews and Palestinians promoting a non-compromising discourse about the challenge and with it the possibility of both nationalities living together. The group consists of twelve young dancers, some amateurs and some professionals. The group performs at galleries and theaters in Israel. Their latest dance called, \u2018falling between the lines\u2019 was choreographed by Rabaa. It\u2019s based on the dancers\u2019 personal experiences. Rabaa has turned her choreographic process into a type of partnership with the dancers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabaa and Sharon decided that their groups should meet under the auspices of the Israel-France Friendship Year. They wanted to deepen the tie between the groups and build bridges through dance between the different cultures, nationalities, religions and backgrounds. The shared program of \u2018Gsharim Passerelles \u062c\u0633\u0648\u0631\u2019 began in 2014\/5 and is still running (2018). It works in such a way that each group is either the host or the guest of the other. There have been a few meetings since then, workshops and professional education tours, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Joint educational workshop at Vertigo, Israel<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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Workshop with Ido Tadmor in Israel<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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A picture from the ‘between the lines’ dance performance, choreography by Rabaa Murkus<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

This year, the choreographer, Yuval Pick, created a performance for both groups which they started working on even before the two groups met. He worked with each group individually for months in its country. The highlight of the process was the meeting of the two groups to work together. The new dance is called \u2018flowers crack concrete\u2019 and it was performed in Haifa, Israel and in Lyon, France at the global dance biennial. A very distinguished place to show a unique and bridging dance. The dance addresses the spaces between people, in groups, the space that allows you to hold out your hand, touch and share a common space. The project was supported by the Lyon Choreographic Centre, CCNR, led by Yuval Pick, the French Ministry of Culture and Education, Plus Erasmus, Francais Institut and the Foreign Office (the France-Israel Friendship Year headquarters). You can view a French report on this here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n