There is an excellent dance industry in Israel, and it produces dancers who, without a lot of ringing, bring a lot of respect to Israel all over the world. As befits an occupying society, this industry too of course relies on the pain and personal sacrifice of the dancers, on their devotion and sacrifice in the name of art. There is in this devotion something greater than nobility of soul: such a dancer who sacrifices himself for the sake of his art has no guarantee that he will see fruit to toil, so that it is pure altruism of the most sublime kind. The heroine of our section this week, Basmat Nussen (32) is made of exactly this material. The first time I met her she was in Batsheva’s large rehearsal room. There were a lot of dancers in the room warming up before Ran. One can only describe that we are dealing with a room bursting with talent from all corners of the globe. And yet, from the other end of the crowded room, she caught my attention immediately and without words made me realize what I was seeing even before I saw her move.
Basmat Nussen (Photo: Erla The Burning Aperture)
“I was born and raised in Kibbutz Tel Katzir in the Jordan Valley. A small place – fifty mailboxes,” she says. “When I was in seventh grade, we were taken on behalf of the dance studio to see all the great places of dance in Tel Aviv. I remember seeing Thelma Yellin as girls only two years older than me, but doing things with my body that I did not know were possible. It led me to try to get Thelma Yellin. “So I moved to Tel Aviv and studied with Thelma Yellin and Bat-Dor. A year later my parents divorced and my mother moved to the city.”
“About my high school experience I can say that fortunately I was so innocent that the intrigues and eating disorders, for example, went over my head,” Nussan continues, recounting her past. “After high school I danced in the dance troupe of Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Polak and the dance troupe Batsheva. I also participated in works by independent artists such as Arkady Zaides, Iris Erez, Michal Helfman, Ido Feder, Pontus Patterson and more. I love performing. Artwork is the only place I can “To perform without being embarrassed by the performance itself. I also like the effort that goes into it on a daily basis. When I danced I slept well, the dance probably tired me out enough for me to be able to overcome my acute sleep disorder. When I stopped dancing I stopped sleeping.”
Basmat Nussen (Photo: Erla The Burning Aperture)
For years she appeared on my contact list as a “foot perfume.” Time does not stop for anyone and she is already a mother of two. Eleanor (9) and Max (6 months) and she is still “perfumed”. We are real opposites, coming from different places, seeing the world differently. Dreaming of different things. Still, this encounter in Batsheva’s rehearsal room sparked a deep bond that sits on love of dance. There were years when we did not talk, but when we crossed paths again we continued to communicate as if not a minute had passed. We never talked about intimate things and like you, I learned about her personal life for the first time. This reaffirms to me what hitherto was only intuition: there are quite a few background noises of aggressive mediocrity in our districts that eat our ass systematically. And despite the lack of awareness that cries out from prime time and the mainstream, it is comforting to know that there are people living among us who have been blessed with talent and abilities for humanity alongside humility, so that we do not really get to hear about them. In their very existence they save us from the worst of all: mediocre homogeneity.
Basmat Nussen (Photo: Erla The Burning Aperture)
“Today I am a choreographer, dancer and teacher training teacher at Gaga,” says Nussen. “I always loved to create, I dreamed of studying choreography but I became a mother pretty soon after I left Batsheva and it was no longer possible, especially financially. Working as a dancer with a variety of artists from different fields is my choreography studies. And learning is not really something time field. The fact I did not study Makes me keep searching, studying all the time, and it affects my work. Every job is a dive into a different field of knowledge. I work full time and all the time, like everyone else. We live in a crazy time (and in the city) in this respect. Working in art softens reality and helps me To deal with life. “
Basmat Nussen (Photo: Erla The Burning Aperture)
“In the work ‘What a Soul’ I used to deal with the disgust that social networks arouse in me,” says Nussen about her new project. “I worked with a team of amazing artists, Edo Feder as playwright, Matan Daskel on the soundtrack, Omar Shizaf lighting design, Noa Lambrski production and management and the dancers who were partners in the creative process, Shai Kokoi and Roni Rahamim, who recently replaced Noa Gronich. We spend a lot of our time on social media. , Choose how to present ourselves in them, choose certain images, use a certain language, show such activities and not others, and in fact make up through all these choices a representation of ourselves and create a digital persona.
“The work ‘What a Soul’ is created and performed in the same way – the performers wear their facial expressions like a mask. Their smiles, cries and laughter are just shapes and sounds. “It was interesting to suddenly have fun with the same masks and this sense of falsehood that I experience every time I log on to Instagram or Tiktok, for example, and create something meaningful and even real with its help.”
>> “What a soul”, 12.7 20:00, Susan Dellal Center, Studio Jacques and Zehava Dellal. Details and tickets here