Vertigo Power of Balance

Vertigo Power of Balance creates a meeting place for people with various physical abilities, disabled and non-disabled, through movement, contact and improvisation.

Established in 2000 and directed by Hai Cohen and Tali Wertheim the Power of Balance center operates from the Vertigo Eco-Art Village home of the acclaimed Vertigo Dance Company offering comprehensive integrated dance activities that include annual programs, classes, workshops and performances in Israel and abroad.

The unique approach of integrated Contact Improvisation allows for a direct physical encounter through spontaneous dance. While exploring contact, direction, gravitation and momentum, participants are given the opportunity to experience an especially attentive communication through the senses emphasizing their common ability to fully express themselves through dance.

Shape On Us by Sharon Fridman

Duration: 51 min

Description: The artistic process is based on a common understanding by the group of dancers – to tell the truth. This comes about through moments of stability and instability, of risk-taking, of tension and extreme relations, of reality and imagination, of support, loneliness, vulnerability and love.

People on road: 18

Freight: baggage

An Intimate Duet

Duration: 10 min

Description: “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot soles”
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Choreographed and Performed by Hai Cohen and Tali Wertheim

People on road: 3

Freight: none

11,711 Stone Steps at Nikko

Duration: 25 min

Description: “Along this road
Goes no one
This autumn eve”
Basho

Inspired by Haiku poem’s spirit and structure.
Choreographed and Performed by Hai Cohen, Tali Wertheim & Maya Resheff.

People on road: 4

Freight: none

Masterclass / Workshops
Vertigo Power of Balance offers tailor made integrated Contact Improvisation workshops for people of all abilities and ages, professional and non-professional dancers.
Working in a unique model of integrated co-teaching team, Hai Cohen and Tali Wertheim will lead an inspiring exploration into movement, Contact Improvisation, dance techniques, and new teaching methods for inclusive dance, while enhancing qualities of deep listening, shifting the focus to what is available, and creating a safe and open space for personal, physical and artistic breakthroughs.

Integrated Dance Lecture Demonstration
Mixed ability dance performance complemented with an experiential Contact Improvisation workshop and an open discussion with the artists.
Vertigo – The Power of Balance performances available in a full length performance as a school event or a shortened version performance for an intimate studio show complemented by an open discussion with the integrative dance cast.

“Shape On Us is a wonderfully inventive, playful, lively, intensely physical and emotionally evocative work that raises myriad thoughts on disability, social conventions, aesthetics, and our discourse on disability.

Fridman’s choreography reflects a deep exploration of movement and the possibilities inherent in our different bodies. It is a work full of movement, often with different narratives taking place in parallel. Visually striking, it’s immensely appealing, with nuances of shape and form drawing the gaze in close. It takes up space, reaching and moving through the entire performance space in all dimensions; at any given moment, the composition is riveting.”

Midnight East on ‘Shape on Us’

“Striking visual design defines much of “An Intimate Duet,” choreographed and performed by Israeli guest artists Hai Cohen in chair and Tali Wertheim on his lap and on foot. Disembodied arms fold and unwrap around Wertheim before Cohen’s face and body finally emerge from behind her. This sensual partnering evolves slowly, meticulously, its beauty in the poetic simplicity of each gesture, the parameters of physical limitation opening up infinite possibilities for movement invention.”

See Chicago Dance on ‘An Intimate Duet’

“The spectator is immersed in another dimension of time, in the very essence of being.”

Festival de Marseille DANSE et ARTS MULTIPLES on ‘11,711 Stone Steps at Nikko’