Lisa Traiger
By Lisa Traiger
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Culture Republic of Dance
For three days every summer, the northern Israeli bedroom community of Karmiel, population 52,000, swells to upward of a quarter of a million people. Most of the visitors are avid dancers or dance lovers. Others come just to enjoy the heady atmosphere of the Karmiel Dance Festival, which bills itself as the largest international dance…
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The Schmooze Slavery to Freedom in Washington and Baltimore
Kevyn Morrow and Johnny Ramey in Centerstage’s production of The Whipping Man. Photo by Richard Anderson. “The Whipping Man,” a taut Civil War drama about a wounded Jewish confederate soldier and his encounter with the Jewish slaves owned by his father, has been on a nationwide roll since its world premiere in 2006. With more…
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Culture Telling the Holocaust Through Dance
Stephen Mills initially balked at the suggestion that he create a Holocaust ballet. The artistic director of the Ballet Austin company recalled saying: “I’m not Jewish. I don’t really have much Holocaust education. I’ve never even met a survivor.” That’s when his friend, Mary Lee Webeck, a University of Texas education professor, connected Mills with…
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Culture Making a ‘New Jerusalem’ in D.C.
Despite a title that sounds like a grad school dissertation, and pontifications that would make a third-year philosophy major proud, “New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza” keeps theatergoers surprisingly engaged. In fact, the opening night audience at Theater J took in the fast-paced courtroom-style drama with at times audible gasps and guffaws. Theater…
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Culture It’s E-asy Doing Israeli Dance
When the brash new Company E marks its debut with an all-Israeli program of choreography, someone notify the fire inspectors of downtown Washington, D.C. “I wanted to pick work that will set your hair on fire,” former government policy wonk turned choreographer and producer Paul Gordon Emerson said about why he set his sights on…
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Culture A Twist of Israel in Pennsylvania
Ronen Koresh has tears in his eyes. Dancer Melissa Rector has just finished a run-through of a searing solo from Koresh’s “Theater of Public Secrets,” dancing both on and around a table. The cozy second-floor dance studio with the burgundy curtains is silent, the dozen onlookers — dancers and visitors — stunned by raw emotion…
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Culture Polish Play About Anti-Semitism Debuts in America
A passing nod. A borrowed cup of sugar. A shared fence. A watchful eye on the house. That’s what neighbors are for. But what happens when neighbors turn and become enemies? That’s the question that consumed Warsaw-based playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek on learning that the black-and-white Polish Holocaust history he had learned at school was actually…
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Culture Separating the Dancer From the Dance Exchange
Liz Lerman, long the dominant Jewish voice in the barefoot, rule-breaking world of American modern dance, is stepping down from the Maryland-based company she founded in 1976 to pursue independent projects. That leaves the Dance Exchange — the renowned, multigenerational company she created and guided for more than three decades — under new leadership. Nine-year…
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