44 | OCTOBER 17 • 2019
Arts&Life
dance
Feel the Emotion
Israeli dancer/choreographer brings her talent to U-M.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
L
ast year, Israeli choreog-
rapher and dancer Noa
Shavit auditioned before
a group of international scouts
looking for talent. She caught
the attention of Flo Low, asso-
ciate director of arts programs
at the Israel Institute, and
was chosen to be part of the
organization’
s Visiting Artists
Program.
Shavit is among 10 Israelis
— including writers, theater
directors, a musician and
a puppeteer — teaching at
American universities this year.
University of Michigan will
provide Shavit’
s teaching stage
through December.
“It’
s a great honor for me
to be here, and I’
m so happy
to do it,
” says Shavit, 36, who
toured America in 2006 with
Emanuel Gat Dance, a troupe
started in Israel and moved to
France.
“I will be teaching technique
more than classic dance, my
point of view regarding per-
forming and a little bit of act-
ing. I like to explore dancing
from my experience, and that
has to do with keeping active
from the inside with emotions,
energy and imagination.
“I want to show the big vari-
eties and range of things you
can do with dance and how
you can develop your body
according to your inner self,
”
Savit says. “
All that helps with
making a connection between
the performer and the audi-
ence in how they can relate to
each other.
”
Shavit, based in Tel Aviv
and working as an instructor
as well as performer, trained at
the Ga’
aton Professional Dance
Workshop. She has been asso-
ciated with Sharon Fridman,
Anat Grigorio, Dede Dance
Company, Nimrod Freed/Tami
Dance Company and Noa Dar
Dance Group.
In 2018, she premiered
the solo “Ingiven” as part of
Tmuna Theater’
s Intimidance
Festival.
“This is the first time I’
m
teaching a class outside of
Israel, and I’
m very excited
about that,
” says Shavit, who
started studying dance when
she was in third grade and
knew by 17 that dance would
be the career for her. “I love to
teach and work with a range of
[students at various levels].
”
Shavit, who is engaged to
drummer Oren Tuval, will be
teaching three dance classes:
practical technique, contempo-
rary dance and dance lab.
“It’
s very important for me
to give students the idea of
creating while connecting with
the audience,
” she says. “They
must be open and explore all
the time, and that’
s a level of
communication. They have to
be tough [to get through the
rigors of dance].
”
Other universities partici-
pating in the program include
the Juilliard School, California
Institute of the Arts, University
of California, University
of Central Florida, Emory
University and the University
of Southern California.
The Visiting Artists
Program is only one initiative
of the Israel Institute, a non-
profit based in Washington,
D.C. The organization admin-
isters programs for university
students to learn about mod-
ern Israel. Besides engaging
with students, visiting artists
share Israeli culture with
American communities.
“I will be happy to make
connections with any
organization if they want to
invite me for teaching or other
activities in the community,
”
Shavit says.
COURTESY NOA SHAVIT/DANA KAROCHI
Bedtime Story
y
Author creates kid’
s
book with a message.
COURTESY OF BRANDON MOVITZ
Brandon
and Jude
Movitz
Fitness trainer Brandon Movitz
of Birmingham had no aspira-
tions to write a children’
s book.
“It started as something fun for
my son, Jude, 2, and my wife,
Kate,” he said.
“My wife and I had talked
about parenting and what kind
of kid we wanted to raise,”
said Movitz, a member of
Congregation B’
nai Moshe in
West Bloomfield, who couldn’
t
find the kind of book he
enjoyed reading to his son each
night. So he created his own.
“NUTNIGHT is fun and
filled with many life lessons
specifically developed for
toddlers. It’
s about caring and
sharing and the importance of
having gratitude for the things
you have,” he said.
In a nutshell (pardon the
pun), the book is about a
greedy squirrel who ends up
losing all his nuts when he
won’
t share them.
When Movitz would read
the story to Jude, he would
grab the tablet from his hand
looking for pictures.
Movitz said he tried his
hand at drawing some pictures,
“realized I can’
t draw and
found a great illustrator —
Manuela Uribe of Colombia,”
he said.
Soon, Jude had a book
he could hold in his hands.
NUTNIGHT is available online
at nutnight.com and at local
bookstores for $9.99. The
e-book version is available on
Amazon for $4.99.
Jude still likes hearing the
story every night, as does his
6-year-old cousin, who’
s also
a fan. “It’
s just a fun story to
hear,” Movitz says.
Israeli choreographer
and dancer Noa Shavit
in performance