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