I’m Mean, I Am
Yasmeen Godder ( IL )
Yasmeen Godder was born and raised in Jerusalem, and moved to New York with her family at age eleven. She graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City, and received her BA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Since 1999, she has been living in Tel Aviv and working with her own dance troupe. Her works have regularly been presented at the main dance festivals at the Suzanne Dellal Dance Center in Tel Aviv, and various venues throughout the world, including Russia, Germany, England, Hungary, France, Holland, Italy Sweden, Japan, Korea and the US.
In the attempt to overcome void and depression imposed by the starkness or the dance studio, Godder tests her “powers” in a creative process with the other performers. In the creepy yet sporty atmosphere of the studio, they play with instincts and transformations which arise from the uneasiness and void. The tension that exists between process and product, and the desire to overcome it, sparks bouts of violence, which evolve into intimate moments, and allows the work to enter a more risky ground. The intensity built, becomes a platform for playing out “bigger than life” images, inspired by recollections of cinematic moments, to create a very particular performance language. All of these are a continuation of Godder’s research into taking on images which may be alienating and far from our perception of ourselves, and seeing how our individuality deals with these exterior identities in performance, at once identifying with and rejecting them.
***
choreography: Yasmeen Godder
creating performers: Yasmeen Godder, Eran Shanny, Maya Weinberg, Dana Yahalomi
music: Keiji Haino
dramaturgy: Itzik Giuli
set design: Oren Sagiv
costume design: Maayan Goldman
light design: Avi-Yona Bueno (Bambi)
mask design: Alona Rodeh
