It’s pretty sad that we live in a world where a dance performance can’t be put on without bringing political protesters with it. Currently, an Israeli dance troupe called Batsheva Dance Company is performing at the Joyce Theater. On Saturday night’s New York Premiere of the male dancers, a huge crowd of members of Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel showed up not to watch the dance performance, but to protest the country of Israel and anything associated with it. “Adalah-NY has been protesting throughout Batsheva’s run, picketing and handing out pamphlets criticizing Israeli policies toward Palestinians and urging a boycott of the company.” In fact, protesters were seen yelling political accusations outside the theater like, “You’re dancing around apartheid.”
Because our country grants freedom of speech to all its citizens, the protesters were legally aloud to be there; however, it is morally important to our society that people have the common sense to differentiate between politics and art. Regardless of your personal stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I believe that it is inappropriate to transform the purely artistic pursuits of an Israeli dance company into a platform for protest.
Maybe, if the Israelis and Palestinians started recognizing the beauty in each other’s societies, such as dance, they would be able to make more progress in their goal of achieving peace.
I watched the video, and all politics aside, I did not find the dancing as compelling as what we saw with the Parsons Dance Company. Here is a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGJEIQK6JVA