Immersive dance theatre at Tai Kwun

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“Dream Team” by Dana Ruttenberg will be a fitting finale for Tai Kwun’s second dance season, which centres around the idea of identity and breaks down boundaries between different forms of performing arts. Ruttenberg’s production takes it a step further by blurring the lines of the performer and spectator, immersing everyone in an illuminating discussion of identity.

Set in an underground ballroom, “Dream Team” features a seemingly ordinary but deviant gang—a 60 year-old performer, a “has-been dancer” physiotherapist, a single mother who seeks to return to the stage and a choreographer. The audience is up close and personal with the performers as they reveal their dreams, fantasies and nightmares. Sober yet humorous, this is a party of madness, joy and sadness. When the show is over, the audience will leave with a memory that is lived rather than merely observed.

“It is a like a sharing session. The audience is sat in 5 to 6 tables where the performers will share stories, letters and pictures. They may show them their bodies that bear the scars of injury. There will be a small stage where they will casually perform some dance pieces. What’s most interesting is that these stories are all real so the audience can really get to understand how dreams are achieved, or crushed,” said Eddy Zee, Head of Performing Arts, Tai Kwun.

An Israeli born dancer, choreographer and curator, Ruttenberg was artistic director of her New York-based dance troupe, the Red Hill Project, from 2000 to 2003, during which she created works that were showcased at various venues across the US and Canada. Since her return to Israel in 2003, she has become one of the leading voices of contemporary dance in the country, creating and staging works internationally.

Ruttenberg seeks to expand the boundaries of dance as an art form through multi-disciplinary, interactive and innovative artistic explorations. She is the founder and artistic director of Project 48 Dance, now in its seventh year, and together with director Oren Shkedy she produces internationally acclaimed dance films and video art.

Ruttenberg is a faculty member at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Winner of the 2013 Minister of Culture Award, she was also awarded the prestigious Rosenblum Prize for  the Performing Arts in 2012 as Promising Young Artist by the municipality of Tel Aviv.

Zee is excited to be bringing “Dream Team” to Tai Kwun, whose uniqueness as a venue can be exploited to present dance programmes not so much as a performance but an experience. It is the perfect location to stage this particular work by Ruttenberg, which is all about communication and audience participation.

“Dream Team” by Dana Ruttenberg will be staged at F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun, on October 24-27, 2019.