Silence and Movement Interact
Many of the women – Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze – seemed to know each other. There were squeals of recognition, hugs and kisses as women who rarely get to meet reunited with old friends. Soon, one woman took out a drum and another shook a tambourine, and there was clapping and Middle Eastern-style dancing.
The guest of honor sat quietly observing. With her gray hair and sparkling blue eyes, and dressed in an aquamarine tunic, she looked to be in her late 60’s.
“Children often count their age in half and quarter-years,” she told The Media Line with a smile. “Well, I’m 94 and three-quarters years old.”
Anna Halprin is one of the pioneers of the modern-dance movement. She has come to Jerusalem to perform her “planetary dance” with these women, a dance ritual meant to bring peace and healing. The setting, the Goldman promenade, a path that winds through a forest in southern Jerusalem with the sparkling gold dome of the Mosque of Omar on one side, and the houses of the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv on the other, is especially fitting. Halperin’s husband Laurence, a landscaped architect, designed this promenade. He was also one of the founders of Kibbutz Ein Hashofet near Haifa, in 1937.
“We are here to bring people together, to celebrate our one-ness,” Halprin said. “It’s really a ritual and we’re going to be dancing to bring about an awareness of peace between peoples and peace with the planet.”
The event is organized by Elana Rozenman of TRUST-Emun, an non-profit organization that brings together different communities of women in Israel and Palestine. The dance ritual would be preceded by a meditative silent walk on the promenade.
“We’re going to do a meditation walk,” Rozenman told the women, some of whom refused to stop chatting. “We will walk slowly and silently with peace in every step. We put peace into the ground and we take back peace from Mother Earth.”
She warned the women that even one person talking would ruin it for everyone, and the women set off silently. Some of the women held hands – others walked alone. One was pushed in a wheelchair; several leaned on canes.
“What’s going on – why are you all so quiet?” an ice-cream seller yelled as the women passed. Nobody answered.
Rozenman began her organization when her then-16-year-old son was severely wounded in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Many of the women in her organization have lost relatives to the conflict.
“These are women who would naturally be enemies, and we’ve had to do a lot of work together to work through each others’ pain and suffering and to be able to become sisters together,” she said.
Siham Halabi, a Druze woman from the village of Daliyat al-Carmel, said that the group has offered her an opportunity to meet both Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women. The Druze are a unique ethnic community that follow an offshoot of Islam, and are Israeli citizens.
“This brings all of the communities together. We get to know each other and we talk about peace and what we can do to bring peace forward,” she told The Media Line “Women are stronger, they do things with their whole heart. Because we are mothers we are willing to work harder for peace.”
The event is being held as tensions in Jerusalem are running high. Israel’s announcement that it will build more than 1000 housing units in east Jerusalem, and daily clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in Jerusalem and the West Bank that have left two Palestinian teenagers dead, have raised anxieties in this mixed city where Arabs and Jews coexist.
After the walk, the women gathered in a stone amphitheater for the dance part of the afternoon. Halprin has been dancing for decades and credits dance with helping her beat cancer many years ago.
“Dance is something that involves the whole body,” she said. “Of all the art forms, this is the one art form that uses the body as the instrument so it contains everything. Everything we’ve ever experienced, everything we’re going to experience is lived through the body. How better to celebrate this than through dance?
Halprin guided them in individual movements as several women played traditional Middle Eastern drums, called darbukas. One woman from Japan said she had flown in that day for this event, and a workshop with Halprin that will be held in the desert.
“Now find a partner,” Halprin called, and the women moved into pairs.
“Now groups of 8.”
“Now 16.”
Eventually the more than 200 women formed one large circle, and most of the participants thought the event was over. They began chatting.
“Wait, wait,” Halprin said. “We’re not done yet. If you want this to work, you have to listen to me. I want to show you to use negative space.”
She then instructs the women to break into groups and form lines that can weave in and out through the dance space. It is dusk now, and the lights of Jerusalem’s Old City begin to blink on. The remaining light on the walls of the Old City is soft.
The women obeyed Halprin’s directions. They joined hands – Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze — and danced toward what they hope will be a better future.