Side Steps

Newcomer

Amit Noy

Amit Noy knows how to unravel his roots, and that alone is impressive. Noy ​​was born in Hawaii, the son of a Mexican mother and an Israeli father. That's where it all began: with hula. When he was ten years old, the family moved to New Zealand, where Noy suddenly went to Israeli folk dancing every Monday. "But we were the only Jews," he laughs. He continued his education in Los Angeles and New York, his teachers including Deborah Hay. Of course, he also lived in Israel with his family, and from this grew "a complex relationship with the state and Judaism there."

In Germany, he received a Pina Bausch Fellowship from the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Foundation—Kunststiftung NRW. Today, he lives in Marseille where he founded his company Sumac. Noy ​​became known with A Big Big Room Full of Everybody's Hope, in which a large part of his family participates, starting with his grandmother, who was born in Belgium during the Holocaust. "The diaspora and constant relocation are our destiny," Noy says. In the piece, he weaves together his family history with the help of four generations.

How can we survive when so much violence has occurred? And: What does it mean to love? There is the shock of the Holocaust, and in the youngest children, various behavioral disorders come into play. Along the way, Noy tackles Balanchine's Agon, which he, in his own words, "remasticates and spits out," to explore how imperialism colonizes our bodies. Ballet also has something to do with colonialism. He continues this thread in Good Luck by examining how folklore is instrumentalized for nationalism. Under the Israeli flag, he sings "an" Israeli national anthem, the lyrics of which he practically rewrites from a Palestinian perspective to denounce cynicism and violence. Noy, with his constant gentle and sunny smile, is a complex, thoroughly engaging contemporary on stage.

Thomas Hahn

Noy performs in The Only Tune by Michael Keegan-Dolan as part of Marking Time, London, Sadler's Wells, 20–22 November; www.amitnoy.com