PlaNeta, a Personal Journey Told Through Dance
WHEN: Sunday, June 30 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, 411 E. Clinton Ave., Tenafly
ADMISSION: $20 for JCC members; $25 for general admission. For tickets and more information, call 201.408.1493 or iisraeli@jccotp.org
Neta Wygodzki-Torfstein—a choreographer, dancer, author and Pilates instructor—will perform her internationally celebrated one-woman dance performance, PlaNeta. Her performance is dedicated to the memory of Syril Rubin, one of the founding members of the JCC.
PlaNeta is a compelling personal journey told through dance, monologues and other media. As a multi-disciplinary performance, it explores a full spectrum of universal subjects, including marriage, love, motherhood, God, happiness and death—each in short, powerfully conceived dance vignettes. The show premiered to great success at the Khan Theater in Jerusalem, Israel, and was showcased at the JCC twice before, in 2009-2010.
“PlaNeta was developed and performed during the months that surrounded the birth of my first child and the death of my father,” says Neta. “Creating it helped me deal with the profound joys and frustrations of being a new mother while simultaneously coping with the impending loss of my father. The show’s premiere took place just three months after my father’s death. During the past six years, the performance has evolved with me, expanding to include insights I have gained as a mother of three, a Pilates teacher, and a writer and dancer. The discovery of my ability to tell a story in words combined with dance was an extraordinary creative outlet for me. The desire to share my experience and insights beyond theater audiences inspired me to create my book “PlaNeta, An Unconditional Dance Story.”
Neta danced with the Muza Dance Company in Israel, where she performed in various ensemble pieces at the Suzanne Dellal Theatre in Tel Aviv, and Cologne and Frankfurt, Germany. She also performed throughout Israel with the Synesthesia Dance Ensemble, where she co-choreographed, co-produced and danced in Va-yehi (Let it Be). Neta danced in Doubling, a duet she co-choreographed and performed with Ronen Yitzhaki at the Room Dance Festival in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. She is an alumna of the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem, where she won the Dean’s Excellence Award for dance. Her book, “PlaNeta – An Unconditional Dance Story,” was published by Art Bookbindery in April 2013. To learn more about Neta, visit her blog: http://planetadancestory.wordpress.com/
Neta currently teaches Pilates at the JCC. She was also a studio manager and coordinator for a Pilates instructors’ course at the Body in Mind Pilates Studio in Jerusalem and taught movement to children with Cerebral Palsy.
“It is astonishing how such a small woman can step onto the stage and become a giant,” says Inbal Israeli of the JCC School of Performing Arts after seeing PlaNeta. “Appearing in a simple dress with no props, she is completely exposed, her heart wide open, loving, bleeding, hurting, remembering, discovering. And I thought of the tremendous amount of courage required to dive so deeply into ones inner depths and extract such a wonderful performance…every movement, from small to large, was full of expression, power and feeling.”
And a review published in Yediot Ahronot, USA on April 3, 2009 had this to say: The performance is an intertwined exposure of mind and body. Neta is able to make us feel as if a major storm is evolving in front of our eyes by moving her fingertips alone. She stretches and folds her miniature body to seemingly endless lengths, in order to express, in words and movement, the universal themes she deals with.”
The performance will be followed by a reception celebrating the publication of “PlaNeta: An Unconditional Dance Story.” An exhibit, featuring beautiful black and white images on Neta dancing, will also be on exhibition in the Eric Brown Theater Lobby for the Month of June. The images will be for sale.
