Mana

The contemporary dance show Mana, with choreography by the Vertigo Dance Company, an Israeli company founded in 1992 by Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha'al, is on stage at the Teatro Argentina.

The choreography places the outline of a house at the centre of the scene which symbolizes the border which separates the inside and the outside, the public and the private, with the aim of analyzing and representing the individual in his daily life, in the many contrasting emotions that accompany him every day and to reflect on the complexity of the human experience.

In various languages ​​of Melanesia and Polynesia the word "mana" means "supernatural force": the source of inspiration for the show is in fact the Zohar, or Book of Splendour, the main writing of the medieval Jewish cabalistic tradition, which tells of the sublime beauty of the metaphysical characteristics of creation. Starting from this text, Noa Wertheim asks what came first, the darkness or the light, and presents a philosophical and mystical journey between these two opposite spaces, where the movement itself tries to decode this and other physical dichotomies, such as line and circle, male and female, internal and external, freedom and imprisonment. In this sense Mana is like a sort of "container" that spreads light and contributes to healing, characterized by a spiral movement that becomes an expression of self-acceptance.

Founded in Jerusalem in 1992 by Noa Wertheim and Adi Sha'al - dancer of the Batsheva company and Noa's life partner - Vertigo Dance is an important signature company that combines vibrant and energetic dance with challenging themes with social implications, to accompany the public in the discovery of man and his internal and external manifestations.

Vertigo Dance Company; choreography Noa Wertheim in collaboration with Rina Wertheim; dancers: Sian Olles, Noa Israely, Ruth Ben David, Ilan Golubovich, Eden Ben-Shimol, Micah Amos, Alma Karvat Shemesh, Tommaso Zuchegna, Weissman Eshed, Zsuzsanna Ptretzermusic Ran Bagno.

Photo credits: Ziv Barak