Work Tools
The "Work Tools" project has been running at "Kelim" since 2017, led and initiated by choreographers Kim Teitelbaum and Moran Yitzhaki Abergil. "Work Tools" is a social-artistic project based on collaborative choreographic work between dance creators and people living with intellectual developmental delays, creating together a dance work in which participants have equal roles, both in the creation and in performing the work on stage before a broad audience. The project aims to create a learning and creative space where people with intellectual disabilities act as performers with a performative knowledge arising from real-stage experience. All of this is intended to expand and enrich the boundaries of social and artistic discourse alike and to allow a mutually beneficial impact.
At "Kelim," we believe that choreography enables every person to express themselves and make their body present in the public space, to voice and showcase, through their unique body, their presence and role in society. Choreography allows each person to learn about themselves and their position in relation to the public space and others, thereby providing a channel for creativity and expression that does not exist in other areas of life.
The "Mutual Gaze" project operates under the umbrella of "Taking Action," which centralizes projects involving people with diverse abilities at "Kelim." "Taking Action" expands and enriches the boundaries of both social and artistic discourse, allowing a mutually beneficial influence: dance creators act as leaders in the social environment in which they operate using artistic and creative tools, while people living with disabilities impact the artistic field, actively participating with their bodies and presence in creating new aesthetic languages, offering a fresh and diverse perspective on concepts such as center and margin, visible and invisible.
The "Work Tools" project is supported by the "Kelim" Center, the Ministry of Culture, the Pais Council, and the Bat Yam Municipality. Since 2017, the project has operated in collaboration with the Shakel Association through a social club for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities in Bat Yam.
The project is now opening for the first time to be led by external choreographers, after years in which Kim and Moran led it themselves. In 2023, choreographer (and co-founder of "Kelim") Anat Danieli premiered a work within the project called "Family," created in collaboration with Kim Teitelbaum and Moran Yitzhaki Abergil and featuring Uri Shafir.
Over the years, Kim Teitelbaum and Moran Yitzhaki Abergil have created five works within the project, the latest being "Principle of Action" (2022), created for a group of twelve performers. In "Principle of Action," Kim and Moran aim to create a heterogeneous space that allows viewing both differences and similarities while also examining the inevitable tension between the group considered as "knowing" and the group perceived as "not knowing" or powerless, questioning how this tension can be transformed.
Choreography, costume, and set design: Moran Yitzhaki Abergil & Kim Teitelbaum | Performers: Aviva Yakuti, Sarit Hamari, Shahar Shuster, Meital Bakir, Esther Eilin, Laor Levi, Sarah Levi, Eli Shagi, Yosef Tarb, Assaf Aharonson, Moran Yitzhaki Abergil, Kim Teitelbaum. "Principle of Action" premiered at the 2022 "Kelim" Festival with artistic guidance by Ayala Frankel and Natali Zuckerman.
About the Choreographers:
Kim and Moran have collaborated since 2015, creating several stage works together: "Ashtoret" (2015 & 2019), "Etude for Body and Control" (2016), "Z-A-Kik" (2017), and they also initiated the "Klaser" Festival (2015) in collaboration with creator Laura Kirshenbaum. In 2017, they established the "Work Tools" project in collaboration with the "Kelim" Center.
Kim Teitelbaum: Dance creator, born 1984. Graduate of the Advanced Studies Program in Music at "Musrara," the "Choreography Program" at "Kelim" under Sharon Zuckerman, and the "School of Visual Theatre." Studied dance at "Bat-Dor" in Be’er Sheva and the "Ge’aton Workshop." Kim focuses on a multi-modal lens as a space for dialogue about the body. In 2022, he created "Pretending to Give In" with Ora Katsenstein, in 2019 "Main Heroine," and the film "Arab Women" (2021). He composed music for "MASS" by choreographer Iris Erez (2019) and directed the clip "Ei" for musician Michal Oppenheim in collaboration with Yaniv Shinfeld. He is also a costume and set designer, a member of the Choreographers’ Association, a teacher, and artistic mentor. www.kimteit.com
Moran Yitzhaki Abergil: Dance creator, born 1980. Dancer, Ilan Lev method therapist, Pilates instructor, and mother of two. Active as a dancer since 2000. Worked with many creators. Graduate of the "Choreography Program" at "Kelim" under Anat Danieli (2009–2010). As a creator, Moran will premiere in March 2023 the second and third parts of the trilogy "On Life and Death," following the first part, performed in public space at the 2022 "Nifgashot" Festival. In this trilogy, Moran focuses on physical research influenced by the "Ilan Lev" method, exploring the limits of the moving body in space in relation to internal movement invisible to the eye. Additionally, within the "Dancer in the Community" project of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Moran established a twin project at the "Marge" Center in Kfar Vradim, relying on knowledge gained from the "Work Tools" project. She collaborates with creators Maya Briner and Nevo Ben-Knaan and participates in a dance project for people coping with Parkinson’s disease in Rosh Pina. In her work, Moran emphasizes mutual enrichment. She is a member of the Choreographers’ Association.