Biographies of the Creative Team:

Arkadi Zaides – Choreography and Direction
Choreographer, teacher, dancer. (Born in Belorussia 1979, immigrated to Israel in 1990), Prizewinner for young and up-coming choreographer of the year 2008 from the Israeli ministry of science, culture and sport.

Before his independent career Arkadi danced in Noa Dar's dance group (1999), the Batsheva ensemble and the Batsheva dance company (1999-2004), Yasmeen Godder dance group (2004-6) and also in works by Mats ek, Sharon Eyal, Poul Norton, Ronit Ziv, Rami Levi, Niv Sheinfeld and Matanicola among others.

Since 2004 Arkadi has been working as an independent choreographer, dancer, and teacher. His works are constantly presented both in Israel and around the world (Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, china, Japan and more). he created a piece for the Batsheva Ensemble in 2004, resident in Japan collaborating with Japanese artist on a creation of a multi disciplinary performance in 2007, won numerous prizes for his choreography, has been selected as one of the three finalists in dance for the third cycle of the Rolex mentor and protégé arts initiative (2006-7).

In his works Arkadi often explores the connection between space, music, image and movement. He is collaborating with video artists, plastic artists and musicians on regular bases, searching for new and original way of communication between the audience and the performers. He is interested in new music and its connection with movement, worked as a D.J, created soundtracks for his own works, organizing and participating in improvisation events and took part in the production of a research project, meeting independent music makers from all around Israel with London artist led production company burnt progress.

Arkadi is a teacher of “Gaga” - Ohad Naharin’s movement language and often teaches master classes and workshops in Israel and abroad.

Joanna Lesnierowska - Artistic Collaborator
Dance Curator, Writer, Dramaturge. (Born in Poznan, Poland in 1976)
Used to write as a first regular professional dance writer for Didaskalia magazine, one of Poland’s leading theater journals. She has also written on Polish dance in Theater der Zeit (Berlin), Dance Today (Israel), and Dance Zone (Prague). Since 2004 Lesnierowska has been the dance curator/project coordinator at Stary Browar Art Centre (www.starybrowarnowyutaniec.pl ), Poznan, where she’s initiated a new dance series (Old Brewery New Dance) featuring avant-garde international choreographers and intensively supporting development of Polish dance artists. Thus the series developed soon into program of establishing a first in Poland choreographic center not only presenting dance but also becoming a creation space with educational and residency programs for young professionals. In July 2005 Lesnierowska started also a special dance program in a frame of Malta international theatre festival in Poznan.

She conceived and dramatized Whatever You Wish (2003) Foreignlanguagesness (2005) and Nothing (2007), performed by group Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne that in 2004 turned also into association promoting contemporary dance in Poland and supporting development of Polish art of choreography becoming also a Polish partner of European DanceWeb organization; www.towarzystwogimnastyczne.com . The association is also running a regular educational program under the label Towarzytswo Gimnastyczne Invites.
In 2003 Lesnierowska served as critic-in-residence at Impulstanz, an international dance festival in Vienna. Beside writing many texts on dance and lecturing on international and Polish dance (recently at Jagiellonian University, Cracow, where she’s doing her Phd research, but also abroad), she’s also an author of the chapter Dance Theatre in “Dictionary of Theatre Terms”. (Bielsko-Biała, 2006).

Rabia Huri –Performer
Actor (born in 1975).
An actor works in theatre, cinema and television. Graduated from the Haifa University. Rabia took part in different training workshops both in Israel and abroad: acting workshop with John Martin (England), with Anita Moska (Italy) and performed in many theatres such as: Agar Theatre, Almidan Theatre - Haifa, Gbeinne Theatre, Nazareth Fringe Theatre, Arab-Hebrew Theater in Jaffa and many more.
His theater performances include rolls in "Maraia" by Anton Shalhat directed by Akram Huri, "Haki Kraia and Haki Sraia" by Salam Raas directed by Nabil Azar, "Aluesa" by Mahmud Kadach, as well as in "1000 Nights" and "Gilguly Galgamesh' in Arab-Hebrew Theater.
His television and cinema performances include the series "Ya Ana Ya Haifa", ‘Arab Work’ and a short film by Lena Tural "Negative" among many others.
Rabia is active at ‘Sadaka Reut’ an NGO, which brings together youth from both the Arab and the Jewish Sectors in Jaffa aria.

Ofir Yudolevitch –Performer
Dancer, Capoeira Teacher (Born in 1983).
Born in Haifa 1983. For the last ten years involved in dance, acrobatics and capoeira. Since 2007 Ofir focused on contemporary dance.
Studied for two years in the training workshop for dancers in Haifa, dancer in Sigma Dance Group (artistic director: Michael Miller), danced for Tararam Group and for Moran Zilberberg. Participated in a dance festival "Machol Acher" in 2007 and in "Gvanim Be-Machol" in 2008. Ofir is teaching and performing both in Israel and abroad.

Mohammed Mugraby Performer
(Born in 1978), Actor, Rap Singer.
Muhammad took part in numerous theater and TV productions such as: in "El Nikab" theatre, Usafia under the direction of Uri Shani, in the feature film "Ringo and Taher" by Johnny Arbid, winner of Jerusalem film Festival. the play "The Stones Kids", directed by Elinor Agam, written by Eilat Mansini. Took part in street theatre and forum theatre workshops at Uri Shani's studio.

Since 2008 he is a member of ‘System Ali’- a hip-hop ensemble from Jaffa Performing in Arabic, Hebrew, Russian and English. Under the activity of the band, performing as a lyricist and a lead rapper on varied stages around Israel. He is also a judo and tennis trainer for youth in Jaffa.

Klone – Set Design (http://www.flickr.com/photos/klone/)
Graffiti Artist (Born in Ukraine in 1983, immigrated to Israel in 1994).
From the age of 16 were exposed to graffiti art and began drawing in the streets. Gradually developing his own unique visual language and expanded his interest to other visual art mediums. In the last years focuses on urban environment and its defects: advantages verses disadvantages, wealth verses poverty, clean verses dirty.

Following inexhaustible curiosity and research Klone holds a dialogue with the urban environment, communicated threw various repeated images. Appeared on innumerable locations in Tel Aviv aria, this dialogue focuses on social, environmental, political and urban issues.
His works were exhibited in group exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles (USA),London (UK), Berlin (Germany), Jerusalem, Haifa, Holon and Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Israel).



Tom Tlalim –Music
Sound artist (www.tomtlalim.com)
Tom Tlalim creates tangible environments that may manifest as composition, installation, sound art, performance or text. He is fascinated by codes, data representation and patterns, and by the problem of how to reflect intimacy and the relation body-space-environment, in sound. By the mapping of data to sound he tries to trace patterns of spontaneous human behavior within rational constrains, and the emergence of social conflict.

After completing two Masters in composition and electronic music at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Tlalim went on to present at acclaimed international venues such as Transmediale, V2 DEAF, TodaysArt, the 11th Architecture Biennial in Venice, Gaudeamus Live electronics festival and the 90 years Bauhaus Jubilee in weimar. He was invited to develop a new work in residency at the Virtual Museum, Zuidas in Amsterdam in the fall of 2009.

Tlalim's work was supported by many organisations including STEIM, MediaLab-Prado in Madrid, Music Centre The Netherlands, Digital Art Lab Holon and The Israel Museum, and won him awards and scholarships from STROOM, Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, AICF Sharet grant (2001-2005), Israel's National Lottery Arts Council and NFPK+.

He has shared the stage with various artist and musicians including Keiji Haino, Merzbow, Atau Tanaka, Joseph Bowie (Defunkt), DJ DNA (Urban Dance Squad), Richard Barrett, Nicholas Field, Gilles Aubry, Robert van Heumen, Voldemars Johansons, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, DJ Sniff, Luc Houtkamp and more. His music was releases on X-OR records, Vita records, Nana Disc and Pit/kit. He is the co-editor of UCON radio together with Jan Truetzschler von Fahlkenstein.


Firas Roby – Light Design
Born 1974, Firas, an Acco native, joined the Acco Theater Center in 1995, when he was 21 years old. After assisting the sound technicians at an ATC-organized Arabic music concert in Acco's Old City, Firas was inspired to join the theatrical team. Soon after, ATC initiated its "Arabic Dream" Project, and Firas joined ATC to help re-design the lighting and stage for the show. Together with David Mayan, Firas next worked on the project, "Six Ugly Women Talking About Beauty," (which had nothing to do with either ugliness or beauty), followed by two years of theater study with Mayan, in an ATC course called "The Artist-Creator."

After finishing Mayan's course and touring all over Europe with the "Kohelet" and "Anthology" Projects, Firas began an Arabic musical ensemble, "Liwa," producing his own original lyrics and arrangements ("liwa" refers to the word fishermen in Akko use when they jointly lift the net to see if they have caught any fish). As a result of this work, Firas was commissioned to write music for Ghassan Khanafani's play "Men Under the Sun." Soon after, Firas engaged in lighting design at one of the only Arabic venues in Israel, for Al-Midan Theater's show "Baghdad Barber." He also worked on the set design for "Welcome Bride," "Boyi Kala" (a play developed with a group of Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva students which approached ATC, interested in transforming their stories into theater). In addition to years working on the Arabic Children's Theater Project, "Wolf and Sheep," Dibou u Nauji, in 2002 Firas worked with a group of Acco teenagers to put on a local musical performance.

Recently, Firas has initiated a new Acco community arts program at ATC called the 'Khalk,' Creation Program, with partner Ehab Bahous. He has also performed a combination of Arabic, Latin and Yiddish music in collaboration with an Argentinian musician Lito Silverstein, working on restoring ATC's space (located in a remnant of Acco's ancient Crusader city, Ptolomais), and collecting his grandmother's stories (an Old City native) for a theatrical production which he hopes to tour abroad.


www.arkadizaides.com

Arkadi Zaides – Choreographer, Director
arkadi@arkadizaides.com
+972-545225467

Yoav Levi – Production, Administration, International Touring
yoav@arkadizaides.com
+972- 548034321