{"id":670,"date":"2023-08-07T15:01:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T19:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/?p=670"},"modified":"2024-05-16T10:25:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T14:25:25","slug":"my-very-first-audition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/my-very-first-audition\/","title":{"rendered":"My Very First Audition"},"content":{"rendered":"
The year: 1968 \nThe place: Batsheva Dance Company studios in Tel Aviv \nAudition for: The formation of Bat-Dor Dance Company<\/p>\n
I came across a tiny listing in Ha\u2019aretz Newspaper reading: \nAudition for Batsheva Dance Company \nCall (03) xxx-xxxx. I called! I obtained the information \u2013 I was told I would participate in a Graham class (what\u2019s that?) and also show a solo piece\u2026 I set up to prepare\u2026<\/p>\n
Having never had any dance training (other than some warming up routines before Folk Dance rehearsals), I had to kind\u2019a invent everything from scratch. So, I selected a short section from Prokofiev\u2019s Peter and the Wolf and recorded myself playing a piano version of it on a reel-to-reel machine (Remember those?). With the reel tape, a pair of Rhythmic Dance shoes (they were far from resembling actual ballet shoes), and comfortable pants and T-shirt (I knew nothing about tights and leotards) I set off on my journey to the big city (Tel Aviv).<\/p>\n
The studio was large and intimidating. The panel was seated in front, including Bat-Dor\u2019s founder Mrs. Batsheva de Rothschild and artistic director Jeanette Ordman \u2013 she surely looked like a dancer to me, with her slim athletic body, hair pulled tight and somewhat exaggerated makeup! The class was taught by Ehud Ben David, a prominent dancer of Batsheva Dance Company, and indeed I learned that this was a class in the Marta Graham technique. We sat on the floor and had to execute all these moves and bounces which, for my body, were excruciating! I felt \u2013 and surly looked \u2013 like a total amateur! But I must have impressed them with something! They invited me for the second round \u2013 to show my solo.<\/p>\n
So, with my funny shoes, and loosely hanging T-Shirt I set up to dance Peter and the Wolf. I later learned that some of my invented moves were actually the reverse of what they would be in traditional ballet, but hey, I was close!<\/p>\n
Following the audition, we were told to expect a call within the next few days\u2026 When no phone call came, I gathered my nerves and called. On the other end of the line was the voice of the company\u2019s secretary, who plainly and simply uttered the devastating phrase: \u201cSorry, you were not accepted\u201d, Silence\u2026 Silence\u2026 and she hung up, while I was still holding the phone to my ears and seeing in my mind\u2019s eye how my very future in dance has collapsed before it even started. Well, not quite!<\/p>\n
On to my second audition. \u2018The Dance Music Hall of Israel\u2019, created and directed by Yonatan Karmon, was auditioning for a tour to the U.S. and South Africa. And the genre of dance was much more familiar to me: Israeli Folk Dance. I made it! And off we went on a wonderful tour. Among the dancer\u2019s of the troupe was a wonderful and cheerful young woman, named Ruth Gelman. Ruth and I struck a wonderful friendship and lent each other mental support during moments of hardship and fatigue. We always sat together on the long bus rides. One day she turned to me and said: \u201cWhy are you dancing folk dance? The way you move and dance is more like a ballet dancer\u2026\u201d I was in heaven \u2013 someone has recognized my talent! Ruth went on to say: \u201cWhen we return to Israel, you should enroll at the Bat Dor school of Dance\u201d and quickly added \u201cYou can stay with me and my mom, all expensed taken care of\u2026\u201d I was in heaven again\u2026\u201d and so, upon returning to Israel I moved in with Ruth and Mom, and on the following day went to register for the school. My first class was with, believe it or not, a teacher named Igal (Igal Berdichevsky). I had such mixed emotions, all the way from \u201cWhat on earth am I doing here\u201d, to \u201cI LOVE this stuff\u201d. I remember a moment when he asked me to do a Tour en l\u2019air (It\u2019s a jump with the legs drawn together, a revolution in the air and, hopefully a soft landing). I did it! Next, he asked me to do a double tour. \u201cWhat\u2019s a double tour?\u201d I humbly uttered, and he smiled and said: \u201cIt\u2019s the same jump, but this time turn around twice in the air\u201d. I did it! (Was I just without fear or was it the lack of knowledge which helped me not be too critical of myself \u2013 I will never know). Mr. Berdichevsky was moved and called the director in to have a look. Who stepped through the door? Ms. Jeanette Ordman, the very same Director who watched me at the audition and decided I was not suitable for the company. I was secretly trembling inside. But as she stepped into the room and glanced in my direction she exclaimed: \u201cYoooouuuu are the boy from the audition! Where were you? We were looking for you\u201d. I explained that I was informed by the secretary of my failure, and consequently took off on a Folk-Dance tour with Karmon. \t<\/p>\n
\t\t<\/p>\n
\tShe barely let me finish my sentence and exclaimed again: \u201cNo, No No! You must come here and study with us!\u201d \u2013 I received a full scholarship! And my professional career as a dancer was to start a month later when I was invited to join the company!<\/p>\n\n<\/figure>\n
If it weren\u2019t for Ruth, I would most probably have gone on to pursue a medical career, but life moves in mysterious ways\u2026<\/p>\n
The year: 1968 The place: Batsheva Dance Company studios in Tel Aviv Audition for: The formation of Bat-Dor Dance Company I came across a tiny listing in Ha\u2019aretz Newspaper reading: Audition for Batsheva Dance Company Call (03) xxx-xxxx. I called! I obtained the information \u2013 I was told I would participate in a Graham class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_last":["267"],"_wpac_members_redirect_to":[""],"_wpac_show_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_show_excerpt_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_nonmembers_redirect_to":[""],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"ase_mapbox_style":["openstreet"],"_edit_lock":["1715869487:267"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
My Very First Audition - Igal Perry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/my-very-first-audition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Very First Audition - Igal Perry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The year: 1968 The place: Batsheva Dance Company studios in Tel Aviv Audition for: The formation of Bat-Dor Dance Company I came across a tiny listing in Ha\u2019aretz Newspaper reading: Audition for Batsheva Dance Company Call (03) xxx-xxxx. I called! 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Born in Israel, Igal Perry began his professional dancing career with Karmon, a folk dance company. He later joined Bat Dor Dance Company, where he worked with leading teachers and choreographers including Inesse Alexandrov, Richard Gibson, Alvin Ailey, Benjamin Harkarvy, John Butler, Rudi Van Dantzig, Paul Sanasardo, and Lar Lubovitch. Upon arriving in the United States, Perry joined Dennis Wayne\u2019s Dancers as ballet master and choreographer. During that period, he staged John Butler\u2019s work for the NYC Opera, the Opera of Munich, Caracas Ballet, and Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he also directed the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki\u2019s opera Paradise Lost. From 1981-1982, Perry headed the ballet department at Jacob\u2019s Pillow. In 1983, he established his dance school, Peridance Center, now one of New York City\u2019s leading dance institutions. A year later he founded Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, for which he has choreographed over 70 works, with performances at BAM, The Joyce Theater, City Center, and Peridance\u2019s own KnJ Theater. As part of his affiliations with schools and dance companies nationally, Perry has served as guest faculty \\\/ choreo grapher at Juilliard, Jacob's Pillow, The Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College and Juilliard, where he staged his Intimate Voices and Mourning Song. His international engagements include Batsheva and Bat Dor dance companies (Israel), Scapino Ballet and Het National Ballet (Holland), Laterna Magica and the National Ballet (Prague), Architanz (Tokyo), The Royal Ballet of Sweden and BalletMakademien (Sweden), the National Ballet of China, and Kwang-Ju City Ballet Company (Korea). Mr. Perry's elegant choreography, often in collaboration with contemporary composers, has been described as \\\"blessedly inventive\\\" (Jennifer Dunning, NYTimes). 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A year later he founded Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, for which he has choreographed over 70 works, with performances at BAM, The Joyce Theater, City Center, and Peridance\u2019s own KnJ Theater. As part of his affiliations with schools and dance companies nationally, Perry has served as guest faculty \/ choreo grapher at Juilliard, Jacob's Pillow, The Ailey School, Marymount Manhattan College and Juilliard, where he staged his Intimate Voices and Mourning Song. His international engagements include Batsheva and Bat Dor dance companies (Israel), Scapino Ballet and Het National Ballet (Holland), Laterna Magica and the National Ballet (Prague), Architanz (Tokyo), The Royal Ballet of Sweden and BalletMakademien (Sweden), the National Ballet of China, and Kwang-Ju City Ballet Company (Korea). Mr. Perry's elegant choreography, often in collaboration with contemporary composers, has been described as \"blessedly inventive\" (Jennifer Dunning, NYTimes). His works have been set on prestigious companies and performed at renowned festivals including Florence Dance Festival and Invito Alla Danza (Italy), Tel Aviv Dance and Karmiel Dance Festival (Israel), Ailey II, Milwaukee Ballet, San Jose Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet (USA), Companhia de Danca de Lisboa (Portugal), Alberta Ballet (Canada) and more. In 2007, Perry was inducted into the Dance Library of Israel Hall of Fame.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.peridance.com\/facprofile.cfm?FID=1&name=Igal_Perry","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/igal.perry\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/igal-perry-65371830\/","https:\/\/x.com\/perryigal"],"url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/author\/perryigal\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"WithRuthGelman_Shopping-scaled\"](\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/246\/2021\/11\/WithRuthGelman_Shopping-scaled.jpg\")
Among the dancer\u2019s of the troupe was a wonderful and cheerful young woman, named Ruth Gelman. Ruth and I struck a wonderful friendship and lent each other mental support during moments of hardship and fatigue. We always sat together on the long bus rides. One day she turned to me and said: \u201cWhy are you dancing folk dance? The way you move and dance is more like a ballet dancer\u2026\u201d I was in heaven \u2013 someone has recognized my talent! Ruth went on to say: \u201cWhen we return to Israel, you should enroll at the Bat Dor school of Dance\u201d and quickly added \u201cYou can stay with me and my mom, all expensed taken care of\u2026\u201d I was in heaven again\u2026\u201d and so, upon returning to Israel I moved in with Ruth and Mom, and on the following day went to register for the school. My first class was with, believe it or not, a teacher named Igal (Igal Berdichevsky). I had such mixed emotions, all the way from \u201cWhat on earth am I doing here\u201d, to \u201cI LOVE this stuff\u201d. I remember a moment when he asked me to do a Tour en l\u2019air (It\u2019s a jump with the legs drawn together, a revolution in the air and, hopefully a soft landing). I did it! Next, he asked me to do a double tour. \u201cWhat\u2019s a double tour?\u201d I humbly uttered, and he smiled and said: \u201cIt\u2019s the same jump, but this time turn around twice in the air\u201d. I did it! (Was I just without fear or was it the lack of knowledge which helped me not be too critical of myself \u2013 I will never know). Mr. Berdichevsky was moved and called the director in to have a look. Who stepped through the door? Ms. Jeanette Ordman, the very same Director who watched me at the audition and decided I was not suitable for the company. I was secretly trembling inside. But as she stepped into the room and glanced in my direction she exclaimed: \u201cYoooouuuu are the boy from the audition! Where were you? We were looking for you\u201d. I explained that I was informed by the secretary of my failure, and consequently took off on a Folk-Dance tour with Karmon. \t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/perryigal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/246\/2021\/11\/WithRuthGelman_OnTheBus-300x206.jpg\")
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