Photo by Nicolai Sauer

A body without a place sings, and through language, shapes reality. Can it address its trauma, inherited, or does it blow that trauma through other bodies instead?

In this solo of nigunim, embodied, trancelike Jewish songs of worship that usually incorporate bible verses or other classical texts, these lyrics will tap into the words of Jewish activists past – such as Rabbi Joshua Abram Heschel, who recalled feeling like his “legs were praying” as he walked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 – and present. A nigun is a song, but is related to nagan, a weapon.

The solo explores a joyful approach to spirit that is rooted in tikkun olam – repairing the world – in which body and voice carry a vision of queer, inclusive, activist Judaism into the future.

Trailer at Tanzforum Berlin here.

Review by Parvathi Ramanathan at Tanzschreiber here.

March 23-25, 2023 // Tanzfabrik Berlin, Uferstudios Berlin

Choreography, Performance, & Audio

David Bloom

Sound post-production & remixes

      Mei Bao

Audio support

     Jassem Hindi, Juan Rojas

Nigunishe support

     Jalda Rebling

Special thanks to Dekel Peretz, Louise Trueheart, Lukas Matthaei, Alex Lauck, Nikola Pieper, HZT Berlin, Felicitas, Nara, Vincenz, and the great team at Tanzfabrik

Audio based on conversations with Sara Gothelf-Bloom, Dr. Steven Bloom, Bonnie Buckner, Rabbi Diane Elliot, Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, Stuart B. Meyers, Shoshana Vogel of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Rabbi Irwin Keller, Nicole Bindler, Isaac Flegel-Mishlove of IfNotNow

“At Sinai”, music & lyrics by David Bloom
“Olam Chesed Yibaneh”, music & lyrics by Menachem Creditor

The research for the project was supported by an Initial-Stipendium from Akademie der Künste, and by a #takeheart research grant in the frame of Neustart Kultur by Fonds Darstellende Künste.

Photos by Claude Hofer

Photo by Dieter Hartwig