In recent years, Yasmeen Godder Company has been developing various performance formats, programs, and approaches aimed at creating more direct and meaningful connections with both local communities and international audiences during tours and residencies.
Since 2019, this interest has taken shape through a long-term research project titled Practicing Empathy, which has so far resulted in three distinct performance encounters. Each of these works raises questions about how we can connect more deeply with ourselves and others, and how we can expand our capacity to process complexity and navigate what challenges us emotionally.
The project focuses on the act of practicing empathy within a performative context—outside the routines of daily life—in order to explore new ways of opening up and connecting with those around us.
Practicing Empathy #1 is the first outcome of this exploration. It is conceived as a collective inquiry into support and shared courage, through which performers seek ways to be present for one another and respond to individual and collective expressions of emotion. Using physical formations, chants, and rhythms, the group experiments with how to hold space for one another while navigating the intensity of shared sensation.
In this performance, empathy is not only viewed as a source of comfort or relief, but also as something fragile and powerful—highlighted through the group’s commitment and contagious vulnerability.
The motivation behind this project stems from a range of personal and political reasons. One is Godder’s need to respond more directly to the conflicted social and political atmosphere in Israel, as well as to broader global polarization and a growing sense of disconnection. The work is a response to the loss of our ability to empathize—especially with those whose worldviews differ from our own.
Additional inspiration came from audience feedback on Godder’s earlier participatory works (Climax, Common Emotions, Simple Action), where the word “empathy” often emerged as a central theme in viewers’ reflections. Another key source of the project lies in Moving Communities, an initiative launched in 2016 at the Yasmeen Godder Studio, which offers dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s disease and inclusive workshops where Arab and Jewish women dance together—creating shared spaces of dialogue, coexistence, and movement beyond difference.
Creative Team and Collaborators:
- Choreography and Creation: Yasmeen Godder
- Dramaturgy: Itzik Giuli, Monica Gillette
- Performers: Ortal Atsbaha, Or Ashkenazi, Carmel Ben-Asher, Ari Teperberg, Tamar Kisch, Nir Vidan
- Sound Design: Tomer Damsky, Lior Pinsky
- Set and Lighting Design: Omer Sheizaf
- Costume Design: Hilla Shapira
- Photography: Tamar Lamm
- Production Manager: Omer Alsheich
- Administrative Manager: Noa Mamrud
- Co-production: Tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf
- Supported by: Rabinovich Foundation and Israel Lottery Council for the Culture and Arts
