The planned premiere of new works by choreographers Bosmat Nossan and Roni Chadash for the Batsheva Ensemble has been abruptly suspended by the ongoing war, directly impacting their artistic labor and careers.
The project, a milestone moment for both choreographers, saw a premiere date fixed more than a year in advance dissolve overnight into uncertainty.
Nossan described the stress of the dissolved deadline, stating, “I was very stressed by the deadline, the date for the show that was set far in advance. All of a sudden, there is no date. ‘The performance will happen [when the war ends],’ is all we know.”
Her piece, “Dome,” explores the physical implications of living under constant threat, beginning from an “everyday sensation of vulnerability, of knowing that everything can end at any second.”
Nossan articulated the systemic instability, noting, “I think everyone is experiencing this overlap between the public and the private. There is instability in every sphere. I am witnessing the unraveling of the home that is Israel, and in parallel, the unraveling of my own home.”
For over a week, all future plans seemed to disappear, until restrictions shifted, allowing the dance company to return to the studio, though performances remained indefinitely postponed.
The Material Cost of Conflict
Chadash initially struggled to return to her work, but found that “being back in the studio brings me back to the body. It reminds me who I am, my identity, and of a kind of beauty, not external but internal. It connects.”
While discussing her work, Chadash received news that shrapnel had damaged her car, a direct material cost of the ongoing conflict, which she stated she would “deal with that later.”
Chadash’s new work, “Separations,” utilizes all 19 dancers of the ensemble and explores themes of “separations within the body and within society.”
This inquiry took on a new dimension since October 7, as Chadash observed, “I understood that I am perceived in a certain way. Even if I didn’t define myself as Israeli or Jewish, that is how I am seen from the outside. I realized that I can’t separate Israeliness from my body or from my work,” highlighting the state’s role in shaping identity and imposing collective consequences.
Labor Under Uncertainty
Now back in the studio, Nossan and Chadash continue their labor in an interim space, able to create but without a set deadline, working within profound uncertainty.
Chadash finds the studio balances “the noise outside,” allowing her to find simplicity and feel grounded, temporarily cutting her off from the systemic chaos.
Nossan views dance as the filter through which she experiences life, stating, “The body continues. There is always movement. And within that movement, I feel there is potential for something to shift. Not necessarily hope, just something that exists within survival, and sometimes within resistance.”
She concluded that “everything is focused on the present moment. There is no future; we are working for the moment itself,” underscoring the immediate, survival-driven nature of labor when systemic stability collapses.
The article frames movement not as an act of celebration or a response to certainty, but as a practice of survival and a way to continue in the absence of a stable future, a testament to the resilience of labor in the face of state-imposed disruption.