Dance by Noa Eshkol for the memorial ceremony “Decade” (1953). Sunset show for the Ghetto Fighters' House Amphitheatre, by architect Shmuel Bickels

Amphi is an artwork for an open theater, based on a dance by choreographer Noa Eshkol (1924-2007). In 1953, Eshkol was commissioned by the Culture Department of the United Kibbutz Movement to compose a dance for a memorial ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was held in an open space near the aqueduct in Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta’ot [Ghetto Fighters]. The dance was performed by Eshkol’s ensemble of dancers (including Naomi Polani, recipient of the Israel Prize) together with dozens of high school students under Eshkol’s instruction, accompanied by music by Herbert Brün.

Amphi (1953/2020) recreates Eshkol’s rare work, near the site in which it originally took place. The dance was performed only once and documentation of the full performance has not been found. The original music has been lost, and thus, the recreation of the dance can be likened to the reconstruction of an archaeological find like an ancient pot, of which only a few terracotta shards remain. On the basis of 4 minutes of silent film footage, a 40 minute choreography was composed, accompanied by a new musical score by the musician Shushan. The act of recreating Eshkol’s dance movements from 1953 was done by Ruti Sela and Mor Bashan. All the movement information gathered from the film was transcribed by Ruti Sela, using Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN). The work premiered at the amphitheatre of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum, designed by the architect Shmuel Bickels.