Vertigo Dance Company : Power of Balance Program

Vision

Vertigo Dance Company’s Power of Balance Program is aimed at bringing together people with and without disabilities through shared experience and a common goal, overcoming prejudice and barriers and promoting a more inclusive society in Israel. Participants meet as equal partners and co-creators in an artistic context. Art workshops and thought-provoking dance performances enable meaningful encounters between differently abled people.

Activity

The Power of Balance is a program for people with and without disabilities, to meet as equal partners and co-creators in an artistic context. The program uses art workshops and thought-provoking dance performances to enable meaningful experiential encounters between differently abled people. The program is delivered by a diverse team of instructors with and without disabilities and the majority of activities take place in our Eco-Art Village.

The program includes integrated dance workshops in community centers around the country, a Dance Company Repertoire is also performed in Israel and around the world. In addition, we hold Annual programs in the education system, series of meetings that brings students, with and without disabilities, together to dance and get to know each other. At the end of the year, students create a joint original performance. Each year we hold an Annual Dance conference as well as Teacher Training Seminars for local and international dance teachers and art therapists.

Approximately 10,000 Israelis participate in the program, every year. It is carried out in partnership with non-profit organizations that provide direct services to people with disabilities. The program has been awarded the 2012 Ruderman Award and the 2017 Genesis Award.

vertigo.org.il/en/power-balance/

Creating a meeting space for people with mixed physical abilities through movement, contact and improvisation, emphasizes a common ability and fully express oneself

- Hai Cohen (Director, Power of Balance)

Hai Cohen

Dancer, teacher, choreographer, founder and director – together with Tali Wertheim – of “Vertigo – Power of Balance” – an integrated dance center of the non-profit Vertigo Dance Company. Hai is a graduate of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and a documentary filmmaker.
He was injured jumping into a swimming pool at the age of 14, and became paralyzed from the chest down. Hai is married to Ilanit and father to Noah.
Engaged in Contact Improvisation since 2000 and specializes in integrated Contact Improvisation in various workshops and projects that bring dancers together with different physical abilities, in Israel and abroad (USA, Northern Ireland, Latvia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Germany, France, Turkey and more).
Performed with the dance troupe Vertigo, Israel; DIN A 13 Dance Company, Germany; Echo, Northern Ireland; and in independent works together with Mia Reshef, Alex Shmorek and Tali Wertheim.