Artist Statement
My work is located between the fields of theatre, dance, performance and sound.
The main axis of my entire research, on all its levels, is listening. It is through the real, pure action of deep listening that I wish to calibrate and tune mine, and my performers’ bodies into different performative “mechanisms” that allow a synesthetic alchemy of the senses to take place - sound transforms into movement, touch into sound etc.
The practice I am developing revolves around these mechanisms, which are in fact performative improvisational scores that have clear, almost mathematical rules as to what is your input, what is your output, and in which pattern they function.
Consequently - simply by applying these rules - soundscapes, movement and drama are created, and dense inter-relational structures emerge.
I spend a long time observing and listening to these sessions, and in so doing, I witness the phenomena that they expose - about the body and its limitations, the nature of language, voice and perception.
These mechanisms grow into “scenes” in my pieces, and the dramaturgy involves the creation and establishment of each set of rules, as well as the transition between one mechanism to the other. The conventions, or the instructions within each mechanism, always carry a poetic echo - they bear a dramatic essence in their very definition.
The other side of this work has to do with the presence of the performer within these mechanisms. With this practice I wish to bring the performer to a hypersensitive, fully receptive and reactive state. Through a listening that involves the entire body and an alertness that hunts for the live impulse, I grasp the performer as a translator, whose artistry is shown by his skill and wisdom to receive input and create output in a clear, transparent setting in which he is exposed and fragile, but at the same time very present and fully free to create and to interpret the instruction.
About me
Ari Teperberg - ארי טפרברג
maker, opera director and performer
Ari was born in Jerusalem 1989. Apart from some vocal studies and violin training of 10 years, he graduated from the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem (2013) and is the recipient of the Jerusalem Foundation Prize, 2011.
In 2022 he won the Rosenblum Prize from the Tel Aviv municipality.
As a maker, Ari created the pieces "And my Heart Almost Stood Still" as a coproduction with the Westfluegel Theatre in Leipzig; "I Want to Dance, Kate!" which premiered at the Akko Festival 2014, and won the prizes for best stage language and best costumes; "What Happened to my Voice?" and “Caprices”;
In 2019 Ari created the video work ״You Need to be Ready to Let Go of What the Eye Sees״ for the acclaimed ethnography exhibition “Veiled Woman of the Holy Land” at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Ari was also an artistic advisor for the entire exhibition.
Together with Inbal Yomtovian, he founded the “Golden Delicious” ensemble, creating and touring with Object-Theatre shows in numerous festivals around the world - Germany, France, Thailand, Brazil, Switzerland, Austria, Serbia and more.
In Opera and music, Ari directed the pieces: Shalem at the Jerusalem Mekudeshet Festival - a concert for an orchestra of 110 musicians playing broken instruments (2019); Peter and the Wolf with the Tel Aviv Wind Quintet; Cosi Fan Tutte (Jerusalem Opera, 2018); Hansel und Gretel (Jerusalem Opera with The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, 2018); Giulio Cesare in Egitto (2016); In Search of the Orchestra? (IVAI opera workshop, 2016) - an original opera show for children; Dan the Guard (Israel National Library with The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, 2015) This was the first full production of what is said to be the first Hebrew opera, written by Marc Lavry in 1943; Le Nozze di Figaro (Jerusalem Opera, 2014); the Pearl Fishers (Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance Conservatory Orchestra, 2013).
In 2019 Ari won the Audience Prize at the 'Nano Opera' competition for young opera directors at the Helikon Opera, Moscow.
Ari Works as guest director at the opera workshop of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and teaches movement for singers at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music.
As a performer he worked with Yonatan Levy, Sharon Zuckerman-Weiser, Ana Wild and is presently dancing at the Yasmeen Godder Dance Company, in the pieces Practicing Empathy #1 and #2by2, COMMON EMOTIONS, Simple Action and Practicing Empathy.
As of 2019, he leads a performance course for teenagers in Art-Team - a national arts program for teenagers in Israel.
In addition, Ari gave workshops of his technique at Bezalel Academy for the arts; Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art; Haifa University; the School of Visual Theatre; Störung/Hafraa project by Yasmeen Godder company; Potsdammer Tanztage; Westfluegel Leipzig; B-Motion Festival in Bassano del Grappa, and more.
In 2021 Ari started his job as Artistic Director for the project 'Tzomet Lev' - a weekly outdoor arts event in Jerusalem, as part of the Mekudeshet organisation.
He works as Dramaturge, Soundtrack designer and Hebrew teacher.