Dreams are central to all cultures — the inner connections, hopes and fantasies we all share. Israel’s Tnuatron Dance Theater explores these common dreams in a performance Saturday at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
The 70-minute piece “Beyond the Rainbow,” performed without intermission, digs into some of these issues that transcend geographical boundaries.
“I think dreams are something very universal,” says Dorit Shimron, artistic director and choreographer, speaking from Israel. “We are living a different life here in Israel, but all people have the same dreams. It doesn’t matter where we live.”
Tnuatron is a play on the Hebrew words for joy, movement and theater. The troupe, established in 1970, combines all three elements into its performances.
The young women dancers of this company, aged 12 to 22, are trained in modern dance, classical ballet, jazz dance, acrobatics, martial arts and improvisation. The result promises to be dynamic modern motion, infused with hip-hop movements, a light show and musical instrumentation.
At one point in the piece, dancers behind a scrim move on in-line skates hidden under their costumes to become elusive, shadowy figures in a dreamworld.
You see two levels of movement: the dancers in front and the dreams behind them.
The goal, Shimron says, is to build a dream on stage, with movement, music, painting and props.
Childhood fantasies, impossible dreams, connections that didn’t work out — these are the things our dreams are made of. With fluid movement and rhythm, the dancers explore the innocence of a child’s world, memories of the past and hopes for a better future.
By sharing dreams, Tnuatron shares its culture. The performance is part of the Mid East/West Cultural Exchange, which seeks to explore cultural understanding through the arts.
The performance may open people’s emotions as well as their eyes.
“I’m sure people will cry,” Shimron says. “There are very intimate dreams that each one of us has from childhood, about what we can achieve and what we cannot, and dreams lost along the way.”
———-
Centre East presents Tnuatron Dance Theater, 8 p.m. Saturday, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie, $28; 847-673-6300.
