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Question: Lately you have been working with women exclusively. You have chosen three women for Joy as well. Yossi Yungman: When a man and a woman are on stage that instantly creates a statement about a pair and inter-gender relations. In Joy there is no man versus woman, there is no woman waiting for man and no woman looking for one neither. In this piece I was not intrigued to deal with femininity in terms of coupling (origin, source, fertility etc.). Femininity intrigues me as abstract and more of a universal quality. I would call it feminine energy. Rabid Kahlani, performing as a dancer and possessing that genuine masculinity, brings feminine energy in a sense he is a man without male narcissism. His singing reminds me of a black diva I wanted to sing soul. Question: You were born in Argentina, you studied Japanese dancing, you live in Israel and you dialogue with a Persian poet You have smelt many an incense and tasted many a flavour. Would you say that a certain multiethnic, multicultural, multinational characteristic exists in your pieces? Let us rephrase that how Israeli is your creation? Yossi Yungman: The work is Israeli simply because it is created and placed here. The dancers are Israeli, the music was written here. As any man, I was compiled out of several Rabids and one of them is ethnically, or by origin, a Rabid. I draw inspiration from ever/ place or stop I have passed through in my life, but in my work there is no immediate relation to them. My dance is not Japanese, or Argentinean, or Israeli, or at least it is not clearly expressed. Assimilation and internationalisation from all the influence sources - it is an evolutionary process every artist goes through. In Angsa there is a song Wait for me and I will return, originally interpreted by Shimshon Bar-Noah, When Shira Gaffen first sang that song to me, I said: 'Wow". It left a significant imprint on me, even if I didn't possess the memory of it or the nostalgia for it, as a person born here does. The song rouses that strong feeling of nostalgia, with the aid of a new contrast we have set for stage. And when we travelled to Belfast to play it, it was experienced in a similar manner. In my work there is no attitude towards the migration of the Yemen people, towards Queen Esther, king David, Jonathan etc. but if David and Jonathan love, then my piece is built of love. Three women and a man create a dance full of optimism. A simple, strong, modest and exciting dance. YOSSI YUNGMAN Yossi Yungman was born in Argentina in 1966, He immigrated to Israel in 1986. He was a member of the Batsheva Dance Company (1990 1999). Noted for his intense stage presence and strong creative drive, Yungman was a constant artistic force in the Batsheva Dance Company, Specific roles, which he created himself and those, created especially for him by Ohad Naharin (in Anaphase and Mabul among others), were seen around the world at the leading theatres and festivals. Alongside his work with Batsheva, for the past ten years, Yungman has been working independently, creating and performing his own choreographies. In 1996 he studied with Kazuo Ohno and Yoshito Ohno in Japan. Yossi Yungman's solo pieces And the Body is and Quant, were presented in the International Dance Week Festival in Croatia, Szkene Theatre Budapest, International Summer Festival Hamburg, Mousonturm Frankfurt, International Solo-Dance-Theatre Festival, Stuttgart, Constante Cambiamento, Florence. In December 1998 and August 2000. Yossi Yungman presented his work and gave a succession of workshops in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, in

February 2000 in Florence, Italy, April 2000 in Warsaw, Holland, May 2000 and September 2001 in Ankara, Turkey, August 2000 in Iceland, August 2001 in Salzburg, Austria. His creation Dualogue, is a collaboration with the multi-talented Boris Sichon - a percussionist, singer and stage musician. The piece was presented in the 1998 International Summer Festival in Hamburg, the International Festival in a Suitcase, Sofia (June 1999), Assian Next Wave-World Dance 2000, Japan (August 2000), International Dance Festival Seoul, SlDance 2000, Korea (October 2000), Festival Delle Roche, Italy (July 2001). In June 1999, at the Israel Festival, Yossi has premiered a new solo work, Huaquito. The piece was presented in the International Competition for Choreographers, Groningen (January 2000), at the Warsaw Night of Dance and Movement (April 2000), and at the Turkey Dance Platform, Ankara (May 2000). In Shendo, premiered in November 1999, Yossi's involved three other talented dancers. Shendo and Huaquito were presented at the International Dance Week Festival in Croatia (June 2000). Yossi presented his solo work in Manhattan, New York, at the John Jay Theater in February 2002. Engage' was premiered in November 2001. Dance Theatre and Poetry, performed by Yossi Yungman, dancer Emanuel Gat, and actress Shira Geffen, who has also contributed the text for this work. Engage' was presented at the Belfast Festival, North Ireland (November 2002), and at the NJPAC; New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark (November 2003). In November 2002 was the premiere of Where is Tiki?, Yossi's creation, in collaboration with actress Esty Zakhem. The piece was presented in Manhattan, New York, in February 2003. Joy, Yossi's most recent creation, was premiered at the Israel Festival, June 2003. A dance piece for three female dancers and an extraordinary male soul singer, with original music. In 2004 has been established the Yossi Yungman Dance Co, which includes five dancers. In 2002 and 1999 he received the Minister of Science Culture and Sport Choreography Award.