Anat Zechariya

Right when the temperatures on Israel's coastal plain begin to rise is the perfect time for heading up to the capital, breathing in the fresh mountain air, and enjoying the plentitude of performances offered by the 58th annual Israel Festival. This year's multidisciplinary menu offers an abundance of attractive options in theater, music, dance, performance and video art from Israel and around the world. In the past few years the Israel Festival, currently celebrating its 58th year, has morphed into a focal point for art and culture under the guidance of CEO Eyal Sher and artistic director Itzik Giuli. This year as well, the festival is offering a multidisciplinary artistic line designed to enrich the cultural landscape with diversified and piercing productions in the fields of theater, music, dance, performance and video art offered by artists from Israel and around the world. In addition to appearances in conventional performance spaces, an effort has been made to host events in lesser known, under-the-radar locations including the Nature Museum, the Islamic Art Museum and the Tower of David Museum. Audiences can take an active part in some of the events. May 30- June 15, Jerusalem Theater and other locations in the city.  israel-festival.org

The Yang Liping Dance Company, one of China's most important dance troupes, arrives in Israel with the work "The Rite of Spring", and presents an operatic-scale performance that strikes all the senses. A special interview  How many dance groups do you know, around the world, that are being traded in the stock market, as a commercial business? Such is the Yang Liping Dance Company Theater, which employs more than 400 people and rolls in $10 million a year with a profit of $2 million. Its main shareholder and chairman of the board is Yang Liping, a highly ambitious woman who serves as the group's choreographer and artistic director, and is now considered one of China's most important dance creators. Sixty-one-year-old Liping, who was born in a rather remote town north of Yunnan, close to the Erhai Lake, never studied dance but participated in mostly amateur folk dance classes, and then danced in folklore dance groups in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. Her move from the provincial city to the big city of Beijing formed her multidisciplinary language that crosses time, history and boundaries while intertwining folklore, traditional and modern dance. Liping's works are on an operatic scale - striking all the senses - with all the professionals involved in the productions including stage design artists, lighting, musicians and producers of all kinds. The work is made not only with rare skill and rich imagination but also with the advancement o