Nataly Zukerman | Practice Makes Perfect
Best Performer Award to Nataly Zukerman at 2015 Acco Festival.
The first time I came out of the closet as a disabled person was three years ago. Before that I simply toyed with the idea. I would throw the word around when I would be with friends and enjoy hearing them reply “No, you’re not!” in their most assertive, resolte voice. I wasn’t raised as a disabled person, social security determined I wasn’t eligible for disability allowance, I put away my crutches when I was 16 and quit physical therapy when I was 18. My close childhood friends, who had grown up with me, had always known that Nataly needed help and taking care of, but the term “disabled” never came up. Three years ago, dressed in a fancy evening gown, I lifted a sign over my head that said “Disabled”. A performance piece based on Nataly Zukerman’s autobiographical strory, of a woman suffering from an invisible disability after going through an accident at a young age. Zukerman invites a fitness coach, a professional dancer, her life partner, friends and family to give her a string of lessons and exercises where – through the prism of the disabled body struggling with everyday actions and gestures, such as getting up from the floor, falling and running – she can expose the movement procedures of our normative body.“She (Zukerman) is a uninhibited artist who gives us a good answer to the question “What does it mean to be disabled?” and stands proud when she passionately verbalizes her disability to the audience. A socially important, poignant performance – that doesn’t get more personal than that.”
(Maariv)
Created and performed by Nataly Zukerman
Fellow creators and performers: Ayelet Golan, Tomer Kopel, Agam Schuster, Rotem Tashach.
Dramaturg and c—director: Yair Vardi
Stage design, lighting design and video art: Iris Mualem
Costumes: Annie Atedgi
Video production: Nimrod Tzin
Assistant creator and stage manager: Michal Ben Yehuda
Producer: Omer Alsheich
The production started out as a graduation project at Tel Aviv University Theater Department’s Actor-Creator-Researcher program in collaboration with Ayala Bressler Nardi and premiered at the 2015 Acco Fringe Festival.
Duration of the show: 80 minutes.