The Arena
Dance-theater piece, 2026 (45 minutes)
Choreography, concept, texts and performance| Joy Bernard
Original music and soundtrack design | Guy Moses
Videography and video art editing | Avi Siman-Tov
Performance in video | Chaim Bernard
Voiceover | Shimon Mimran
Artistic accompaniment | Alit Kreiz
Dramaturgy | Ofek Moshe
Photos by Gil Volfson
This piece was commissioned and supported by the C.A.T.M.O.N Dance Group for the From Jaffa to Agripas Dance Festival, where it premiered in June 2026.
A woman enters the arena. Within the confines of a square, she wages a multi-participant battle against herself: She is the sweaty boxer, the grim-faced referee and the tough coach.
Towering before her is the giant shadow of her father, a former boxing champion, and the ghost of the renowned and revered Muhammad Ali. Through frantic, memory-haunted movement, a daughter grapples with the physical legacy she inherited from her father, in an attempt to crack the masculine code embedded in her body and find her own voice as a woman.
The Arena is a performance combining dance, theater and video. It explores the fine line between dance and combat, between a blow and a gesture, and between violence and love.