Actress-dancer-author Yael Karavan was born in Israel and grew up in Florence, Paris and London. At the age of 13 she began her acting career at the National Theatre. She has travelled the world from Europe, to New York, to Brazil, to Japan studying with masters such as Anton Adassinski from the Russian theatre company. Drawing on elements of Butoh, dance, mime, physical and visual theatre she explores the themes of Memory, Metamorphoses, the invisible (the unseen) and the notion of repetitive cycles, constantly balancing on the fine line between the tragic and the comic. In 2006 Yael was awarded the Teatroneto prize for best actress and best solo performance. I was very lucky to spend two days with Yael at her physical theatre workshop. In between hard and challenging training sessions we chatted about all things extraordinary.

What is extraordinary?

Something that touches me, surprises me, amazes me. Nature is extraordinary, Love is extraordinary. To say things that you really feel is extraordinary…UFO’s are extraordinary…

Do you believe in UFOs?

I believe in everything. Everything is possible.

Is theatre extraordinary?

Theatre can be extraordinary. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see extraordinary theatre. It’s becoming harder and harder to be moved. It’s becoming harder for people to be honest on the stage and just share things in an honest and imaginative way.

Theatre can be the simplest thing and at the same time it is so complicated. No wonder cause the main tool of theatre is the human being and we ourselves are so complicated. I feel it is a difficult time now a lot of things are changing. We are in a moment of transition. The computers are taking over. We are less and less used to things that really touch us, in the extraordinary sense of the word, things that are really human.

I love Internet to communicate with my friends around the world. I like the freedom I have in being able to edit my films and music and I do find that new technologies can be very inspiring in performance but they very often keep us away from ourselves and our fragility. The virtual reality is fun to a certain degree but it cannot replace true feelings, a true heart or our imagination and experience. People now use their fingers more than the rest of their bodies. I feel a gap and a separation are being created between us and our lineage, our primal tools, which are not only our minds and brains…

In a way we are at a time when we have all a little bit lost the meaning of life. Now we need to find something new, not to invent something new, but perhaps rediscover things inside ourselves. It is very hard. We are holding onto things from the past and dreaming about the future, but we don’t really know were we are in the present.

You speak fluently a lot of languages. Do you find theatre the most universal language you know?

I would say physical theatre, poetic theatre and dance theatre are really the most direct mediums that if it’s good it goes directly to your heart.

I started very young as an actress in the theatre and films using text but then I realised that I can communicate with my body and heart. People don’t have to think to understand my work they can experience it and that is what a performance is for me – an experience. I like physical theatre and dance as medium that goes directly to you heart. And if it works it is definitely extraordinary.

You can catch Yael at 'Nous N'irons pas a Avignon' festival in Paris on 8th to 12th of July and on the 26th to 31st of August at the Edinburg international festival.

www.yaelkaravan.com

Special Thanks to Coatchwerks - a creative, collaborative, experimental and beautiful project space in Brighton!