CPR – Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Avenue
The Book of Love is an interactive dance piece by performance artist and choreographer Mor Mendel. This work uses movement, music, poetry, and food to explore the subject of love in its many forms.
Love is one of the core commandments of Jewish teaching—the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” is considered by many to be the central lesson of the Hebrew Bible. And yet, love towards both ourselves and others can be difficult, especially in a world that feels divided. Thus, The Book of Love is also an exploration of love’s shadows: war, loss, hate, and revenge.
This piece further explores love through hospitality—particularly the welcoming that takes place through food. Alongside the performance, Chef Daniel Soskolne will join us to cook up tasty seasonal favorites, latkes and sfinge (Moroccan doughnuts eaten on Chanukah).
Together we will reimagine what is possible if we choose to truly see one another—to love the other as we love ourselves.
Mor Mendel is a performance artist, choreographer, dance improviser, and educator, whose work explores who we are in our everyday life and movement that plays with imagination, intuition, and personal stories. For Mor, dance is the playground of poetry, of memories, relationships, music, and shared existence. Mendel’s teaching focuses on dance as a mode of creativity and joy, and an individual pathway to freedom inside one’s body. Mendel earned her BA in Dance Theater in Tel Aviv as well as her Improvisation Mastery with dancer Ilanit Tadmor. In 2012, Mendel completed her Master’s in dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Over the years she has participated in numerous workshops and courses around dance, improvisation, and other somatic fields as well as university courses in psychology and creative therapies. In particular, Mendel has worked with Parkinson patients around personal liberation through movement.
Mendel’s work has been performed at Tel Aviv galleries, Acco of Alternative Israeli Theater, Gowanus Arts Center, the 14th Street Y, Fridman Gallery, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, BAAD!, BAX, Movement Research Judson Church, Pioneer Works, Collezione Maramotti (Italy), BigParadise, MOtiVE, Center for Performance Research, and in collaboration with artist Miriam Simun at The New Museum (NY). Mendel is a mother of two curly boys.
