Princeton NJ Schools Press Releases

Award-winning Omri Drumlevich to Teach at Princeton University This Fall

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug 2 – Omri Drumlevich, a star Israeli dancer with Israel's globally acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company, will serve as a visiting lecturer at Princeton University this fall.

The award-winning Drumlevich will teach at Princeton from Sept. 8 to Dec. 15 through the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artists Program, which is bringing 13 Israeli artists for residencies at top universities across the United States during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Drumlevich studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and from 2012-2016 was a member of Batsheva, which is one of the world's leading dance companies. Drumlevich performed with Batsheva in such venues as the Brooklyn Academic of Music (BAM), the Kennedy Center, the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, and the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, Russia. While with Batsheva, he performed works by Israeli choreographers Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, and Roy Assaf.

Drumlevich has also choreographed works for the Batsheva Ensemble and Batsheva company dancers and created multi-disciplinary works at the Tel Aviv Museum and elsewhere; and is a longtime teacher of Gaga, Naharin's movement language, in Tel Aviv and internationally. For more details about Drumlevich, please click here.

The Visiting Israeli Artists program is an initiative of the Israel Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based academic institute that aims to enhance the study of modern Israel. The institute brings Israeli filmmakers, choreographers, musicians, writers and visual artists for residencies at top universities and other cultural organizations in North America.

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation founded the program in 2008 to foster interactions between the artists and their communities, exposing a broader audience to contemporary Israeli culture.

"What makes the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artist Program unique and so effective is that it allows members of the host community and the visiting artists to connect in a variety of settings, from formal to informal, over a significant period of time, rather than the more traditional one-off experience," says Marge Goldwater, the program's director.

"As we look back on the last eight years, we see that the success of the residencies has prompted host institutions to find ways to bring Israeli cultural leaders to their communities after the Schusterman artist has left."

Since the program launched, 68 residencies have featured 78 artists at colleges and universities across North America. The artists have included a recipient of The Israel Prize, Israel's most prestigious award; an Emmy nominee; recipients of Israel's highest literary awards, and many winners of Israeli Oscars.

"The Schusterman Visiting Israeli Artists program is the bridge between the Israel Institute's academic and cultural programming. These visiting artists provide more than just classes that teach skills; these artists provide a window into the heart of Israel," said Ariel Roth, the institute's executive director.

"Cultural education provides insights into the fabric of a society in a way that other courses cannot and the understanding of students in these classes is deeper and more enriched as a result."

For more details about the Israel Institute, click here.

About The Israel Institute:

The Israel Institute works in partnership with leading academic, research and cultural institutions to enhance knowledge and study of modern Israel in the United States and around the world. Founded in 2012 as an independent, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC, the Institute supports scholarship, research and exchanges to build a multi-faceted field of Israel Studies and expand opportunities to explore the diversity and complexity of contemporary Israel.