Ella Ben-Aharon

Ella Ben-Aharon (Guest Artist-in-Residence)

M.F.A., Choreography, Jacksonville University
B.F.A. Dance, California Institute of the Arts
E-mail: ebenahar@kennesaw.edu

Born and raised in Israel, after dancing with the "Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company 2," Ella moved to the USA and lived there for 11 years. She holds a BFA in Dance from California Institute of the Arts, and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak, FL. In addition, Ella is a Pilates Master Teacher with Pilates Sports Center (LA).

In 2004, Ella relocate from LA to NYC, and established her non-profit, YelleB Dance Ensemble. She co-curate with Neta Pulvermacher "Dance Conversations" which became the The A.W.A.R.D Show! of the Joyce Foundation. Her choreographies and video-dances were presented in important venues and festivals around the world. Ella was a guest-teaching artist at the University of Florida, University of Wisconsin, Citrus College, Miami-Dade College, Jacksonville University, UC Berkeley, The Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, The Ben-Gurion University, and the school of the New York City Ballet.

Ella believes in multidisciplinary approach and has been engaged in numerous collaborations; An artistic 'Trialogue' with architect Matthias Neumann and video-artist Adi Shniderman, producing numerous projects together inside and out of the theatre space. An ongoing collaboration with composer/performer Odeya Nini, and more recent engagement with Neuroscientist, Dr. Asaf Bachrach. She participated at “The Conscious Body II+III” conferences in Paris (La Briquetterie & CND), as well as at JIM (CNRS) where artists and and scientists worked together to articulate mutual research questions about inersubjcetivity, movement, and spectating dance. Her recent work, All-Most, a collaboration with Dr. Bachrach, brought to the studio as well as the theater space research practices, and offered – in real time – an experiment that documents physiological and cognitive responses of the dancers as well as the audience to touch and relationships.

In October 2010 Ella returned to Israel and received a status of a returned artists with distinctions from the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. Since January 2011 she is a member of the Israeli Choreographers Association. In addition to producing artistic work, most recently Ella had opened a studio for Pilates and Movement in Tel Aviv through which she shares her curiosity and awareness for the human body and mind.

Ella continues to explore her dynamic vision of the body as a manifested vehicle of humanness; Art, philosophy, and anatomy render the negotiation between aesthetics and functionality. Her teachings and choreography are saturated with experiential anatomy, images and conceptual ideas in order encourage complex and versatile performers that understand their body's structure vs.function, their internal/external spatial intention, and above all, how expression is a result of an action. Hence, human experience emerges and transcends through the inter-personal exchange.