How to Dance After Auschwitz? Ethics and Aesthetics of Representation in John Cranko's Song of My People-Forest People-Sea

John Cranko's only ballet for the Batsheva Dance Company in Israel, Ami-Yam, Ami-Ya'ar (Song of My People-Forest People-Sea, 1971) is described in a program note as A Nation and Man Move in Parallel Cycles from Death to Regeneration. It has remained unique in Cranko's choreographic corpus and in the Batsheva repertoire. Based on recently discovered film evidence, I reread Cranko's largely forgotten project and discuss its problematic and controversial reception in Israel and abroad, in light of Adorno's statement that writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbarism. I situate it as a landmark in tackling the Holocaust in dance in Israel as of 1971. I problematize the ethics and aesthetics of representation in Cranko's ballet on the grounds of Giorgio Agamben's discussion of testimony and in reference to Jacques Derrida's reading of Paul Celan. © 2015 Congress on Research in Dance.