My father’s legacy

I was four years old when my father took me in his lap and taught me the secret of life. My Father is an evolutionary biologist and a very prominent one; he should know. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, but I listened attentively since what he had to say seemed like an important message. Little did I know how it would inform my life.

The way my life eventually went

So, he said, there are two main secrets by which evolution works. The first is diversity; the more differences, options, and possibilities, the better—the more, the merrier. There’s a lot to choose from. I didn’t really get that one till years later. The second secret seemed interesting at the time, even for the four-year-old me, and that was the not-so-secret idea that rules were made to be broken. 

I loved that one; it gave me a pass for whatever rules I wanted to break, and break them I did, in my unique way, until this day. 

This came from a man I admire who thought it was a good idea to teach me to drive at seven. I love my dad. The greater the impossibility, the more he will do his best to eliminate it. What a guy, even now, at the age of 93, we share a radicality of thought I rarely can share with others. 

So, I studied movement theater and corporeal mime in Paris for three years; then, I moved to Italy, where, with a friend, Laura Cadello, we established a visual theatre company Mi-Mo-Ma. We had our own theatre, a l’Italiana, in Novellara, where we created our shows and toured with them around Europe. 

Then I moved to Germany to study Butoh Dance, where I stayed for two years at the Mamu Butoh Centrum, studying with quite a few great Butoh Masters. Simultaneously I traveled way and back to Paris to study Trapeze with Zoe Maistre… Which put me for the following 15 years mainly in the air…

I came back to Israel to do some site-specific dance and trapeze performances in festivals that don’t exist anymore, where I experimented with vertical dancing. Invited back to Europe, I started hanging my trapeze in unconventional spaces such as bridges, windmills, barns, trees, and ship masts… 

I finally came back to Israel in September 2000 to establish the first Israeli contemporary circus in Binyamina, which I appropriately called  “The Freedome Project.” That was 22 years ago, and the rest is history; I’ll tell that story another time…

I want to demonstrate that my life has been, and still is, a serial “breaking of the rules.”

The merry concept of self-disruption

What I was doing was, disrupting myself joyfully every time things got too comfortable. With ever-greater projects that demanded more and more effort and, in their way and time, changed me and the world around me. 

I was breaking my own rules, diversifying my performative and life experiences, taking huge risks, and living an extraordinarily creative life while pioneering a few creative revolutions in Israel and not only, on the way.

The way today went

Do you know how yesterday I said to pick a routine and stick to it? Well, today, I broke that rule. 

I have been fasting intermittently, doing an 18:6 and then yesterday a 20:4 fast, for a week. Today I broke the fasting. I had breakfast, which I think I didn’t have for six months now. It was a joy. 

And the point is: 

Pick a routine that works for you and stick to it until you get to the level of diminishing returns; when the ROI on that investment doesn’t pan out anymore, then disrupt yourself with good cheer. 

Only you know what’s right for you and when. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. 

Please make your own rules and break them when they no longer serve your purpose. It’s a great sign of a growth-oriented mindset. You may not know yet what your following rules will be; that’s fine. Don’t be afraid; you’ll get there. Trust yourself and keep going.

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If you have something to say, you can add your comment below. And if you, too, find yourself disrupting and breaking the rules made by others or your own, this may be the assessment for you.,