Machol Shalem Dance House (MASH) will, for the first time ever, host their dance festival in VR. VR Dance Jerusalem, an international festival, will introduce attendees to the virtual reality dance experience.

“We were bored. We understood that for Corona, it worked but to move forward, we needed to take another step to use technology to reach new audiences. We asked around and found out that the next technology is VR, and so we started to learn it. We figured it would be nice to invite other artists to experiment with this technology so that they could record their works and broadcast them in a way that wouldn’t feel like a weak substitute for the real thing.” – Ruby Edelman, Founders and Director, Machol Shalem Dance House.

Transforming a live show into a 360 degree VR experience is not a small task. It requires the performers to perceive their work in a totally innovative and new way, taking many angles and possibilities.

“There are a set of cameras, and they can decide what is important to capture. Every angle will have its own input. It was fascinating to see how each artist took it. People really went into it like pilots in a plane. It really breaks with the regular frontal performance.” – Ruby Edelman.

To make the VR dance platform possible, MASH collaborated with VR To Go, which is leading the development of virtual reality for a wide range of content. 

The program involves a partnership with the Israel Festival. All dance performers working as part of the Israel Festival’s Inspirational Connections, like Amir Kolben, Ronen Itzhaki, Noa Dar, and Yoram Karmi will show their works using virtual reality.

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