Kol b’Isha/Voice Within Woman

A choreographic meditation on female voice, visibility and silence. The first piece in the Kol b’Isha Project.

More about the 2022 premiere

“Kol b’Isha/Voice Within Woman” premiered 4/28, 4/30 and 5/1, 2022 at Performance Works Northwest.

Cast: Janet Goulston, Jennifer Gwirtz, Leora Troper
Created and directed by Jennifer Gwirtz
Original music: Eric Stern
Lighting design: Dora Gaskill
Soundboard and sound engineering: Juniana Lanning
An Alembic Co-production

“Kol b’Isha Erva,” means “a woman’s voice equals her nakedness.” This second century custom forbids women to sing when men pray and has made an impact on who we are and how we enter into the wider culture.

Kol b’Isha/Voice Within Woman is a dance about the radical Jewish female sacred, a feminist rendering and re-owning of ancient lore while living in diaspora, the very Jewish idea of Creation as a “drawing out” from the mysterious deep and how the silences and sounds of a woman’s voice establishes her presence. It is also an exploration of elder Jewish female identity, with a cast of women over the age of fifty.

Videography by Seth Nehil

Aural Disappearances:
A Panel Discussion about Kol Isha.

This panel took place after the closing matinee on 5/1/22

Panelists: Rabbi Ariel Stone (US), Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem (US), Jennifer Gwirtz (US), Efrat Nehama (IS), Anat Hoffman (IS).

Moderator: Emma Lugo

“Kol b’Isha/Voice Within Woman” was made possible by a RACC Catalyst Grant, Women’s Philanthropy Circle, Congregation Shir Tikvah and the generous support of Ronni Lacroute, Linda Austin and Performance Works NW.