“A rehearsal should bring joy. Because rehearsals take up half of every day throughout your life.”

Anatoly Efros, from Rehearsal, My Love

For me, this is very true. I love the rehearsal process: searching together with the dancers, discoveries, conversations, arguments… Everything that leads to creating a new ballet. The one that first appeared and lived in my head, fascinated me, sometimes tortured me, and then came to life together with the dancers, passionate about bringing it to the stage.

The premiere of Israel Ballet’s Carmen took place on June 6, 2026. For me, the joy of a premiere always comes with a little sadness. I have written about this before in my “Letters.” It is the day when I say goodbye to my new “child,” my new ballet. It now belongs to the company, and I can only watch from the side to see how its life will unfold.

The premiere was a great success. The company danced beautifully, emotionally, with a fine sense of style, and most importantly, they brought to the audience the energy and meaning we had put into the ballet. Well-deserved applause, joyful for all of us, ovations. Success.

The wonderful soloists. Carmen — emotional and tender Daya Frenkel, and Tslil Turgeman, lyrical with an emotional edge. José — Avi Lerner, torn in his emotions, and Gil Ben Ayon, swept up in love. Alter Ego — mysterious Madelyn Wolf, immersed in the character, and unexpected, captivating Chelsea Paige Johnston. Toreador — stylish and captivated Vladimir Dorohin.

At the curtain call, I was onstage with my new creative friend, composer Gil Shohat. I am very grateful to him and to fate for bringing us together. This was my 53rd ballet, and Israel became the 10th country where I have been fortunate enough to present my work. I’m told that’s a lot.

I am very grateful to all the dancers, répétiteurs, designers, technical teams, and everyone at Israel Ballet. A special thank you to General Director Lea Lavie and Artistic Director Claire Bayliss Nagar for believing in me and inviting me to create this ballet. To the designers, Margarita Alexandrov and Roey Vaturi. To Deputy General Director Amit Somekh, for making all the arrangements for my travel and stay. And a special thank you to Alexander Alexandrov, a wonderful dancer and teacher, who introduced my name to the directors of Israel Ballet.

But my adventures did not end there.

The day after the premiere, just before my departure, we were supposed to have a rehearsal with the second cast. That night, Iran launched an airstrike. And that was when I heard the sound of a siren for the first time. For the first time in my life, I had to go down to a bomb shelter several times. I saw how people live in this country. It was a very important and emotional moment for me. Despite everything negative about it, I’m glad I experienced it in my life. I didn’t even know if I would be able to fly out.

Of course, rehearsals were canceled. Fortunately, the attacks didn’t last long, and the two sides returned to negotiations. I still managed to attend the second-cast rehearsal on the day of my departure. I said goodbye to the company and to several weeks of life and work in an incredibly interesting country, with wonderful people, my new friends.

I ended my first series of adventures with Carmen with the words:

“Will there be another production? Who knows…”

Now I know. There was.

And will there be another one? Who knows…