Welcome to the 12th edition of the From Jaffa to Agripas Dance Festival.

Since 2014, the festival has invited audiences to encounter contemporary dance beyond traditional theaters—in the heart of the city, in public spaces, and in places where everyday life itself becomes the stage. For more than a decade, the festival has created one-of-a-kind encounters between body, place, and people, and has become one of the most distinctive and recognized platforms in Jerusalem’s dance scene.

This year the festival shifts its center of gravity to the Talpiot neighborhood—an area that for decades served as one of Jerusalem’s industrial zones and is now undergoing a remarkable transformation. Between garages, showrooms, industrial buildings, cultural institutions, and construction sites, a new urban landscape is emerging, where art, commerce, housing, and community life converge.

At the heart of this transformation stands E – by c.a.t.a.m.o.n, our new home: a space dedicated to dance, artistic research, and human connection. E  by c.a.t.a.m.o.n was founded on the belief that the human body is a powerful vessel for building bridges—between cultures, between stories, between people, and between the city and those who inhabit it.

Over the course of three days, nine locations throughout Talpiot will be transformed into stages for original contemporary dance pieces, offering fresh perspectives on the body, society, and the urban environment we share. This is an invitation to wander, discover, and experience the city anew through movement, imagination, and emotion.

At a time when reality presents us with profound challenges, we hope to offer a moment of hope. A reminder that the body still knows how to listen, that art still has the power to connect, and that from the cracks of a complex reality, beauty, compassion, and new possibilities can emerge.

Co-Curators: Elad Schechter and Shalom Gil
Steering and Content Committee: Shiri First and Tom Gorenberg-Yarkoni