About TN

MORIT GAIFMAN
At the age of 5 Morit Gaifman began studying piano and ballet, as well as mounting highly experimental productions at her kindergarten. In 2001 Morit graduated from Columbia University with a music degree after which her real education began. She studied dumbek with Raquy Danziger and Carmine Guida, accompanying Carmine in restaurants and performing as one of The Messengers, a band of dumbek addicts, and studied bellydancing with Safiya in New York. She has studied mask-making and performance at The Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre and has trained in Bodyweather with Laura Meyers, Boaz Barkan, and Anika Kristensen in New York. Morit has danced as a member of Physical Light Show, an absurdist go-go group, accompanying the band Weird Owl. Under the direction of Laura Meyers, Morit has collaborated with members of Bodyweather NY to create The Jewel Box, with performances at The Construction Company and BAX in NYC. Morit also enjoys working backstage and most recently has done so as assistant scenographer for Desert Sunrise at the Theater for the New City. She began studying Noh performance (utai, shimai, kotsuzumi and nohkan) at the Noh Training Project in 2003.

A short (5 AM) statement:
I have very much enjoyed the rehearsals with Theatre Nohgaku and would like to be a part of TN's work in bringing noh in English to the stage. I enjoy all aspects of noh performance and feel that noh has unique expressive qualities. I would be honored to be a part of bringing this art to an English-speaking audience and of creating new works in this medium.

I hope to be especially of value to TN as a musician and music scholar. As a scholar I will explore the structure of noh music, i.e. what "makes it work", an inquiry which I hope will translate into new music for new plays, new music (mine and others') that retains traditional structural and expressive elements but also integrates elements of the culture of the text, whether that be American, Western, or simply an accommodation of the English language.

(Beyond all that high-falutin' stuff, I just love singing and dancing and beating that hide with all of you.)