HOLY NAMES FOR OUR DYBBUK

a ritual performance of a dybbuk exorcism

2024

In Yiddish folklore tradition, the “dybbuk” is a wandering spirit that clings to a living body to communicate messages from the dead. Traditionally, a group of healers would loosen the spirit’s grip on the host body through a combination of interviews, prayers and rhythmic chanting, culminating in a profound public demonstration of collective transmutation.

Holy Names for Our Dybbuk reimagines a dybbuk exorcism for our times, as a movement-based score and site-specific ritual. Taking place at Jewish sites in Poland, the performance brings audiences and performers into direct and embodied encounters with Jewish memory as it is embedded in the land. Created by Weitz, in collaboration with Polish choreographer Magdalena Przybysz, the 40-minute performance features Weitz as the dybbuk, who becomes a channel for ancestral grief. Through rhythmic Hebrew chanting and Hasidic-inspired postmodern choreography, a multigenerational ensemble of Polish dancers confronts the dybbuk as healers, crafting a somatic and symbolic ritual to exorcize ancestral trauma from both the collective body and the land.

Holy Names for Our Dybbuk premiered on June 30, 2024, at the site of the former Nazi labor and concentration camp, Kraków-Plaszow, and was later performed at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw on September 25, 2024. To learn more about the project, watch an interview with Weitz published by the Oral History POLIN Museum Collection. 

Creator and Lead Artist: Julie Weitz 

Choreographer and Dramaturgy: Magdalena Przybysz 

Performers and Co-Creators of Choreography: Barbara Kardyś, Magda Niedzielska, Michał Przybyła, Joanna Skrzyszowska, Katarzyna Żeglicka, Magdalena Przybysz

Costumes: Julie Weitz, Jill Spector, and Donna Stack

Upcoming Workshops:

TBD

Previous Workshops:

December 24, 2024, Limmud Festival, England

December 21, 2024, Paideia, Stockholm, Sweeden

December 8, 2024, Online Workshop

October 19, 2024, Aravah Sukkot Festival, Hopland, California

August 18, 2024, Der Nister, Los Angeles, California

June 23, 2024, Online Workshop

May 25-26, 2024, Hurtownia Ruchu Dance Studio, Krakow, Poland

May 18-19, 2024, Hurtownia Ruchu Dance Studio, Krakow, Poland

May 5, 2024, Online Workshop

April 30, 2024, Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, Poland

March 20, 2024, JCC Warsaw, Poland