Moving mountains

Choreographer looks back on a year of dances for freed captive

Etai Peri, who once taught released hostage Romi Gonen, reflects on leading movement events with her friends at Hostages Square

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Vertigo dancer Etai Peri leads Romi Gonen's friends in a dance piece at Hostages Square during 2024 (Screengrab: YouTube)
Vertigo dancer Etai Peri leads Romi Gonen's friends in a dance piece at Hostages Square during 2024 (Screengrab: YouTube)

During the tense week before Romi Gonen was released from Hamas captivity on January 19, her friends gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, as they often had since her abduction, to learn choreography that they and Gonen had performed in high school in their northern hometown of Kfar Vradim.

Their teacher was Etai Peri, who is now a member of the Vertigo dance troupe.

Peri remembered teaching Romi Gonen, now 24, in middle school, and again when she was in high school, while he was dancing with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company.

When he heard she’d been abducted, “I knew immediately who Romi was,” he said. “I started to follow it all.”

Gonen’s mother, Meirav Gonen Leshem, her sister, Yarden Gonen, and some friends invited Peri to lead a dance session at Hostages Square in January 2024.

“It was very emotional,” said Peri. “It was just very strange to bring a dance to a situation like this, to use it as a tool for hope.”

That first time, he guided them through a few exercises, and then part of a dance that some of them had learned as students in Kfar Vradim.

“It was like pushing a rewind button, it was so stirring for all of us,” said Peri. “I tried to connect to my depression about all of it, the hostages and the war, and to work it out in this event.”

He led four sessions over the last 12 months for Romi’s friends and supporters at Hostages Square, part of a regular series held in her honor. Each time felt different, said Peri, as the situation was always unclear with many unknowns about the hostages and their future.

The last dance session was held on the Sunday before Romi was released with fellow hostages Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher — before Peri and Romi’s friends knew that she would be coming home.

Released hostages (L-R) Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen reunite with their mothers shortly after returning to Israel after 471 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, January 19, 2025. (IDF)

“Everyone came with a lot of hope,” said Peri. “Everyone came with a different kind of energy that was tangible, it felt like something good was coming, that it was going to happen.”

They danced pieces that Peri had taught the high school modern dance class that Romi and her friends had learned.

“I was trying to create something more normal, letting us all just enjoy the dance for that moment, to do just that and to separate for a moment from the incredible tension at hand,” he said.

At the end of the event, they all hoped the next one would be held with Romi, whenever that may be, said Peri.

And then, she returned.

“I still can’t quite believe that she’s back,” he said.

Yarden Gonen, front, center, sister of released hostage Romi Gonen, and Meirav Gonen Leshem, to her right, at one of the Dance for Romi events prior to her January 19, 2025, release from Hamas (Screenshot: YouTube)

Peri would love nothing more than to see Romi again, and dance with her. For now, he is teaching a new dance in her honor to students at a pre-army program where he works.

“Maybe we’ll invite her when it’s ready,” he said.

Vertigo dancer Etai Peri, who taught released hostage Romi Gonen in high school, onstage performing ‘Kuma’ in 2024 (Credit Barak Ziv)

As part of the Kuma dance work currently being performed by Vertigo, for audiences that include soldiers and their families who have experienced trauma, the dancers perform with yellow flowers, later handing them out to the audience, sometimes hugging people as well, said Peri.

“One of the great things about my profession is this ability to express our feelings about what we’re going through onstage,” said Peri. “Right now, the hugs feel more real.”

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