Thursday 16 April 2009

An excerpt from Lisa Talesnick's ''My Canada is the arts''‏

Lisa Talesnick - Vernon Morning Star

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Imagination moved me away from the inter-religious dialogue in Israel and Palestine, which kept discussion of the conflict to biblical misunderstandings of the past and an ongoing sense of separation. Friends gathered to form The All Nations Café, which uses art, drama, music, dance, shared meals or a cup of coffee to get to know one another from the heart.

I use dance to introduce Palestinians and Israelis to each other –– an ancient Circassian folk dance called Kafa. The root “Kaf” expresses the highest peak of attainment of the human heart. This is a dance where two souls flirt with each other in the fullness of human dignity. This is how I bypass the minutiae of conflict keeping people thinking they are enemies. (Holding on to hatred while dancing is as effective as trying to stay dry while swimming.)

  • My Canada is the arts, by Lisa Talesnick
    Lisa Talesnick writes the Musical Notes concert reviews column for The Morning Star, Vernon, B.C.



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