Rebbetzin Chavi Epstein is the Co-Director for Chabad Lubavitch of South Carolina. She is also a renowned lecturer, musician, and founder of the Niggun Workshop Seminar. In South Carolina, she works as the director of Columbia’s Jewish women’s circle programs, as a local community counselor, …
Baltimore Bows is a children’s string music program dedicated to strengthening families and community through the power and beauty of music in a high quality, nurturing and stimulating setting. Students come together twice weekly for string music instruction and an orchestral experience. Our teachers are …
Sarah Zier began her piano studies at the age of three. She added voice and ballet classes to the mix, and soon knew that she was to be a lifelong musician. Wanting to earn a degree and teach music as a career whilst staying within a frum environment, Sarah began her undergraduate studies in Israel at Levinsky Teachers College and the Ron Shulamit Conservatory, where she is currently finishing up a Bachelor of Education degree in music. As a pianist, Sarah has performed in various chamber ensembles and as a soloist in America and in Israel. As a vocalist, Sarah has performed in numerous stage productions and concerts, and as a soloist with numerous ensembles and orchestras, including Zmora, the professional chamber orchestra of the Ron Shulamit Conservatory. She currently enjoys teaching music and dance in several places throughout Israel, and performing in musical theatre productions, most recently seen as Hodel in the WIT production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Audelia Zagoury, from Tzur Hadassah, a performer at Atara’s 2018 Jerusalem conference, made aliya with her family 13 years ago from Morocco. She graduated from the classical vocal department of the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. She sang as a soloist in the Ankor Choir …
Yona Yakobovitz, a presenter at the 2018 Atara conference in Jerusalem, is Tofaah’s drummer, leader, and its founder. She composes and arranges the majority of the band’s music. She studied drums and percussion from the age of five and played the piano from age six. …
Photo by Rivka Rischall
Jezliah Villarreal is a singer/songwriter/musician/dancer and the co-director and co-founder of the RBS Dance and Music Academy located in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel.
Jezliah was born into an Evangelical Christian home that observed the Sabbath. Her father was the pastor of a Latino church in Austin, Texas. Her parents and family are from Mexico and settled in South Texas in their youth. From a young age, Jezliah showed tremendous interest in the performing arts and trained in voice, music and dance. By the age of nine, she started a dance team at her church and by age 12 she was singing lead in the church band. Jezliah aspired to attend one of the top Christian performing arts colleges to become a worldwide worship leader.
When Jezliah was 17, her mother and father brought Jewish teachings into the church and at home, and after intense research and soul searching, decided to leave the church in search for truth in Torah.
Jezliah married her husband, Yosef Daniel, in 2006 and had their first child in 2008. They finished their conversion to Judaism in January 2010 and made aliya in July 2010. Since then she has found her love of the performing arts once again as co-director and co-founder of the RBS Dance and Music Academy and is now working on her debut album called “Trust In You” She is performing and speaking at events around central Israel.
Jezliah hopes to inspire all women and girls to dream big and to hold on to Hashem who is in control of it all.
Yael Unterman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. She grew up in Manchester, England, and returned to Israel at the age of 18. In addition to spending several years on advanced Torah studies, she earned a BA in Psychology/Talmud (Bar-Ilan University), and Masters degrees in Jewish …
Inbar Tabib, an Israeli born (American raised) female Orthodox singer, is one of the leading professional singers today, performing in Israel and abroad in various women’s events and conventions. Inbar sings in different styles and musical genres, for example: religious upbeat & dance songs, quiet …
Batya Yehudit Shrager has a BA in Music Performance from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Upon graduating, she spent a year at Neve Yerushalayim seminary in Har Nof. That year, she joined the Ron Shulamit Conservatory Orchestra and helped form their Woodwind Quintet. Seeing all the musical opportunities for religious women and having fallen in love with Israel, she decided to make Aliyah. Over the next few years, Yehudit performed and taught clarinet in Aviv Music School, Bais Yaakov Beit Margalit, Bais Yaakov Bnos Elisheva and the Maale Adummim conservatory. She also performed and recorded with the musical group, “Jewish Family Ensemble.” After five years in Israel, she left on a three-year kiruv mission to Boca Raton, FL, where she taught general music for kindergarten through 2nd grade at a Jewish Day School. She and her family returned to Israel in 2015 and settled in Ramat Beit Shemesh where she teaches for, ‘Studio Musikef,’ a local music studio started by fellow olah, Judy Clark. Nowadays, Yehudit enjoys teaching clarinet as well as flute, piano, voice, guitar and ukulele. In her spare time, she likes to organize local “Open Mic” nights to create performance opportunities for women like her who yearn for the spotlight, but have to be up early for gan drop-off the next morning.
Batya (Taylor) Shachar is originally from Boston, but moved to Los Angeles for her formative years. In LA, she worked behind-the-scenes in the music industry. She also performed in a few plays and was a part of a sketch comedy group at Theatre East in …
Michal Shababo is an academically trained musician and composer who recently released her first international commercial album, Breathe it in. Her album is a work of love and passion, a collection of folk-rock original songs that tell a story of unity, hope and peace. She …
Shaked was born in Israel and raised in Arizona and has been training in dance since she was 3 years old. After becoming baalat teshuva in college in arizona, and finishing her degree in education for the arts, and made aliyah with her husband and first child. She was an instructor at Rachel Factor’s studio in Jerusalem before moving to Ramat Bet Shemesh and opening the RBS Dance and Music Academy together with Jezliah Villarreal 11 years ago. Since 2019 she has been running the academy solo and is so honored to continue to serve hundreds of women and girls in the community in such a special way, especially during these uncertain times. She has performed to international audiences, produced shows for women and girls, directed music videos and still OF COURSE loves teaching in the studio. Spreading the love of dance and music and inspiring girls and women through the arts is her joy.
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Shaked presented at the 2018 Atara Israel conference is giving a Contemporary Master Class with an emphasis on improvisation and musicality
Shaked is a dancer, choreographer, instructor, and the co-founder and co-artistic director at RBS Dance and Music Academy in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel. Born in Rehovot, Israel to an Israeli mother and an American father, she and her family moved to Tucson, Arizona when she was a baby. Her mother put her in dance class at the age of three and she hasn’t stopped dancing since. She began instructing dance classes and choreographing for large productions in her early teens. She started off in the dance track at the University of Arizona and switched out after becoming chozeret betshuvah in 2005. Thankfully she was able to pursue her second creative love and proceeded to receive a BFA in Art Education with an emphasis on the fine arts.
In 2010, together with her husband and first child, she made aliyah. She got right into dance in Jerusalem and started training with Rachel Factor in her Dance Company and also teaching classes at her studio. Upon moving to Ramat Beit Shemesh a year later, Shaked, together with her close friend Jezliah Villarreal, opened up the RBS Dance Academy. After seven years she is happy to say that the studio has touched the lives of several hundred students, attracting women and girls from Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, and Tel Aviv. Their annual end-of-the-year production draws a crowd of nearly 600 and their professional Performance Company, along with Shaked and Jezliah, perform around Israel at various women’s events.
Shaked is excited to announce that this year the academy has added a new music department to their curriculum and are beyond thrilled to have Judith Gerzi and Sapir Mendlowitz join the team. Through the Academy, Shaked is excited to provide a place where every woman and girl can express her creativity and spirituality through the performing arts in a positive and healthy way, and she can’t wait, G-d willing, to continue to grow and provide more opportunities for girls and women in the Torah community.
Shaked Sebag and the RBSDMA Performance Company are available for shows and can be reached at 058-488-0060 and rbsdanceacademy@gmail.com
For more info on the academy visit RBSDMA.com
Emuna Bracha (Valentina) Recchia was born in Italy in 1983. She wrote her first poetry and short stories at the age of 12. Subsequently she devoted herself to the study of dance in various schools, including the Broadway Dance Center in New York. As a result …
Gitty Porgesz is a choreographer/Dancer and Founder of Carmia Dance Group. Trained in classical and modern dance, contact-improvisation, choreography and Iyengar Yoga by some of the best teachers in the country. Gitty holds a diploma from Wingate Collage and has been teaching dance and movement …
Avital Macales is a singer, songwriter, actor, and improv comedienne, and has been performing for the past decade on various theater stages around Israel and on screen, in leading roles, including in Raise Your Spirits Theatre and WIT (Women-in-Theater) Modiin. She is a member of the ABSOLUTe Improv troupe and the Kolot Etzion women’s choir. In 2016 Avital co-founded The Women’s Performance Community of Jerusalem, a place where women can unite through the performing arts and express themselves in a fun environment. Avital has co-written and co-composed two musicals with creative partner Sharon Katz: “Count the Stars: The Journey of Avraham & Sara” (2014) and “Hidden: The Secret Jews of Spain” (2018).
Since her immigration to Israel in 1989, Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson has been the Principal Cellist and frequent soloist of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA. German born, she studied with P. Fournier, S. Celibidache and E. Barenboim, after receiving her Soloist’s Diploma at the State’s Music …
Elisheva (Ellen) Horowitz was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She expressed an early interest in figure drawing and painting, coupled with an innate love of Torah and Israel. Encouraged by her parents, she took courses at the Cleveland Institute of Art and later went …
Rabbi Yehoshua Gerzi, the leader of the Pilzno Shul, spent six years with the Pilzno Rav, and received from him a tremendous amount of Torah learning and practical exercises that form part of a direct mesorah from the Baal Shem Tov. He plays 13 different instruments and leads a Friday night musical davening for his community.
Rebbetzin Judith Gerzi, the soul-singer/songwriting sensation, is now touring with her début album, ‘Awakening.’ Originally from London, England, she now lives in Israel with her large family. With the voice of an angel, she has been called ‘ the Jewish Adele’ and ‘the white Whitney …
Sharona Florsheim is a choreographer and improvisation artist based In Israel. In her choreographic work she brings together complex structures of improvisation and set material, emphasizing the relationships formed in real time between space, performers, and audience. Her recent work includes: The Big Game (2012), Connectivity Practices (2014), …
Adina is a Singer/Songwriter/Choreographer/Director and teacher with a successful career as a performer in the U.S. and Israel. Adina has performed everywhere from New York’s Town Hall to the Israel Festival in Jerusalem and has created three highly successful one-woman shows.
In March of 2013, Adina had the honor of performing the American National Anthem for President Barak Obama in Jerusalem on the occasion of his historic speech and visit to Israel.
Trained in New York City, Adina holds a B.A. in Theatre-Dance and an M.A. in Dance Education from New York University. Professional training in singing, dance and acting give this native New Yorker’s performance the polish and punch that have won her exposure on American and Israeli television, radio and movies as well as leading roles in dozens of musicals. Adina has also devoted herself to supporting humanitarian causes through her performance.
Adina is a choreographer and a vocal coach who has served as a faculty member at the Hebrew University and the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. She currently is on faculty at the Ono Academic College at the Music School where she runs the Vocal Performance department and is the Artistic Director of their Performing ensemble, “Glee. She has directed and choreographed numerous shows both in New York and in Israel for the past thirty years.
As of today, Adina has released 2 discs of original songs entitled “Here You Are” in 2006 and “Just A Girl” in 2016. She continues to perform both in Israel and abroad.
“Feldman has a strong captivating presence on the stage, an exceptional voice, clear and yet so powerful-a combination of Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion…in addition to her talent as a dancer which makes her performance so much more charming and professional.”
— Nava Nenner-Cohen, Kol Yisrael Radio
Ana Elya writes, composes, arranges and performs original texts and melodies, along with traditional songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. Born near Paris, Ana Elya was raised in a secular French culture touched by a Hassidic spirit. As a cheerful and athletic little girl she …
Kerry Bar-Cohn, aka “Rebbetzin Tap” teaches children to love being alive and being Jewish! Kerry has been singing and dancing since childhood. Together with her husband Rabbi David, she creates educational videos with catchy songs catchy and life affirming messages. They have touched thousands of …
Hannah has been singing, dancing, and acting since before she can remember. She grew up in Agoura Hills, California amidst a very musical family. Hannah attributes almost everything she knows about singing and acting to her mother – a classically trained singer and actress, who’s passion for musical theatre was infused within her daughter. Hannah trained in California for 10 years in many dance styles, with a focus on ballet and modern dance. She now lives with her husband in Far Rockaway, and works as the dance director for Malky Giniger’s Ratzon Program, and as a graphic artist for Binah Magazine.
Miriam is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts, the mother of B’H nine children and numerous grandchildren.
Marilyn Golomb Selber (Morah Michal), a practicing attorney, is a graduate of Stern College for Women, of Yeshiva University, and New York University School of Law. She has studied at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration of Yeshiva University and has studied drama …
Jessica is an NYU graduate and holds a B.S. in Educational Theatre and a double minor in Dramatic Literature and Studio Art. She is a certified theatre teacher in New York State and has been teaching, directing, and running drama programs for over seven years. Trained through Stanislavsky and Hagen techniques, Jessica’s acting credits include Anne (The Diary of Anne Frank), Miss Barrett (Up the Down Staircase), Marian (The Music Man), Peggy Swift (Father of the Bride), and Eva (Kindertransport). She is also an emerging playwright having written comedy sketches, skits, monologues, and an original ten minute play For the Gold that was produced at the Provincetown Playhouse. Directing credits include A My Name is Alice, a special needs integrated production of The Little Mermaid, and original collaborative productions The Silent Letters, New Beginnings, Calling to Heaven, Through My Reflection, and I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Jessica has worked with the MCC Youth theatre as a drama associate as well as the 2nd stage theatre with their education department. She has served as the drama director and teacher on various summer programs for the last three years. Jessica is passionate about fostering the creative voices of young people through process drama and collaborative performance. She taught theatre to professional actors at the Professional Performing Arts School and is now the Theatre Department chair for the Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship where she is building a full theatre arts department.
Directorial Work
Stand Up Comedy Performance
Comedy Reel:
Soon By You Aftershow Interview
Miriam Sandler never planned on becoming a professional singer but at the tender age of 18, she began touring as a background singer/dancer with numerous American and Hispanic recording artists. After receiving a Jazz Vocal Performance degree from the world renowned program at the University …
Esther Rachel Russell MA, is a screenwriter, performer, producer, laughter therapist and the creator of the Comedy Improvisation Workshop: To Break Through Barriers. Most recently, she performed in the acclaimed off-Broadway comedy, A Match Made in Manhattan – The Interactive Jewish Wedding Experience where she …
Leslie Gold Ruder spent ten years stage managing, casting, and producing plays off-Broadway and in regional theatres, followed by ten years of an acting career, with training from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Walnut Street Theatre School and the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia, and with private coaches in Los Angeles. Leslie now teaches acting to women of all ages and backgrounds in private classes, as well as at seminaries and Israeli girls’ high schools. She is a published playwright, and continues to work on a one-woman show. Favorite roles include Ariel in The Tempest, and Genendel in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Teibele and Her Demon. A “specialist” in improvisational interactive theatre, she originated the roles of the Bar Mitzvah boy’s mother in Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah, and the mother of the kallah in A Match Made in Manhattan.
Jazz Pianist. Since 1969, Mirele has taught music to dancers and accompanied their dance classes on piano and percussion in various colleges and universities, some of which are University of Maryland, Julliard Schools of Dance, Drama, and Opera, Sarah Lawrence College, Purchase University, N.Y.U., and …
Shari Rosen earned her Masters in Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1991. While attending the Peabody, Shari performed numerous operatic roles with the Opera Theater and Workshop programs, as well as soloing with the Peabody Symphony and Peabody/Hopkins Chorus …
Keri Roth (nee Saltzman) has over 20 years of experience in the dance world, has taught throughout Toronto, competed and performed internationally, and has extensive training in jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, hip-hop, and flamenco. Keri’s energetic approach to teaching fosters a safe, fun and challenging environment for her students to develop as dancers and as individuals. As Co-Founder & Artistic Director of JCreative Group Inc., Keri looks forward to each day filled with creativity, action and entertainment. Keri brings a wealth of experience in both education and the arts. She firmly believes if you spend at least 30 seconds a day dancing you will be a happier person! Originally part of the Neshama Theatre Troupe staff and the Founder of “Keri’s Dancin’ Kids – Energized Entertainment,” specializing in Birthday Parties and Special Events for Children (kdancekids@rogers.com), Keri is now also the founder of the NeshamaDANCE Studio & Event Entertainment. She is passionate about making the Performing Arts & active living accessible to the Jewish community. Well known by kiddies far and wide, as “Morah Keri” Keri has taught dance for all ages throughout Toronto, in Seville, Spain and Jerusalem, Israel and has competed and performed internationally. Keri holds a Specialized Honours Degree in Communications and is an Ontario Certified Teacher (B.Ed.OISE/UT). She is also a licensed Zumba Instructor (ZIN). Keri is also the proud mommy of two NeshamaDANCERS – Meira & Shoshana – and Yehuda, the future tap dancing Torah scholar!
Yocheved Polonsky is a dancer, dance educator, and founder of the Creative Learning Institute of Dance in Cleveland, OH, a Judaic dance and movement arts studio to provide a holistic Jewish environment for the study of dance. Yocheved studied classical ballet, modern dance, jazz, at …
Michelle Penn started dancing at 3 years old. At 14, she joined the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Ballet Theater, under the direction of Angela Mauti. There, I was privileged to dance soloist and principal roles, including the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty and the evil stepsisters …
Rivka Nahari has had many years of training and performing experience in both music and dance. She began her ballet training at the age of 3 and studied in the pre-professional program at the Academy of Nevada Dance Theater where she continued until her graduation from high school at age 17. While at the Academy, she performed yearly in the “Nutracker” ballet and “Cinderella” with the Nevada Dance Theater professional company and danced in numerous performances with the Academy of Nevada Dance Theater Youth Company. She then continued her dance studies at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). In addition to ballet, she has been trained in tap (under the legendary hoofer Henry LeTang), jazz, character, flamenco, and hip hop. Musically, Rivka has been playing the harp professionally since the age of 13. She has performed with almost every orchestra in Las Vegas and played the harp and celleste for the “Nutracker” ballet. She was a piano major at UNLV while on a full harp scholarship and a voice major at the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan. She has also studied flute and has extensive experience in choir, performing in many of the hotels in Las Vegas and singing back-up for such notable artists as Barry Manilow and Michael Jackson and the Jackson Family.
Official Websitehttp://jewishperformingarts.com/
Articles about Rivka:
A native New Yorker, Laura has been playing cello since the age of 6. Currently in her senior year of undergraduate study at the Mannes College of Music, Laura started keeping Shabbos in her freshman year of college. While continuing to perform at classical music …
Lori Leifer is a devoted artist, friend, sister, database programmer and community organizer. She is a proud eynikle (direct descendent) of the great Ndvorna chasidim (of Premishlan) who were known for their chesed and skills on the fiddle. Raised on a farm in upstate, NY, …
Leslie Ginsparg Klein is the founder and director of Girls’ Night On!, an organization that promotes Jewish women in music and the arts. She was inspired to pick up the guitar after going to a women’s open mike night in Israel and started singing/songwriting a few years after that. From 9-5, Leslie serves as the academic dean of Maalot Baltimore, researches the history of Orthodox women’s education, and lectures across the country.
Articles About Leslie & Girls Night On
http://www.girlsnighton.com/press.html
Articles By Leslie
Those Rapping Bais Yaakov Girls
The Troubling Trend of Photoshopping History
Dress Codes and Uniforms as a Socialization Tool
Academic Work
Rachel is a singer/songwriter from Brooklyn, NY. Working as an Acupuncturist by day, on her free time she performs and writes music. Music has always been one of her greatest passions and more recently, began performing within the women’s Jewish music world, aiming to inspire …