Photo Credit Elad Debi.
Renewal is now being featured in the Library of Theater and Dance at the University of Texas at El Paso. Director of Dance, Melissa Melpignano, Ph.D, shared her thoughts regarding the film:
"With a discreet and curious eye, Stacey Menchel Kussell's Renewal introduces us to the modes of feeling and living art of one of the leading Israeli dance companies, Vertigo, based between Jerusalem and their "eco art village" in the Ellah Valley. Through dance footages of performance and rehearsals, and interviews with the founders, leaders, and dancers of the company, this documentary accompanies dance scholars and students in decentering Israeli dance discourses from Tel Aviv, and is of great interest for all those invested in the 21st-century reinventions and legacies of kibbutz culture at the intersection of environmentalism and community-building."