Nitsan Margaliot

“Goodbye” is a solo piece by the choreographer and dancer Nitsan Margaliot, inspired by the tapestry of his own family history. A choreographic journey through absent memories, accompanied by whispering piano notes, the piece traces the almost impossible encounter with the past.

His grandfather, born in Chemnitz in 1920 under the name Adolf, fled to Palestine/Israel during the Holocaust and later changed his name to Abraham. Margaliot’s own middle name, Avraham, is a reminder of him. Having himself made the reverse journey and spent most of his adult life in Germany, Nitsan Margaliot attempts in “Goodbye” to come to terms with his family history, whereby traces of the past enter into a coexistence with the present.

The soundscape of the piece is inspired by the Margaliot family's piano, which escaped the Holocaust; it was later donated to the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem and displayed at the German Bundestag and at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. By referring to this story along with other family anecdotes, a letter by Nitsan to his grandfather, and archival objects, the piece shifts from concrete to poetic encounters.

The piece describes the story of flight and longing that continues to shape his family to this day, transforming memory into movement and absence into presence. The piece becomes a record of the evocation of two bodies: his own and that of his grandfather, whom Margaliot never met.