TOVA: The Other Voice Alive is a US artistic residency and performance platform created by award-winning theatre director and choreographer
Sagí Amir Gros . The name TOVA comes from the feminine form of the Hebrew word tov , meaning “good”.
Bringing together dance, theatre, music and film, TOVA creates emotionally direct artistic experiences exploring home, migration, memory, identity and belonging.
Its first New York chapter is being developed through a series of artistic phases at 92NY / 92nd Street Y across 2027 and 2028.
Sagí Amir Gros’ work has been presented internationally at institutions including the Louvre Museum in Paris, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Sydney Dance Company and Grand Rapids Ballet in Michigan, among many others.
Born into a Jewish Yemeni-Romanian family, Sagí Amir Gros, is an Israeli-Dutch artist whose practice has been shaped across Germany and the Netherlands, as well as through multiple languages and cultural contexts. Living and working across four languages while creating internationally has shaped his understanding that experience is never translated in exactly the same way from one language, body or culture into another.
Personal stories therefore form an important point of departure in his work, not as autobiography alone, but as a way of opening individual experience toward wider questions of memory, identity, belonging and human connection.
TOVA believes in the ability of art, music, movement and expression to bring people together, transform silence into dialogue and remind us of our shared humanity.
TOVA brings together artists and audiences across the United States and Europe. Moving between performance, film, education and public dialogue, it combines artistic excellence with meaningful cultural exchange and engagement.
TOVA is a fiscally sponsored project of Jewish Creativity International, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Its developing New York program includes performances and artistic activities with 92NY / 92nd Street Y , while building toward a wider network of partnerships with cultural institutions across New York City and beyond.
At the heart of this work is Sagí Amir Gros’ pioneering artistic philosophy, Physical Script: The Body as an Archive, which approaches the body as a living archive, where physical movement and lived experience become narratives capable of building empathy, unearthing generational memory, and opening new possibilities for dialogue. Developed through years of artistic practice and research, the methodology was further advanced through a large-scale international research project across Germany and the Netherlands between 2022 and 2024, with a research budget of approximately €225,000. Collaborators included Dr. Derrick Brown and Karyn Benquet of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), among others. Click the image to watch the short film about the research.
TOVA is moving from vision into its first concrete chapter in New York:
With artistic activities already developing with 92NY / 92nd Street Y across 2027 and 2028, the next step is to give the artists, ideas and communities behind TOVA the resources to come together and create.
Reaching this fundraising goal will make it possible to pay artists fairly, provide rehearsal and creation time, develop new performances and films, organise community and educational encounters, and bring this work directly to New York audiences.
This campaign is therefore not about building an organisation for its own sake. It is about creating the conditions in which the work can actually happen: artists in the studio, performers on stage, communities in conversation, and new work meeting an audience.
The foundation is being built now. The support raised today determines how fully TOVA can realise its first New York chapter and how strongly it can grow from there.
See: How do you go HOME?
Visit: Instagram
First event
June 18, 2027 | Opening of the Dance on Film Festival at 92NY / 92nd Street Y:
Dance on Film Festival at 92nd Street Y, NYC https://www.92ny.org/event/dance-on-film-festival
Second event
October 2027, TOVA will present the New York premiere of Your Silence is Loud XXL at the 92nd Street Y.
Originally created and premiered in Cologne, Germany in 2026, Your Silence is Loud is a multidisciplinary work that explores themes of speech, silence, generational memory, and civic responsibility.
The NYC presentation transforms the original work into a large scale re-creation, expanding its scope and bringing together international guest artists alongside dynamic local young performers from New York City.
See: Your Silence is Loud by Sagí Amir Gros - Cologne Germany
Third event
Spring 2028 | New Creation at 92NY - 92nd Street Y. A new interdisciplinary creation Kiss & Tell at 92NY / 92nd Street Y, developed in collaboration with the Music Department, bringing together live music and dance to explore Jewish cultural identity, contemporary expression and artistic innovation.
Educational platforms
We will offer masterclasses for both professional artists and the wider community, focusing on Sagí Amir Gros' artistic philosophy, Physical Script: The Body as an Archive. The methodology encourages participants to develop confidence and embodied awareness, using their own bodies, histories and experiences as tools for expression.
The educational program will take place twice each year in 2027 and 2028, with a total of four masterclasses for the general public, dance students and young professionals.
What your support will build
To build TOVA: The Other Voice Alive into a sustainable artistic platform in New York, we are launching a two-phase fundraising campaign.
Our initial fundraising goal is $135,000, the first phase of a larger $250,000 budget for TOVA's 2027 and 2028 New York programme.
Your support directly enables the people and resources behind the work: New York artists, rehearsals, studios, production, community programmes, communications and the development of new artistic work.
New York production leadership
Supporting Jewish cultural entrepreneur and producer Noah Waxman to lead TOVA's development and production in New York and across the United States.
With experience across New York's cultural landscape, including Broadway and Lincoln Center, as well as international cultural exchange through the Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Noah brings together producing experience, cultural diplomacy and an established network across the performing arts and international cultural sector.
His role with TOVA will focus on building the project's New York foundation: developing institutional and artistic partnerships, coordinating production, connecting TOVA with local and national cultural networks, and helping establish a sustainable platform beyond its first events.
New York Artists and creative employment
Supporting professional fees, rehearsals and the creative process for New York-based dancers and collaborating artists involved in the re-creation of Your Silence Is Loud and TOVA's wider artistic programme. Your Silence Is Loud is an interdisciplinary work born from the aftermath of October 7, exploring Jewish identity, memory, silence and the urgent question of how we remain in dialogue when societies become increasingly divided.
For its New York premiere, we do not want simply to bring the European production to the United States. TOVA will re-create the work with New York-based dance artists, giving a new generation of local performers the opportunity to enter the production and bring their own bodies, histories and perspectives into its Physical Script.
The New York premiere of Your Silence is Loud is planned for October 2027 at 92NY.
Marketing and communications in New York
Hiring a New York-based marketing and communications specialist to build TOVA's local visibility, develop audiences, connect with press, cultural networks, potential partners and supporters, and promote TOVA's upcoming New York programme.
Building a meaningful presence in New York requires more than presenting excellent work. It requires sustained communication with the communities, cultural institutions, media and audiences we want to reach.
Studios, masterclasses and community building
Securing studio space in New York for rehearsals, Physical Script: The Body as an Archive masterclasses, workshops and encounters with professional artists and wider communities.
These spaces allow TOVA not only to present finished work, but to create in New York, employ local artists and build an artistic community around the work.
Through professional masterclasses and community programmes, Physical Script creates opportunities for people with different histories and backgrounds to explore the body as a place of memory, expression and dialogue.
What 92NY Supports, and what your contribution makes possible
92NY provides an important presenting platform for TOVA's scheduled performances and contributes to the presentation of those events. It does not fund TOVA's ongoing artistic development, New York production team, artist fees, rehearsals, studios, communications or community programs.
That is where your support makes the difference.
Philanthropic support gives TOVA the capacity to create the work, employ the artists and professionals behind it, and develop a lasting artistic presence in New York.
Become part of TOVA
Every contribution helps bring TOVA’s New York programme to life. Support makes possible professional artist fees, rehearsal and creation time, new performances and films, live music, community encounters, and the presentation of new work to New York audiences.
We welcome contributions from $100, while supporters wishing to make a more substantial commitment can become part of TOVA's growing circle of Patrons.
Major supporters and Patrons of TOVA will be invited into a closer relationship with the artistic journey, with opportunities for personal invitations to performances and special events, encounters with the artists, invitations to selected rehearsals or work-in-progress moments, and direct updates from Sagí about the development of TOVA and its New York programme.
For supporters considering gifts of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000 or more, we welcome a personal conversation about becoming a Patron of TOVA and helping shape the foundation of its future in New York.
Patronage is more than supporting a single performance. It is an invitation to accompany an artistic vision as it grows.
Contributions to TOVA are made through its fiscal sponsor, Jewish Creativity International, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Whether through a contribution or by sharing TOVA with others who believe in its vision, you become part of building The Other Voice Alive in New York.
