He speaks six languages---English, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Aramaic -- but on stage, he prefers to communicate in silence.

After a lengthy hiatus from the Boulder stage, the internationally renowned mime makes his own self visible again, at a benefit performance tonight for the new Boulder Jewish Community Center.

"Mime is the art of capturing the void, making the abstract concrete, making the invisible visible," Avital said, "The purpose of this performance is to prove once again that it is still possible to communicate beautiful values without words through the beautiful art of mime,"

"I believe there are still authentic beings on this planet. This show is a salute to them."

Avital grew up in the 1940's in the Jewish ghetto of Sefrou in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. When he resolved to escape to Israel at age14, he risked being killed or, perhaps even worse, captured and sold into slavery. Following ten years in Israel, he spent periods in Paris and New York, where he studied and worked with mime greats such as Etienne Decroux, and Marcel Marceau.

Next came tours of North and South America and a university teaching stint. Avital moved to Boulder in 1971 and quickly made his mark with Le Centre du Silence Mime School and the Boulder Mime Theatre, which performed locally and beyond for ten years.

His 29-year-old International Summer Mime Workshop attracts students and professionals of diverse art forms from around the world. And for the past three years, Avital has led Café-Salon Philosophique, a philosophical discussion group that currently meets twice per month at the Boulder Book Store.

Of the Boulder JCC benefit, he said, "I'm going to do a select few pieces from my repertoire." As a solo performer, the self-styled "provocateur extraordinaire" specializes in silently, humorously exposing the naked emperors of modern society.

Examples are "The Yoga Student" and "The Painter," a comic send-up of the numerous Picasso wannabes Avital saw in the late1950's in Paris. In the latter piece he tries "to explore the essence of painting and the pretense of the ego."

"Every child has the potential to become an artist, but these days you read one book and you become an expert," he said.

"Not every face in the town square is a mime, not every writer of menus is a poet, not every guitar scratcher is a musician and not every house painter is a Picasso."

Believing that laughter is the most powerful teaching tool, Avital strives to "break the logic and conditioning of my audiences. Learning has to be pleasurable, not painful."

"The true authentic artist knows how to ease the sea of sadness we swim in."

Avital has trademarked an original system of mind-body integration, BodySpeak™, produced a video and written several books and numerous articles in assorted languages. This fall, he will make his first-ever trip to Germany with a four-city performing tour.