Tag Archives: Eri Nakamura

BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: HORA

Batsheva Dance Company brings Hora back to New York in two-week Joyce engagement (photo by Steven Pisano)

HORA
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
February 28 – March 12, $10-$75
212-691-9740
www.joyce.org
www.batsheva.co.il

Next year is the one hundredth anniversary of the Jewish circle dance known as the Hora, created by Baruch Agadati in Palestine in 1924, influenced by Romanian and Greek traditions. The dance is a staple of Jewish American weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, usually accompanied by the folk song “Hava Nagila” and including the lifting of various celebrants on chairs. The Tel Aviv–based Batsheva Dance Company is paying tribute to that centennial by bringing back former artistic director and current house choreographer Ohad Naharin’s sixty-minute Hora, continuing at the Joyce through March 12.

When the 2009 piece came to BAM in 2012, I called it “a mesmerizing experience, a stunning balance of light, color, sound, and movement from one of the world’s most innovative and entertaining choreographers.” It is just as mesmerizing today.

Batsheva and Naharin have dazzled us with such other pieces as Deca Dance, Three, Minus 16, Project 5, Venezuela, and Last Work; this return to Hora is a welcome one, even if the required mask-wearing muffles some of the audience’s exhilarated gasping.

Naharin’s Hora features no chairs and no “Hava Nagila”; it takes place in an empty rectangular space bordered on three sides by a green wall, with a long bench (designed by Amir Raveh) in the back where the eleven dancers sit when not dancing. Isao Tomita’s electronic score incorporates such familiar sounds as Richard Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” Richard Wagner’s “Tannhauser: Overture” and “Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries,” Charles Edward Ives’s “The Unanswered Question,” Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” Modest Mussorgsky’s “Catacombs,” and a whistled version of John Williams’s main theme from Star Wars. (The sound design and editing is by Maxim Waratt.)

The show starts with the eleven dancers rising from the bench and approaching the front of the stage, set and lighting designer Avi Yona Bueno initially casting them in silhouette. It is one of only a few times the performers will move in unison; they break out into solos and other configurations, seldom coming into contact with one another as they proceed in Batsheva’s unique Gaga language, ranging from sharp, angular gestures to nearly impossible formations that resemble animals, insects, and even animated video game characters. I’m still trying to figure out how Ohad Mazor touched his foot to his elbow.

There are also dazzling moments from Eri Nakamura (who designed the black costumes), Billy Barry (undulating on the floor), Sean Howe (repeatedly hitting himself in the head), Londiwe Khoza, Matan Cohen, Chiaki Horita (gyrating her torso) — well, the entire company, which also includes Chen Agron, Yarden Bareket, Yael Ben Ezer, Guy Davidson, Ben Green, Li-En Hsu, Adrienne Lipson, Gianni Notarnicola, Danai Porat, Igor Ptashenchuk, and Yoni (Yonatan) Simon, who all display a thrilling physicality, testing the boundaries of what the human body could, and should, do.

When all eleven dancers are off the bench, it is hard to know where to focus your attention, as they are all doing different things; if you follow a cartwheel, you might miss a trio rolling over the floor or a duo balancing against each other’s buttocks. To watch the entire troupe at once is to get absorbed in a kind of whirlwind of life in all its unpredictability and excitement. But no matter where you look, prepare to be amazed.

BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: VENEZUELA

Batsheva’s Venezuela offers chills and thrills at BAM (photo by Stephanie Berger)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
March 27-30, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
batsheva.co.il/en

Batsheva’s Venezuela is yet another exhilarating must-see work from one of the world’s most adventurous and exciting companies. Running March 27–30 at the Howard Gilman Opera House, the evening-length piece, which doesn’t overtly reference the titular, troubled South American nation in its narrative, consists of two forty-minute sections. In the first part, the Israeli troupe moves as a group, breaks into energetic solos and daring duets, skips around with delight, and lines up at the front of the stage, each dancer stepping forward one at a time as two men rap Biggie’s NSFW “Dead Wrong” (“The weak or the strong / who got it goin’ on / You’re dead wrong”). The women ride the men like donkeys. In a blur, the cast, all dressed in black (the costumes are by dancer Eri Nakamura), briskly skip from one side to the other, some moving forward, some backward, chaos threatening but soon replaced by a childlike wonder. The music primarily consists of Gregorian chants until a growing drone overtakes everything and the lights go out.

Batsheva dancers repeat themselves in dazzling ways in Ohad Naharin’s Venezuela at BAM (photo by Stephanie Berger)

The lights come back on and there are different dancers now onstage, and for the next forty minutes they perform the exact same choreography, only to a different soundtrack (including songs by Rage Against the Machine, Olafur Arnalds, and Vox; the lush soundtrack design and edit is by Maxim Waratt) and with different lighting by Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi), offering an enchanting perspective on what choreographer Ohad Naharin showed us in the first half, his Gaga movement language telling a new story. Even the blank cloths that were dropped in the first section now become colorful symbols. The first Batsheva work to come to New York since former company dancer Gili Navot took over as artistic director from Naharin, who is now house choreographer, Venezuela is another triumph from a scintillating company that has been enriching dance and dazzling audiences for decades.

VENEZUELA

Batsheva’s Venezuela dances into BAM this week (photo by Asca)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
March 27-30, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
batsheva.co.il/en

Superstar Israeli troupe Batsheva Dance Company is back at BAM this week with Ohad Naharin’s Venezuela, running March 27-30 at the Howard Gilman Opera House. The evening-length work consists of two forty-minute sections that mirror each other movement-wise but change the score, which ranges from Gregorian chants to songs by Rage Against the Machine, Olafur Arnalds, the Notorious B.I.G., and Vox. Under Naharin’s leadership, Batsheva has been presenting dance at BAM for many years, including The Last Work, Hora, and Sadeh21; this will be the main troupe’s first visit since former company dancer Gili Navot took over as artistic director, with Naharin remaining as house choreographer to develop new pieces and continue his research into his unique Gaga language. Venezuela, which addresses freedom of choice and has been percolating in Naharin for decades, is performed by Etay Axelroad, Billy Barry, Yael Ben Ezer, Matan Cohen, Ben Green, Chiaki Horita, Chunwoong Kim, Rani Lebzelter, Hugo Marmelada, Eri Nakamura, Nitzan Ressler, Kyle Scheurich, Maayan Sheinfeld, Yoni (Yonatan) Simon, Hani Sirkis, Amalia Smith, Imre van Opstal, and Erez Zohar, with lighting by Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi), soundtrack design and edit by Maxim Waratt, and costumes by Nakamura. On March 29 at 10:30 am at the Mark Morris Dance Center, a Batsheva company member will lead a Gaga and Repertory master class for professionals ($25).

LAST WORK

Batsheva Dance Company perform exhilarating LAST WORK at BAM through February 4 (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
February 1-4, $25-$65, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.batsheva.co.il

There’s no need to worry about the title of Ohad Naharin’s latest piece for Batsheva Dance Company; he’s been considering the title Last Work for eight or nine of his previous efforts, merely representing that it’s the latest, not a career-ending finale. And that’s a very good thing, because Last Work, continuing at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House through February 4, shows the kibbutz-born Israeli choreographer, who since 1990 has led Batsheva — founded in 1964 by Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, with Martha Graham as its first artistic adviser — still at the top of his game. For sixty-five minutes, seventeen members of the immensely talented Tel Aviv-based troupe speak to the audience in Naharin’s unique Gaga movement language, employing gesticulations and motion that emphasize body parts, animal instincts, pleasure, freedom, and imagination. “We are turning on the volume of listening to our body, we appreciate small gestures, we are measuring and playing with the texture of our flesh and skin, we might be silly, we can laugh at ourselves,” Naharin explains about Gaga, and Last Work features all that and more. The curtain rises to reveal a woman in a blue dress and sneakers running in place at the back of the stage, seemingly suspended in air. The dancers wear different-colored shorts and tops at the start, changing into dark outfits and, later, off-white undergarments, designed by dancer Eri Nakamura (Naharin’s wife), melding well with Avi Yona Bueno’s (Bambi) lighting.

Batsheva Dance Company reach out and touch one another in LAST WORK (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Memorable moments abound, including all the dancers placing their hands over one standing man’s body, the company wriggling across the floor on their butts, individual solos with sharp, angular movements of knees and elbows, an emotional pas de deux by Bret Easterling and Zina (Natalya) Zinchenko (the latter in a tutu), and two women slowly reaching their hands out as they tilt back their heads in yearning, all set to Grischa Lichtenberger’s score, which ranges from electronic music to Romanian lullabies. (Three words Naharin, who has a young daughter with Nakamura, told his company to consider when formulating the piece were “baby,” “ballerina,” and “executioner.”) Although there is no specific narrative thread through most of Last Work, it concludes with a series of surprise props that make ambiguous, and funny, political references; Naharin, who was previously at BAM with 2014’s Sadeh21, 2012’s Hora, and 2007’s Three, has been outspoken in his support of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, resulting in protests against Batsheva from both sides because he refuses to denounce either. And then packing tape brings everyone and everything together, even the runner, who has not stopped for a second. Last Work is another exhilarating triumph from one of the world’s most inventive, entertaining, and influential choreographers. (For more on Naharin and Batsheva, you can check out Tomer Heymann’s new documentary, Mr. Gaga, at Film Forum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with several screenings followed by Q&As and demonstrations.)

BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY: LAST WORK

Batsheva Dance Company will perform LAST WORK at BAM February 1-4 (photo by Gadi Dagon)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
February 1-4, $25-$65, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.batsheva.co.il

Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin and his Batsheva Dance Company return to BAM this week with Last Work, which, happily, is not the outstanding troupe’s farewell piece. Previously at BAM with 2014’s Sadeh21 and 2012’s Hora, Batsheva is presenting the New York premiere of the sixty-five-minute Last Work, which debuted in 2015 at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel-Aviv. Gaga guru Naharin’s collaborators include lighting designer Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi), soundtrack designer Maxim Warratt, stage designer Zohar Shoef, composer Grischa Lichtenberger, and costume designer Eri Nakamura; the piece, which melds the personal with the political in unpredictable and surprising ways, will be performed by William Barry, Yael Ben Ezer, Matan Cohen, Omri Drumlevich, Bret Easterling, Hsin-Yi Hsiang, Rani Lebzelter, Ori Moshe Ofri, Rachael Osborne, Nitzan Ressler, Ian Robinson, Kyle Scheurich, Or Meir Schraiber, Maayan Sheinfeld, Yoni Simon, Bobbi Jene Smith, Zina (Natalya) Zinche, and Nakamura. In addition, Tomer Heymann’s new documentary about Naharin and Batsheva, Mr. Gaga, will be shown at BAMcinématek on January 30, followed by a Q&A with Naharin and producer Barak Heymann, moderated by Wendy Perron. The film opens February 1 at Film Forum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with several screenings followed by Q&As and Gaga demonstrations.