We have detected that you are using an adblocking plugin in your browser.

The revenue we earn by the advertisements is used to manage this website. Please whitelist our website in your adblocking plugin.

SCRUTINY | Batsheva Dance Company Draws Out The Curious With Decadance 2017

By Melanie Zuzarte on January 15, 2017

The Batsheva Dance Company Decadance 2017 (Photo: Maxim Waratt)
The Batsheva Dance Company Decadance 2017 (Photo: Maxim Waratt)

The Batsheva Dance Company

Decadance 2017  with Ohad Naharin (choreographer), at The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Saturday, Jan. 14.

As part of their all new International Dance Collection Trilogy, The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, welcomed the Batsheva Dance Company (from Israel) as their second guest last night to Toronto audiences.

The Batsheva Dance Company performed ‘Decadance 2017’, which included a collection of work from Artistic Director’s, Ohad Naharin’s creations.

True to form, the Batsheva Dance Company immediately threw the audience into the mix by inviting our eyes onto the stage and partaking in a twitch warm up — perhaps already part of our everyday lexicon albeit buried within our automatic thoughts and actions. Ohad Naharin’s vision is ‘to unlearn the process’. Through choreography, he tests the audience ‘to let go’ just as he has encouraged his dancer’s to not become a product of their immense dance training. In ‘Decadance 2017’, the audience is asked to look through a more human lens as oppose to a mechanized one in what we think a modern dance movement style should be.

The curtain closes and reminds the audience that these scenes are blinks in time. The curtain rises, and we see the dancers suited and hatted in contrast to their flailing bodies, hectic voices scream out while clothes and shoes fly in hapless union. They are now longer walking the line; they have regressed and taken on animalistic tones as they chant along to ‘Echad Mi Yodea’ a traditional folk song arranged and performed by Ohad Naharin and Tractor’s Revenge. The audience feels the meditation brewing in the room and in our chests.

The music begins to lull the audience into a trance allowing your mind to inhale the visceral and direct movement of the dancer’s bodies. The dance movement style is accessible and is comparable to an audience member drinking a fine wine or listening to music within the comfort of their home. Songs like ‘The Pearl’ from Harold Budd and Brian Eno and remixed by Maxim Waratt and Arab Folk Music arranged by Habib Alla Jamal and Khader Shama punctuate the dance experience with even further detail and richness.

The dancer’s bodies take on different forms throughout ‘Decadance 2017’. At first loose and free, then the mixing in of traditional ballet sculptures and then a Gaga-esque movement style. The movement is matched in blanketed music that ranges from traditional Jewish folk songs, classical snippets and a handpicked ‘audience only’ dance off to a techno beated ‘(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow’ from Harold Arlen (adapted by Marusha).

The ‘You’re Welcome’ (from Brian Wilson performed by the Beach Boys) in closing, was Kumbaya in intent in summarizing the learning from the performance. The theme of ‘not letting go’ but rather being colonized by a new understanding is an easy take away from the Batsheva Dance Company’s ‘Decadance 2017’. A harder goal would be ‘being available’ and incorporating that theme into the landscape of our daily lives. Naharin has raised the bar high.

To truly appreciate Naharin’s artistic vision, catch ‘Mr. Gaga’ a documentary from Mongrel Media (in March 2017) which provides a behind the scenes snapshot into his life, dance aesthetic and dreams for the Batsheva Dance Company.

Latest posts by Melanie Zuzarte (see all)

For more REVIEWS, click HERE.

#LUDWIGVAN

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for all the latest.

Share this article
lv_toronto_banner_high_590x300
comments powered by Disqus

FREE ARTS NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX, EVERY MONDAY BY 6 AM

company logo

Part of

Terms of Service & Privacy Policy
© 2024 | Executive Producer Moses Znaimer