The Art of Ohad Naharin

The Art of Ohad Naharin

Founded in Tel-Aviv in 1964, the Batsheva Dance Company has been headed since 1990 by Ohad Naharin: an incredible dancer with a musical training, who has a true passion for movement. Through his “Gaga” technique, a choreographic vocabulary that explores the sensations and the availability of the bodies, he made his mark on the dance world and offered the company its finest hours. In 2015, Tomer Heymann’s documentary “Mr. Gaga” paid tribute to the Naharin phenomenon, its influence on the contemporary dance scene and in pop culture. This diptych aims to broaden the Batsheva videography by, as a showcase of Naharin’s aesthetics and demanding technique, featuring two of the most emblematic works in the company’s current repertoire, both filmed in Paris: Naharin’s Virus and Last Work

A collective creation, Naharin’s Virus is, in a way, a dialogue between Naharin’s choreographic style and the Batsheva dancers’. Its starting point is the text Publikumsbeschimpfung (Offending the Audience) by the Austrian playwright Peter Handke. An aesthetic manifesto, it is also a political piece: it is worth noting, for instance, that it features traditional music written by a Palestinian composer…

A carefully negotiated balance between frenzy and meditation, a frail and unstable whole saturated with an enigmatic opacity and symbolism, Last Work is also a politically committed, ethically-charged piece reflecting on war, peace, oppression and coercion. While dance is stretched up to its limits, Naharin’s choreographic gesture calls for a new outlook on our contemporary world, its violence, its possibilities, its future.

NAHARIN’S VIRUS
by Ohad Naharin
after the play by Peter Handke Offending the Audience

With William Barry, Omri Drumlevich, Bret Easterling, Iyar Elezra, Rani Lebzelter, Eri Nakamura, Rachael Osborne, Shamel Pitts, Oscar Ramos, Nitzan Ressler, Ian Robinson, Or Meir Schraiber, Maayan Sheinfeld, Bobbi Smith, Zina (Natalya) Zinchenko, Adi Zlatin

Original music and musical consultant : Karni Postel
Additional music : Samuel Barber, Carlos d’Alessio, P. Stokes & P. Parsons
Arab folk music : Jana Jana, Al Ghariba, Lesh Insfar interprété par le groupe Al Majad, fondé par Habib Alla Jamal
Arrangement, Oud : Shama Khader
Vocals : Shama Mazen

Costumes : Zohar Shoef
Lighting design : Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi)

Extracts of the Play Offending the Audience by Peter Handke
English Translation by Michael Roloff
© Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin

LAST WORK
by Ohad Naharin

With Billy Barry, Yael Ben Ezer, Matan Cohen, Omri Drumlevich, Bret Easterling, Hsin-Yi Hsiang, Chunwoong Kim, Rani Lebzelter, Eri Nakamura, Ori Moshe Ofri, Nitzan Ressler, Or Meir Schreiber, Maayan Sheinfeld, Yoni (Yonatan) Simon, Amalia Smith, Bobbi Jene Smith, Zina (Natalia) Zinchenko

Original music : Grischa Lichtenberger
Additional music : Sagat, Hysterics, MPIA3, Monkeys, Luminox, Lullabies-Of-Europe, Clara Rockmore

Scenography : Zohar Shoef
Costumes : Eri Nakamura