Art in motion
Why Tel Aviv has established a reputation as a hotspot for modern dance
WORDS: RACHEL SHABI
SOME PEOPLE SAY IT’S BECAUSE OF ALL THE FOLK DANCING AT SCHOOL. Others, more mystically, put it down to a lucky constellation of talent, place and timing. But whatever the reason, most agree that Israeli modern dance is causing a sensation across global stages at the moment – and Tel Aviv is the creative powerhouse that’s running the show.
Israeli dancer troupes have been showing off their fancy footwork for some decades now, but recently their performances have caused waves of applause and approval. Critics from London to LA have raved that Israeli dance troupes and choreographers are “like nothing seen before” and describe shows as “the most important this millennium”. Packed performances have both enchanted and intrigued audiences around the world and raised the question: what’s sparked this Israeli dance explosion?
“There is something unique about the way our dancers move on stage, the way they express themselves,” says Naomi Bloch Fortis, general manager and co-artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company, based in Tel Aviv. “Once the curtain opens, the dynamics, the way the dancers use their bodies, and the demands we make of the audience are very different.”
Batsheva is one of the world’s most respected dance companies, founded and directed during the mid-1960s by the US contemporary dance icon Martha Graham. A pioneer of modern dance, Graham established Batsheva as a company that tested boundaries and brought passion, power and innovation to dance performances. When current artistic director Ohad Naharin joined in the early 1990s, the company’s global reputation as a dynamic and distinctly physical dance troupe took hold. His creations for the company resulted in Batsheva being tagged Israel’s foremost cultural ambassadors, with hundreds of performances worldwide.
“Ohad Naharin created a signature language, a new style of movement and composition,” says Bloch Fortis. Born on an Israeli kibbutz in the 1950s, Naharin danced with Batsheva before taking off to New York – a magnet for contemporary dancers – to develop his own style of choreography. He is a proponent of a big and bold style of physical language on stage – variously precise or full-bodied, with rapid switches between the two.
This month, Batsheva will be performing a new work, Hora, amongst other crowd-packing works at the Suzanne Dellal centre in the charming Neve Tzedek quarter of Tel Aviv. Hora is the Israeli national dance, but Naharin has said that he was simply drawn to the sound of the word, which has different meanings in several languages.
Premiered early this year, Hora is billed as a humorous work; the 11-member ensemble was encouraged to treat rehearsals as playground and develop the ability to laugh at themselves. The result, while reliably fresh, still contains some signature Batsheva themes: dense, intense movement, explosive physicality and a bold, vigorous use of stage space.
THIS PURE THRILL FACTOR OF ISRAELI DANCE IS ALSO IN EVIDENCE IN THE WORK OF THE HOFESH SHECHTER COMPANY IN LONDON.
The Israeli-born choreographer is hot property in the UK and beyond, having staged a recent row of shows that gleaned rave reviews. Shechter, once a member of the Batsheva troupe, says:
“Dancing has a lot to do with hope and lifting people’s spirits. I definitely felt that as a kid in Israel – that dance was all about creating a party, a more positive energy.” Shechter believes that the ubiquity of dance in Israel – from schools to street level – makes it a solid professional prospect. “Dance is so present, so available in Israel and that allowed me to choose it,” he says. “Although sport is also popular, male dancers are readily accepted.”
Shechter grew up in Jerusalem where his talent was immediately spotted during folk dancing lessons at school. He joined a national folk-dance troop and was performing worldwide by the time he was a teenager. He says the collectivism of Israeli society made his own focus more personal. “I’m interested in individuals and people,” he says. “What interests me is the way we experience strong emotions to do with identity – and there is something very primitive about the process, of dividing ourselves into tribes.” These themes crop up in Shechter’s sell-out shows Uprising and In Your Rooms, which were critically acclaimed in the UK earlier this year. Also a musician, this Israeli choreographer often composes the soundtrack to his own shows – and the performances can have a distinct rock concert feel to them. “I enjoy loud music!” he says. “The dance pieces are a total experience of both visual and audio – it can get quite overwhelming.”
Shechter, whose company is set to go on a world tour again next year, says there remain distinct parallels between his work and that of the Batsheva company in Tel Aviv.
“Every choreographer has different motivations and paints in different colours. But Israeli dance does have common themes – and there is always this quality that Israeli dance has, of spilling off the stage and into the auditorium.”
Israeli dance is unashamedly in-your-face – but that’s part of the reason why the performances are so popular.
Hora is on 27 October at the Suzanne Dellal Centre, 6 Yechieli Street, Tel Aviv. Box office: +972 3510 4037, www.batsheva.co.il
