Naharin's Virus

What is the virus that runs through this piece created in 2001 by Ohad Naharin? That of dance, which takes hold of bodies like a trance? That of the stage, which isn’t what we believe it to be, as a black-clad master of ceremonies announces from the outset? Or that of deconstruction, at work in this masterful composition by the Israeli choreographer...

Probably all of this at once, not to mention what each spectator will project onto a show that is deliberately open to all interpretations. For what matters here is precisely the question of representation, with its codified stakes, its captive audience, its stated intentions and, ultimately, its ability to reinvent itself hic et nunc. The blackboard at the back of the stage - a wall? - on which, as the show progresses, the renewed miracle of gestures that make sense is written. Literally, like the word "You" calligraphed by a dancer with the curves of her body. Or symbolically, like the various drawings and scribbles that, at the end of the show, cover the surface like so many explanations or backgrounds of a message that is more subversive than it seems. The text recited by the performers, Peter Handke’s Offending the Audience, resonates like an admonition to shake up the certainties of a black-and-white world, in the image of the dancers’ two-tone costumes. In this troubled space, where the very idea of creation is called into question, only the power of gesture remains. That of the Batsheva, to the traditional music of Palestinian composer Habib Alla Jamal, is prodigious. It offers fascinating ensembles of shared energy, while allowing each performer complete freedom of movement. Naharin’s Virus lingers long in the memory, like a subtle perfume of jubilant subversion.

Based on the play by Peter Handke

Choregraphy Ohad Naharin
Choregraphy assistant Michal Sayfan
Bastheva Dance Company

Costumes Zoha Shoef, Rakefet Levi
Lighting Avi Yona Bueno "Bambi"
Sound Frankie Lievaart
Music creation Karni Postel

 Production Batsheva Dance Company

^{Photo © Gadi Dagon}