CriticalDance Forum

Always moving on By Helen Kaye -- Ohad Naharin gleefully looks forward to his second decade as artistic director of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company -- <P> <A HREF="http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/12/04/Culture/CultureNews.16762.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/12/04/Culture/CultureNews.16762.html</A> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited April 16, 2002).]

From the Chicago Tribune:<P><B>CHOREOGRAPHER IS FAST ON HIS FEET</B> <P>By Richard Christiansen <BR>Tribune chief critic <BR>April 17, 2001 <P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Please do not tell Ohad Naharin that his "Passomezzo," which Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is staging as part of its spring season in the Cadillac Palace, is considered one of his signature works.<P>If you do, he will answer, "Signature work? What's that? Who told you that? I never do signatures. What I do is more like a scribble. No, definitely not a signature."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://chicagotribune.com/leisure/features/article/0,2669,SAV-0104170013,FF.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><BR>

From the Chicago Tribune:<P><B>Naharin work a program stealer at Hubbard Street's spring gala</B><P>By Richard Christiansen <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Only two of Ohad Naharin's works have been performed here by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, but those two are more than enough to demonstrate a choreographer of great wit, invention and humanity.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR><A HREF="http://metromix.com/top/1,1419,M-Metromix-CriticsReviews-X!ArticleDetail-11579,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><BR>

In the NY Times:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Friendly Gestures: Israeli Modern Dance With Israeli-Arab Music<P>Ohad Naharin is the director of the Batsheva Dance Company of Tel Aviv and an Israeli modern-dance choreographer whose work has been performed worldwide. His "Naharin's Virus," based on Peter Handke's absurdist play, will be performed by Batsheva at the Brooklyn Academy of Music April 30 to May 4. Created in 2000 amid Israeli-Palestinian violence, "Naharin's Virus" is set in part to music by an Arab-Israeli composer, Habib Alla Jamal. Mr. Naharin spoke to Jennifer Dunning in by telephone on a visit to Manhattan late last month.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/16/arts/dance/16QNA.html target=_blank>More</a>

Very interesting dance by Ohad. It makes an interesting point...audiences tend to "project" their own fears, issues and preoccupations on a work of art, even if the work of art is meant to be "neutral" or abstract, even. This seems to be a case in point, highlighting or hitting a nerve of the current Israeli/Palestinian problems.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Mr. Naharin Regrets<BR>From Handke With Love<P>Jack Waters, Village Voice<P>Ohad Naharin, Batsheva Dance Company's artistic director and principal choreographer, is passionate about the political aspects of his Naharin's Virus, which has its American premiere April 30 through May 4 at BAM.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0216/waters.php target=_blank>More</a>

<BR>Anna Kisselgoff writes in the NY Times:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin has specialized in works that can be understood, if not necessarily comprehended. There is, typically, nothing literal about "Naharin's Virus," the exciting and original dance piece that the Batsheva Dance Company from Tel Aviv is presenting at the Brooklyn Academy of Music through Saturday night.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/arts/dance/02VIRU.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Click for More</B></A><BR>

Deborah Jowitt in the Village Voice:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Much has been made of Ohad Naharin's disagreement with Israel's position in regard to the Palestinians and his use of music by Arab composer Habib Allah Jamal for Naharin's Virus, the choreographer's latest work for Batsheva, the Tel Aviv-based company he directs.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0219/jowitt.php target=_blank>More</a>, in the third item of the linked article

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>postmodernism fails an Israeli choreographer<P>TOBI TOBIAS, NY Mag<P>For publicity purposes, much has been made of the fact that Naharin's Virus, created by the Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin for his Batsheva Dance Company, uses music by the Arab-Israeli composer Habib Alla Jamal.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.newyorkmag.com/page.cfm?page_id=6035 target=_blank>More</a>

<B>THEY STRIP AWAY PRETENSE OF WORDS</B> <BR>By CLIVE BARNES in The NY Post, who also reviews Martha Clarke's "Vienna: Lusthaus (Revisited)"<P><BR>May 19, 2002 -- Some people are unwilling to try theater that isn't either a standard play or musical. But there are worthy alternative works out there that creatively combine music and drama, including those by such masters as Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor and Lee Breuer, not to mention pieces by modern multi-media gurus Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage. <P>Two recent examples of music theater, Ohad Naharin's "Naharin's Virus" and Martha Clarke's "Vienna: Lusthaus (Revisited)," add a twist to the genre by deposing the word and making dance the instrument with the muscle.<P><A HREF="http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/48244.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>

BARRY DAVIS - The Jerusalem Post, Oct. 3, 2002: more...

Batsheva Dance Company performs Anaphaza at the Esplanade this weekend
By Sean Au for channelnewsasia


Where can you get a blend of modern theatre, opera, film and rock in a dance?

The Esplanade is the answer, as it is putting on one such programme by an Israeli dance company this weekend.

Anaphaza has been performed by the Batsheva Dance Company extensively in the past 10 years throughout Europe and America.

Its choreographer describes the dance as "sculpture in a big space" and the performance pushes the dancers' limits.

click for more

I just love having a dance company named after me.



(I wish)

Review of <I>Anaphaza</I> by Batsheva Dance Company in Singapore's Business Times:

<A HREF="http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/thearts/story/0,2276,62466,00.html?" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A>

Lawrence van Gelder gives us a brief preview of "Anaphaza" (coming to the 2003 Lincoln Center Festival) in the NY Times:
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