Ohad Naharin, home choreographer of Batsheva Dance Firm, the acclaimed Israeli troupe, says his fundamental inspiration comes from being in the identical room with the dancers after which the analysis, discovery and sharing that comply with.
Naharin’s intimate strategy will probably be on show in “MOMO,” which makes its delayed Bay Space premiere this weekend in Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Corridor after the corporate’s 2024 U.S. spring tour was postponed within the wake of divisiveness over the Gaza Battle.
“I started by creating for myself a clear set of codes and a sort of playground for the work,” Naharin explains. “Then I let ideas visit me for awhile before I go to the studio. This preparation helped me to create the springboard into the process with the dancers. I basically created two separate works and then brought them together to become one. This helps me and the dancers to arrive at the end of the process to places I did not know exist.”
Ohad Naharin is home choreographer for Batsheva Dance Firm, which seems in a Cal Performances presentation in Zellerbach Corridor in Berkeley on Feb. 22–23, 2025. (Photograph by Stefano Trovati/Courtesy Cal Performances through Bay Metropolis Information)
In “MOMO,” the separate works consist of 4 males embodying masculinity by gradual, methodically easy strikes that floor the work, and two units of seven women and men who characterize a seek for individuality with extra fluid motion.
“The work is in an ongoing process—constant changes, modified, erasing and rewriting,” Naharin says. “It’s the heart of dance in that it disappears after each show and can reappear different.”
Primarily based in Tel Aviv, The Batsheva Dance Firm was based in 1964 by the Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, with American choreography pioneer Martha Graham as its inventive advisor. Born in 1952, Naharin danced with the troupe at age 22 earlier than occurring to grow to be its inventive director in 1990, a put up he held till 2018.
Naharin cites American educator and choreographer Gina Buntz, a Nineteen Sixties-era collaborator who taught him vital shortcuts, as an vital skilled affect.
Heading Batsheva, Naharin developed his signature motion language, known as Gaga. He describes the energetic model—notable for the pliability of limbs and spines, bursts of assault and floor motion—as, amongst different issues, a “toolbox.”
“Gaga helps the dancers to translate and interpret my work,” he says. “They use it to go beyond their familiar limits on a daily basis. It brings in them their beauty, vulnerability, sensuality, mystery, speed, explosiveness, efficiency and clarity. It helps us discover our range.”
Dancers showing in “MOMO” embrace Eri Nakamura, Naharin’s spouse, who additionally designed costumes for the piece. The lighting design by Avi Yona Bueno (aka Bambi), and the set and props by Gadi Tzachor improve the dance’s ambiance and temper.
“… I like to create what I call the right tension between all the elements … so the process is integrated into the time spent long before the premiere,” Naharin says. “There is always a narrative that comes from the dancers, from the lights, from the costumes and from the set that I did not write, and it has great importance for how I experience the work.”
“MOMO” is about to recordings by Laurie Anderson, the Kronos Quartet’s “Landfall” and Philip Glass’ “Metamorphosis Two,” together with a music/prayer by Venezuelan musician Arca.
“I looked for music that created atmosphere, that has an original voice behind it; beauty, minimalistic, yet evoking strong feelings,” Narahin says.
Transferring ahead, Naharin’s objectives for himself and the corporate attain past the stage: “I am invested in the research and the sharing of it,” he says. “I am also trying to keep trusting in the impact of art and movement in the face of the cruelty, abuse of power, extreme nationalistic sentiments, and ignorance in our region and all over the world knowing that the quality of our actions now will determine the quality of our future.”
Cal Performances presents Batsheva Dance Firm in “MOMO” at 8 p.m. Feb. 22 and three p.m. Feb. 23 in Zellerbach Corridor, close to Bancroft Approach and Dana Avenue on the College of California, Berkeley campus. Tickets are $37 to $125 at (510) 842-9988 or calpeformances.org.
