The Art of Ohad Naharin

Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company from 1990 to 2018, is called "Mr. Gaga" for the idiosyncratic "movement language" that he devised for the troupe (see review of Mr. Gaga in VL-1/18). The Art of Ohad Naharin compiles two of his cutting-edge ballets. Naharin’s Virus (2002) finds the company dancers writhing—individually and in various groups—to Arab folk music in front of a wall scribble on, until the word "plastelina" appears (an obviously distorted reference to Palestine). Meanwhile, a suited figure atop the wall declaims insults from Peter Handke’s absurdist play Offending the Audience, and the piece ends in frenzied movement as the dancers attempt to scale the wall, followed by a return to sedateness. In Last Work (2015), set to a score by Grischa Lichtenberger, the dancers engage in brief solos and duets that often take unusual forms—one face-covered man waves a large white flag and another cleans his rifle in an almost lustful way—while a young woman in a blue dress runs on a treadmill in the background. Towards the end, a sleazy emcee appears and begins wrapping everything—his microphone, the dancers, the running woman—in packing tape. What the meaning of either piece might be, or whether any specific meaning is even intended, is left to the judgment of the individual viewer, but both works—filmed at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris (in 2014 and 2017 respectively)—carry a powerful visceral impact. Presented in PCM stereo, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)