Israeli contemporary dance troupe Batsheva Dance Co perform in Shanghai. (Photo/Courtesy of Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai)
Batsheva Dance Co, a leading contemporary dance troupe in Israel, wowed Shanghai audiences during their recent first-ever visit to the city. They will keep the heat going at Shanghai International Dance Center with "Deca dance," part of the 2016 China Shanghai International Arts Festival.
Batsheva and its 17 members said they are excited about sharing the pleasure of movements with locals. The audience were invited to dance together with the dancers during an interactive segment to "let go of their body."
"It is our first time in Shanghai. We are just like kids in candy store. The audiences are amazing," said Luc Jacobs, senior rehearsal director of Batsheva.
Deca dance is composed of segments from 10 of Ohad Naharin's creations, who has been the artistic director of the company since 1990. The first time Batsheva performed the show was to celebrate 10 years of Naharin taking over the company. Batsheva kept the form while changing and evolving the ingredients as more new repertoires came out.
"We put different sections together and discovered that it was a fabulous way to look at all the sections of different repertoires and organize them in very different ways. It came up with an amazing result that sometimes did not happen in the original works," says Jacobs.
Gaga
Naharin, as the artistic director of Batsheva, is not only known for his choreographic works, but also an innovative training named "Gaga," which has been with Batsheva Dance Company for 15 years. It is a particular type of training unique to Batsheva that brings dance fast to the world of Naharin.
The way Naharin thinks about movement and the way he feels about movement is a way to communicate about his movement language and also to train in that movement language. Gaga has not only been practiced by the dancers of the company but also non-dancers with no interests in going on stage or performing, who can benefit a lot from the training.
"We offer it to kids, we are also experimenting it with patients suffering Parkinson's or a stroke. The application is huge and we are just at the beginning of finding out how many ways it can be offered to people of different backgrounds," said Jacobs.
Source: Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai
