Photos - Gadi DagonThree is an enticingly complex work directed by artistic director and choreographer, Ohad Naharin and performed by the Batsheva Dance Company. It makes its Australian premiere, together with Max, as part of the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival.
It is difficult to appreciate this structured work and the ingenuity of its creators, including the dancers themselves, without mentioning Naharin’s movement language, Gaga. A language of human values, which was borne out of Naharin having suffered a serious back injury, and needing to find new methods to heal and strengthen his body. As recently described by one of the Company’s dancers, Rachael Osborne, ‘[t]he aim of Gaga is to create highly sensitive, textured, eloquent and explosive dancers. Indeed, each dancer, tall or short, male or female, at all times displays a wealth of control over every part of their body. The indelible and unbridled commitment to conscious movement and the ownership thereof is abundant.
The first work, Bellus, is particularly minimal yet it fills the vast stage space adequately through a series of solos and duets, accompanied by the haunting JS Bach's “Goldberg Variations”, played on piano. The sequences are riddled with moments of clarity and humour but no certainty of meaning. The second and third works are both introduced via a pre-recorded narration, played back on a small television, held by the same dancer whose face appears on screen. Endearingly forewarned by the foreign accent, we are told that in Humus, the second work, the music of Brian Eno is quiet, very quiet. What follows is a loaded yet beautiful exploration of evolution, filled with fluid and jarring movement delivered by an all female cast, across all pockets of the stage, in 30 sections.
There is a dramatic shift in mood and pace within and in the final work, Secus, following a witty ‘performance’ to the first 16 or so bars of music. The dancers remain in the same costume, a variety of shorts and tops in colours reminiscent of the pastel end of a palette of Derwent pencils. At varying times, the Company performs in unison with unreserved confidence. In one segment, from a fork-like linear configuration, layers are momentarily shed (literally), and there is an alphabet of sensations: vulnerability, joy, innocence and confusion, to name a few. During the course of the duet performed by Shani Garfinkel and Guy Shomroni, our experience is manipulated by the use of black-outs. Cleverly chosen remixes with pulsating beats further enhance certain sections within the work.
Three does not aspire to offer its audience a story line. In all three sections of this multi-dimensional work, the audience is left to its own interpretational devices. It is a textured feast of representations, an intrinsically contemporary work unlike any other.
Melbourne International Arts Festival presents
Three
Batsheva Dance Company
Venue: the Arts Centre, State Theatre
When: Fri 10 & Sat 11 Oct at 7.30pm; Sat 11 Oct at 2pm
Duration: 1hr 10min no interval
Prices: Premium $97.50 / A Reserve Full $75 / A Reserve Groups (8+) $67.50 / A Reserve Conc $56.25
B Reserve Full $60 / B Reserve Conc $45
C Reserve Full $42 / C Reserve Conc $31.50 / Student/MF-Y $25
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166 / www.melbournefestival.com.au