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Israeli troupe to wow Shanghai audiences with ‘Deca dance’

By Zhang Qian | October 18, 2016, Tuesday | Online Edition

BATSHEVA Dance Co, a leading contemporary dance troupe in Israel, wowed Shanghai audiences last night by their first-ever visit to the city, and is going to keep the heat tonight at Shanghai International Dance Center with its famous program --“Deca dance.”

Batsheva with its 17 members this time are excited about sharing the pleasure of movements with the locals. Quite a number of audiences were invited to dance together with the dancers in the interactive part and letting go their body along with the music. It is also part of the 2016 Shanghai International Arts Festival.

“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 did the show was to celebrate 10 years of Naharin taking over the company. “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. So, Batsheva kept the form, while changing and evolving the ingredients as more new repertoires came out.

“It is like foods. When you walk into a restaurant and the chef present you the foods in his order. It is a journey offered by the chef that make sense to him, hopefully also make sense to the customer,” said Jacobs. “It is intuitive.”

The whole work is about the physical experience of movement that both the dancers and audiences share, said he. It is nothing more than the work itself.

“It is basically about the pleasure of movement. The beauty of dance is not limited to nationality, religion or politics. It is more intimate than the conventional boundaries we usually have in our lives,” said Jacobs.

Ohad Naharin, as the artistic director of Batsheva throughout the years, is not only known for his great choreographic works, but also an innovative training type 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 he thinks about movement and the way he feels about movement. It is really a way to communicate about his movement language, and also to train in that movement language.

Without mirrors, the dancers are expected to response to their own movement. With the teachers’ instructions, the dancers choose their own movement to explore the instruction as improvising.

In the training, dancers investigate on the sensation of their body, focusing on what they sense rather than what they think about it. They are required to listen to the body before telling it what to do. A lot of joy comes out of that, according to Jacobs. It is very different from gymnast which force the body to particular movement or position where a lot of will power is used.

“We become more sensitive about what we can do with our body. Power comes naturally, quite like tai chi in Chinese culture,” said Jacobs.

So far, Gaga has not only been practiced by the dancers of the company, but also offered to non-dancers. Even ordinary people with no interests in going on stage and performing, can benefit a lot from the training.

“We also offer it to kids, we are also experimenting it with patients suffering Parkinson, or stroke even. 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.

Date: till October 18, 7:30pm

Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center

Address: 1650 Hongqiao Rd.

Tickets: 180-880 yuan

Tel: 6272-0455, 6272-0702

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