Ga-Ga

Ohad Naharin recently returned to the helm of Batsheva Dance Company as artistic director, and “Three“ (Hebrew: Shalosh), composed of three separate sections, is his first work since then. As expected, Naharin once more produced the unexpected, a work that is decidedly different from previous larger-scale creations in terms of energy and its focus on a newly expanded physical vocabulary; obviously a result of his “Ga-Ga“ method of movement research, used in training Batsheva‘s dancers, and now also presented to the general public.

Batsheva, once a modern dance repertoire company of mainstream nature, acquired a very different artistic direction when Naharin arrived almost fifteen years ago, attracting new dance audiences with a series of pungent, extravagant works bursting with rock-like energy, from “Kir,“ through “Anaphase,“ “Queens of Golob,“ “Z/ena“ etc to Naharin‘s “Virus.“ Fewer have been exposed to the more experimental, intimate works that he occasionally produces, of which "Three" is one.
In the three sections of “Three“ –  “Bellus,“ “Humus“ and “Secus“ – Naharin offers a relatively unassuming, somewhat subdued creation that eschews the kind of design elements associated ...