sarma

I am slightly suspicious of any kind of “purists” or “reformists”, that is people who tend to “return to basics”, to “austerity”, to the “pure beginnings” of things. The reason being that these “ideals” are often carried out through practices of “asceticism” (at least on the surface) and escapism, sometimes covering up for fashionable commercialism and –possibly- well-hidden intolerance. Naturally things may not be like this at all, however, I could not avoid having such thoughts as I was watching the Israeli Liat Dror’s and Nir Ben Gal’s performance, at the International Dance Festival of Kalamata.

This is a group of very good dancers who live in the desert, and obey an “ancient instinct” which calls the artists to inextricably link life and art. Movement-wise, their “Dance of Nothing” was a “product” of one of the most popular ways of renewing the movement vocabulary these days, that of mixing various “idioms”, more specifically, of release technique (mostly), with kinetic motifs taken from ethnic groups. It is possible that the inspiration/idea of using the latter, came out of co-habiting with the peoples of the desert of Southern Israel, where the members of the group have chosen to live, but also out of influences and knowledge of particular kinetic motifs of different populations living in the wider area of Middle East. The piece, mainly through spatial design and positioning of the performers on the stage seemed to aim at conveying a “message” on equality, tolerance and acceptance of difference. More specifically, this message was conveyed via the timing of the succession of entries and exits of the dancers from the stage, the successive execution of the same movement by all performers et.c. The repetition in the movement reminded of rapturous (ecstatic) dances, in turn alluding to loss of identity and individuality, which seemed perfectly suitable to the whole communal style of the group and its work.

However, in spite of the clever choice of certain motifs and sometimes the ingenuity of the choreography, the Dance of Nothing soon became monotonous and boring. Worse was to come with the addition of “theatrical” parts, in which the “boys of Israel” played light-heartedly with “the daughters of Noah”, recreating the ideal of an early community untouched by the evils of civilization. Unfortunately, in the year 2000, this “earthly Paradise” reminded more of the Hollywood kitsch version of Samson and Delilahh. The Dance of Nothing amounted to a didactic story, especially when the “wise woman” of the “community” started to tell a story about love to the “children (the dancers) exhausted from dance and joy” and to the audience. All this brought to my mind the comments with which I started this text, and furthermore left me with many questions on the real limits of tolerance of (the) communities which are seemingly “free” or “permissive”. (It is worth noticing how the two different Israeli groups, and their respective choreographers, Liat Dror & Nir Ben Gal on the one hand, and Ohad Naharin –Batsheva- on the other, “report” and comment on the deep divide and continuing battles in their country through their work).

The return to these simple truths was completed (really!) by the offer of food (bread!) to the audience. It was prepared by the dancers at the beginning of the performance, and was baked while the spectacle was developing.