I just got an interesting comment (scroll down to last comment) on my post on Batsheva’s MAX, from someone who recently saw that performance in Bruges (one of my favorite places in the world, btw). I just point to it because I often find myself trying very very hard to appreciate a dance performance that bills itself as avant garde. And I often have a hard time not ending up with the same thoughts as that commenter…
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 5, WEEK 2
Wow, hip hopper Phillip got a lot of applause during the opening solos. Did you guys notice that too?
Guest judge tonight is hip hop choreographer Lil C.
We get to know the dancers more. Evan says his partner Randi has a dog who she treats as a human, talking to him on the phone, etc. Brandi says Evan is an amateur mechanic who built his own car. They’re doing Jive this week, Louis van Amstel choreographing. So, wait, is this a “fun” routine you guys?! How many times did they say that word! It WAS fun. That leap frog he did over her! Those continuous pivot turns (those are hard, they’re hard to do without looking stiff and awkward since you’re so close to your partner but are trying to look free), the jive kicks, that fun lift at the end. They were really having fun out there. And she has a great Latin body. They didn’t really look like a polished pro Latin couple, but, they still did damn good, especially considering they are a Broadway and contemporary dancer. Nigel and Mary are disappointed; I disagree with them.
Ade says Melissa has a sister who’s married to her brother’s something or rather — complicated, slightly incestuous-sounding family situation; Melissa tries to pronounce Ade’s full African name — four words long, the first about 12 letters. He pronounces it in full, then says, see, that’s why I go by Ade. They’re dancing a contemporary routine by Sonya. Well, that was interesting choreographically — it was kind of sexually aggressive, a bit robotic, impish as Cat Deeley said. It had a lot of intricate lifts, a lot of angular movement. What I actually liked about it was how differently they did on some of the side by side moves. There was one point where they both did a simultaneous jump, unconnected, and another where they lay down on their backs and lifted their legs in the air, making interesting shapes, and on both his feet were flexed and hers pointed. I just thought that was so interesting — his movements were more African-looking and hers ballet. It was really a beautiful distinction, I thought.
Caitlin says Jason has an obsession with Michael Jackson, and we see videos of him as a child doing Moonwalks — adorable! Jason says Caitlin does baby voices and has a scream like nails on a chalkboard. They have a hip hop routine
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BATSHEVA’S MAX
Wednesday night I went to see the popular Israeli dance troupe, Batsheva Dance Company, at Brooklyn Academy of Music. My main experience with Batsheva has been taking a Gaga Class (artistic director and choreographer Ohad Naharin’s unique movement training) by Gaga-trained dancers at Cedar Lake Studios, and then seeing that company perform Naharin’s DecaDance ( a collection of his works over the past 10 years). This was the first time I’ve ever seen a piece by Naharin on his own dancers.
Maybe because I loved DecaDance so much (see above link), I was a bit disappointed with Max. The dancers are absolutely incredible with what all they can do with their bodies — making distinct, highly evocative gestures, then changing to another gesture at immense speed, bending and contorting their bodies into impossible-looking shapes, throwing themselves to the floor, insanely fast high battemants, etc. etc. — and you can really see how much Gaga technique, taken over a period of time, can allow you to move. My problem was more with the overall piece. It didn’t seem to go anywhere, just seemed to be the same extremely intense movements — sometimes evoking horror, sometimes prayer for forgiveness or peace, sometimes shock, with brief moments of tenderness, attempts to connect to one another, thrown in.
Naharin made the soundscape himself (under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt), and it was very intense. At times a deep-voiced man would sing in Hebrew (I think), his guttural crooning creating at times a threatening, portending feel, at times a bluesy one, similar to Leonard Cohen. At other times, the sound would resemble an ambulance siren, an earthquake, a whistle, raindrops or a leak — some kind of falling water, sometimes a person breathing heavily, at times there would be utter silence.