Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Batsheva Dance Company’s Young Ensemble performs a fierce NAHARIN’S VIRUS, an anti-dance theater piece allegedly about nothing

• By drediman
• July 20, 2018
• No Comments

Recently at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, I attended a performance of Ohad Naharin’s Naharin’s Virus danced by the Young Ensemble of the Batsheva Dance Company. Mr. Naharin is one of the star choreographers of contemporary dance, and his Israeli dancers – languid, self-possessed, chic – are some of the most distinctive movers around. His brand of dance theater takes Pina Bausch’s signature style and turns it on its head. Instead of Ms. Bausch’s endless fascination with the individual, Mr. Naharin’s dances largely suggest that individualism is overrated. This manifests itself in how idiosyncratic movements and narratives weave in and out of blended anonymity.

Naharin’s Virus, first performed in 2002 and one of the choreographer’s signature works, applies this same principle throughout its hour long, intermission-less runtime. The work – inspired by Peter Handke’s avant-garde 1966 play Offending the Audience and set to an eclectic musical collage (e.g., Barber’s Adagio juxtaposed with Arab dance music) – is episodic, often surprising, and insistently confrontational. The work, which is dominated by a large chalk board on which dancers occasionally write and draw (mostly nonsense), endeavors to strip artiface from performance and meaning from language, creating a sort of anti-dance theater. It claims to portray nothing in particular, questioning the idea of the individual. Nevertheless, bursts of distinct personalities occasionally can’t help but flare outwards from the cool, uniform veneer. The intermittent stretches of pure, impassioned choreography are often thrilling, especially as fiercely danced by the Young Ensemble.

RECOMMENDED

NAHARIN’S VIRUS
Dance
The Joyce Theater
1 hour (without an intermission)
Through July 22