Monday, December 13, 2010
What On Earth Was That Last Video?
This is a piece created in 2005 by Ohad Naharin, head of the Batsheva Dance Company. "Three" is a full length work that is a combination of three shorter pieces, "Bellus"(beauty,)"Humus"(Earth,) and "Seccus"(both this and not this.) I wish that I had been able to find a full-length version of this work. After reading more specifically about the background and ideas for the piece I became very curious as to how each piece would have flown together. The most important observation, when relating this video to Andrea Miller and her influences, is the obvious presence of the Gaga technique throughout the length of the work. In the dynamic changes from small movements and stillness to quick, explosive movements that highlight mobility in each part of the body, we can see the technique style developed by Ohad Naharin.
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Friedman, Gaby. "Batsheva Dance Company reads between ‘Three’ dances." November 2, 2006.http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/batsheva_dance_company_reads_between_three_dances_20061103/ (accessed November 30, 2010).
ReplyDeleteB: What led you to the Batsheva Ensemble, and what was the process of becoming a dancer in the company?
ReplyDeleteAM: Ohad came to set a piece at Juilliard—I didn’t know who he was—and I really responded to the work. I felt like it related to everything I wanted out of dance intellectually and physically. And then throughout the time I was at Juilliard there were more and more opportunities to perform his work. I eventually decided to go to Israel; I auditioned and I went.
B: The Batsheva Ensemble, led by Ohad Naharin, is known for employing his unique technique called Gaga. How do you go about incorporating this style into your own choreography, and how does it interact with other forms of dance you’ve been exposed to?
AM: Gaga, in addition to being a technique, is much more a philosophy or a language. You can use it to learn how to make your own sentences and your own jokes and ideas with that language, and that’s what’s so brilliant about it. It teaches you to teach yourself invention, research, exploration. At least while I was there. It’s definitely one of the tools that I use to develop the intelligence of my body and movement invention, but there are a lot of other things that I pull into my choreography. Gaga is not a style—it’s not even just a language; it’s more like the alphabet. I interpret it as an alphabet. You use it to develop your ability to speak. I’ve used it to get closer to who I am as a mover and choreographer, and eventually it’s not Gaga anymore. It’s very different from every other thing that’s happening in dance for that reason.
- taken from an interview of Andrea Miller by Base Interviews