Their bodies bump to beats right on time and lock like clockwork into Notorious B.I.G.’s “Dead Wrong.” On the surface, the only connections the dance “Venezuela” by Ohad Naharin has to Venezuela are Latin American flags and Latinx dance steps commonly seen in ballroom. But maybe there is more.
With the Batsheva Dance Company, there is almost always more.
Naharin’s work is a two-parter. Both are about 40 minutes long. And they are choreographically, movement for movement, identical. What changes is the music. And the emphasis, the energy. The first part is set to Gregorian chants. The second to B.I.G. (You can imagine: different worlds, different times, different values).
The transition between sections is what gives “Venezuela” meaning:
A fall and quick kick
feels
Monotoned Gregorian chants kept the movement
in a mechanical state that moved in methodological increments, missing purpose
on purpose.
For me, Naharin’s choreography can only be emoted through verse. The tones of each part are so nuanced that prose cannot do it justice, specifically during Notorious B.I.G.’s “Dead Wrong.” The stage no longer felt like an empty, dark cell with dancers in black uniforms searching for an escape. The dance became a swing between bodies and music, colored with fast-paced hip hop.
Women curve
left and right
atop a male dancer c r a w l i n g
up and
and in a moment of
a frozen stance is interrupted by a
They are all riding on the men’s back in the blink of an eye
the same way the music flows. There is a new feeling that takes the breath away.
I figure what Naharin is doing is altering points of reference. One looks at a movement differently when it is surrounded by a new musical environment.
Each body C R A S H E S
into a new phrase in a transition that was previously unidentifiable during the continuous Gregorian chants.
Dance does not need music to say something. Although the hip hop adds a unique rhythm, the experiment shows that a moving body can speak for itself just as much as one flowing to melodies. Each section pulls people in its own way. The first half with Gregorian chants was painted with spontaneous movements that seemed to be independent of the music.
By adding new meaning to the same movement, the choreography sends one’s mind into a frenzy. It seeks
a meaning
out
of
every
step.
However, there is no specific meaning. With no direct reference to Venezuela, it is what you make of it. For some, it may be a physical exploration, an exercise. In our current political climate, there is another story to be told.
In front of today’s eyes, Venezuela is in power struggle. The ensemble throws,
Whacks,
One by one
the same way Venezuela’s population struggles for support. Under the rubble of Maduro’s neglect, they face power cuts, food shortages, and medicine shortages. Millions of people are fleeing a country they considered home. Meanwhile, some stay in the middle of a constant fight for an escape from repeating dissonance, like the dancers in “Venezuela.” It continues to repeat over and over again.
Batsheva Dance Company challenged the audience’s perception of what dance is and what it can do. The dichotomy of music between the two, breathing works that shared the same bones opened people to their awareness of sensation.