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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Batsheva

Company:
Batsheva

Performance Date:
03/09/2012

Company / Show / Event

Batsheva- Hora

Performance Date
03/09/2012     

Venue / Location
BAM

A bit about you:
(your occupation, the last time you moved, your website, etc.)
former dancer

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Have you ever seen this company/ before?
Tell us a bit about your history with this group/performer?
 Yes, saw the company at The Joyce..was that last year or the year before? Can't remember. Anyway . It was a show in which the men and the women performed separately: men one night, women the next.  I saw the guys.

Why did you go to the show? What did you expect to see?
 I went expecting to see amazing dancing... something about that Gaga technique that they all do together makes the impetus of the movement and the execution of the choreography seem so improvised: immediate and necessary. Exquisite, but second nature. 

What was your favorite moment(s)? What inspired you?
 I don't know if I had a favorite moment. I got lost in the piece. There was lots of virtuosity but ok one of the things that struck me was one of the tall young fellows beating his chest with his hand as he shifted back and forth from one foot to another-almost like a boxer. This lanky guy reminded me of my teenage son telling me " Look mom, I want to play basketball because that is who I am"  There was something about the whole work that reminded me of teenagers. Young people becoming going through different stages of development and discovery. Perhaps the music contributed to this-Afternoon of a Faun- a discovery of sexuality... The theme from Star Wars, well that just reminds me of being a kid growing up. The tin ny sound of the music...reminded me of records of my youth with the terrible scratchy sounds coming through my crappy speakers... I don't know...The 2001 Space Odyssey Theme... The quality of the music was a bit annoying but I think it was deliberately un polished and slightly grating because we were visiting another place and another time. 

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Photo by Stephanie Berger-

Describe as plainly and specifically as you can what actually happened during this performance.
We are looking for non-judgmental reporting. No need for complete sentences. Phrases and word lists are fine. YOU CAN DESCRIBE : the artists, their activities, the movement, the qualities of movement, the music, the use of time, the use of space OR anything else you observed.
 an angled wrist...
dancers staring at the audiences..
dancers sitting on a bench looking out at us..
green ultraviolet lights.
a waiting room
memories
crackling sounds
Green.

Do any images, colors or feelings pop into your head when you think about this show?
 I felt like the stage was some sort of microwave or radio or the insides of speakers...
often it was cast in a green light.
a waiting room with a long bench in the back 
ps almost the same set for one of the pieces Ohad Naharin did at The Joyce. 
My friend who is a Naharin nut said Ohad likes to repeat things... circles often -but there were none in this piece.

Describe any or all of these elements: music, lighting, the venue.
How did they contribute (or not) to your enjoyment of this performance?
 
I love BAM...the shows are amazing.. but I sat in the orchestra and couldn't see, cause the person in front of me had a huge head. Isn't it weird to wish that you were sitting in the cheap seats so you could see the whole thing?
I think so.
Fortunately I didn't pay for my ticket- a friend took me. The seats aren't angled well in the orchestra section.
My friend in the "cheap seats" saw everything. How weird is that?

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Would you like to see this performance / company again?
Would you recommend it to a friend? Why or why not?
 Of course. 
Always interesting .Amazing dancers. Thoughtful work.  I think this show with its simplicity, and stream of consciousness style , and canned music could have turned people off but I don't know, the more I think about this show the more interesting my memories of it are. It made me sad..It made me think.
Actually it made me think of childhood and my room when I was a kid and some of my friends who died when they were young... 

What would you like to have seen more of? Less of?
 It was just as it should have been, I think.

If you could, what would you ask the choreographer / dancers?
 Did you see William Forsythe's " I don't believe in Outer Space?" Does this piece have any relationship to that one. For some reason maybe because of the radio like quality I found them similar? Love and Loss. 

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