Telophaza
Batsheva, from Tel Aviv, is a dance company whose reputation is as international as its dancers: they come from France, Brazil, Norway, Japan, Guadaloupe, Australia, USA, China, Italy and - of course - Israel yet, under the direction and inspiration of artistic director Ohad Naharin, are united in a dance language, philosophy and discipline which are enthralling and exhilarating to witness.
Telophaza is the first of three works Batsheva brings to the Sydney Festival. It features the full company and junior ensemble of 35 dancers in a non-narrative series of physical and musical events beginning with an exuberantly tongue-in-cheek, minimal version of Zorba the Greek.
Sequences which are simultaneously athletic, balletic and enigmatic are punctuated by nonsense segments and the interjections of the dolorous and disembodied voice of “Rachel”. Her instructions to a startlingly obedient audience banish any lurking tendency to doze off in the warm darkness and also lift the concept of audience participation to new levels.
Through the recurring use of four large screens, live video of dancers’ faces and bodies are projected with more or less meaning, yet with spectacular visual impact. At the same time, the troupe appears and reappears in skintight bodysuits which emphasise their physicality and dedication to the task of the dance. And in a sequence which focuses on a single pair of typically muscular, bony, prehensile-toed feet, before seguing into a wonderful barefoot tap dance (thump, slap, slap, slap, thump etc) also serves to accentuate in a surprisingly moving way the dancers’ vulnerability and strength.
Along the way and inadvertently Telophaza throws a harsh and unforgiving spotlight on the comparative poverty of imagination and ideas in current Australian dance. It’s also significant, from our point of view, that many of the dancers started in the junior company - the ensemble - and Batsheva is supported by government and by philanthropy in a way that, in this country, only a sportsperson could dream of.
Meanwhile, with the exception of Meryl Tankard, it’s difficult to think of any Australian dancer-choreographer one could mention in the same breath as Batsheva’s Ohad Naharin. While we value cricketers more than artists, it will ever be thus.
Telophaza - Batsheva Dance Company, Capitol Theatre to January 10; www.sydneyfestival.org.au
