Ohad Naharin - Choreography

Choreography

Naharin's works have been commissioned by the Frankfurt Ballet, Opéra National de Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Sydney Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Grand Ballets Canadiens, Rambert Dance Company, Compañia Nacional de Danza, Cullberg Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, Balet da Cidade de São Paulo, Bavarian State Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

He seeks to create movement that is universal yet personal. He always has a clear social and political conscience in his works, but his dances are not meant to be political. He finds storytelling of suffering and the world’s problems boring in comparison to a person’s ability to use texture and multi-layered movement. He contrasts physical explosiveness with stillness, taking an interest in contrasts, edges, and extremes, which creates vital distance and space in dances. His philosophy, shared with many who devote their lives to choreography, is that everyone should dance. “Deca Dance” is Naharin’s best known piece, as it highlights many flavored excerpts from his previous works. Of the piece, Naharin says himself, “Deca Dance is not a new work. It is more about reconstruction: I like to take pieces or sections of existing works and rework it, reorganize it and create the possibility to look at it from a new angle. It always teaches me something new about my work and composition. In Deca Dance I took sections from different works. It was like I was telling only either the beginning, middle or ending of many stories but when I organized it the result become as coherent as the original if not more.”

In “Max,” “Mr. Naharin’s theatrical ingredients are space, movement and light.” A critic comments, “In this tremendously potent work, there are few obvious displays of emotion, yet 'Max' is full of imagery that slips between real life and dance in fleeting flashes.” Other pieces he has choreographed include “Three,” “Tabula Rasa,” “Mabul,” “Pas de Pepsi,” “Haru No Umi,” “In Common,” “Sixty a Minute,” “Black Milk,” “Innostress,” and “Mamootot.”