Batsheva Dance Company

Batsheva Dance Company
Batsheva Dance Company

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Professional Lineage-influences

Ohad may have started late in the game at age 22 but the teachers who taught him the people he has worked with and continues to work with is very rich.  His first dance experience was with the Batsheva Dance Company where guest artist Martha Graham saw him there and asked him to come back to New York with her to perform her work “Jacob’s Dream.” While he was working with Martha he also studied at Julliard and the School of American Ballet.  Two noteworthy teachers were Maggie Black and David Howard who helped him refine his technique. Black was a ballet teacher who had an anatomical approach to the technique, as did Howard whose approach reduced tension and resulting injuries. You can see the influence in the Gaga technique Ohad has formed. 
After he left Graham in 1976 he went to Brussels to work with the Maurice Bejart’s ballet company. Though he acknowledges the experiences with Graham and Bejart and the knowledge he gained from them he describes them by being “stations in [his] career…They didn’t influence me like Merce Cunningham, Billy Forsythe, or Pina Bausch (Perron)." David Gordon was another who influenced him.  Gordon choreographed a solo on him, Short Order (1983), while he was in New York.  Ohad felt it was a useful step in his learning process to understand the relationship of a body in space the way Gordon taught it in his “multidimensional” movement style. 
After his time with the Maurice Bejart ballet company he worked with the Bat-Dor dance company in Irael (founded by Rothschild) until his return to New York in 1980. It was during his work in 1980 that he worked and collaborated with his wife Mari Kajiwara, a former Ailey dancer, to create his own company.  He continued his work with his company developing his technique until 1990 when he became Artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company. 
It was while he was Artistic Director he worked with many other companies setting works.  Even though he was setting previously made works he believes strongly in the collaborative process between himself and his dancers, so he adapted works according to the dancers. Some of these guest residencies were at the Nederlands Dans Theatre, Ballet Frankfurt, Lyon Opera Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza (Spain), Culberg Ballet (Sweeden), Finish National Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, Bale da Cidade de Sao Poulo, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (New York), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and Los Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. One of his most recent residencies was with the Ailey Company in setting “Minus 16.” The piece itself was dedicated to his late wife Kajiwara, and so working with the Ailey Company was especially fitting. It premiered on December 9, 2011.
Besides working with other dancers Ohad, given his musical background, has been known to collaborate with musicians as well.  Some of the more noteworth names include Israeli rock group The Tractor’s Revenge (for Kyr, 1990), Avi Belleli and Dan Makov (for Anaphaza, 1993), and Ivri Lider (for Z/na, 1995). Naharin has even composed music for MAX (2007) under the alias Maxim Waratt, and has edited and mixed soundtracks for Mamooto (2003) and Hora (2009).
works cited
Perron, Wendy. "Truth in Movement: Ohad Naharin talks about his choreography, his world view, and why the mirror always lies.." The Free Library. Dance Magazine, Inc., 2006. Web. 28 Feb 2012. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Truth in movement: Ohad Naharin talks about his choreography, his...-a0152433179.

Zeller, Jessica. Teaching through Time: Tracing Ballet's Pedagogical Lineage in the Work of Maggie Black. Taylor &Francis Group,LLC, 2009. 57.

. "The Artistic Staff." Illinois Ballet. Illinois Ballet, n.d. Web. 28 Feb 2012. http://www.brighthope.net/artisticstaff.htm.
Kussell, Stacey. "'Minus 16' Is Plus for Ailey." The Jewish Daily Forwad. Forward Association,Inc., 13/12/2011. Web. 28 Feb 2012. http://www.forward.com/articles/147748/?p=all.
Johnstone, Nick. "Ohad Naharin: The maverick lord of Israeli dance." The JC.com. N.p., 17/10/2008. Web. 21 Feb 2012. http://www.thejc.com/arts/theatre/6969/ohad-naharin-the-maverick-lord-israeli-dance.
 "Ohad Naharin." Batsheva Dance Company. Suzanne Dellal Center, n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2012.     http://www.batsheva.co.il/en/Ohad.aspx  

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