Ohad Naharin
Encyclopedia
Ohad Naharin (Hebrew: אוהד נהרין) is an Israel
i contemporary dance
r, choreographer and dance company artistic director
.
Mizra
. Raised in an artistic home, he wrote stories, composed music, and painted as a child. His father was a doctor in psychology, previously an actor, and his mother was a dance teacher. Nevertheless, Naharin did not start dancing until age 22, at which time he danced with the Batsheva Dance Company. The Batsheva Dance Company was founded in 1964 by Martha Graham
and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild
.
Soon after, in 1975, Naharin left Israel to go to Manhattan and study with Martha Graham. In New York he received much of his training, attending Juilliard for a year as well as attending the Graham School and the School of American Ballet. In 1978, he married Mari Kajiwara, a native New Yorker and an Alvin Ailey
dancer. After working alongside him for over 20 years, his wife died of cancer in 2001 at age 50. Also in New York, he choreographed and presented his first dances from 1980–90.
In 1990, Naharin was appointed the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company
, thereby launching the company into a new stage. The company is international in nature, made up of individually unique dancers from Israel and abroad. Dancers are encouraged to affirm their distinct creative gifts, as creators on their own.
Naharin’s signature style and technique has developed during his time with Batsheva. His style is “distinguished by stunningly flexible limbs and spines, deeply grounded movement, explosive bursts and a vitality that grabs a viewer by the collar.” His dancers do not rehearse in front of a mirror. This enables them to move away from self-critique and feel the movement from within. Naharin is known to be a reserved and private person, and this is apparent in the studio as well. He does not get angry or raise his voice, but comments constructively and calmly. Since he has also been musically trained, Naharin sometimes collaborates on the compositions used in his pieces.
on the palm. These circular areas, which can be found at the base of the fingers as well as the toes, are our “moons,” hence the name “Luna.” In this movement, the objective is to isolate the moons, both on the hands and the feet. This develops a rich sensation and sensitivity in the hands and feet that are important for movement throughout the body. Naharin’s technique establishes a flow throughout the entire body that allows complete fluidity, no matter where the movement is initiated.
, 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
.
After his many years of experience, his purpose remains to make movement that is universal in its ability to be personal to many. 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 most well-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.”
In 2005, he was voted the 137th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i contemporary dance
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
r, choreographer and dance company artistic director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
.
Biography
Naharin was born in 1952 in KibbutzKibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Mizra
Mizra
Mizra is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located between Afula and Nazareth, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 689.-History:...
. Raised in an artistic home, he wrote stories, composed music, and painted as a child. His father was a doctor in psychology, previously an actor, and his mother was a dance teacher. Nevertheless, Naharin did not start dancing until age 22, at which time he danced with the Batsheva Dance Company. The Batsheva Dance Company was founded in 1964 by Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild
Bethsabée de Rothschild
Baroness Bethsabée de Rothschild Baroness Bethsabée de Rothschild Baroness Bethsabée de Rothschild (name sometimes spelled Batsheva (September 23, 1914, in London - April 20, 1999, in Tel Aviv, Israel) was a philanthropist, a patron of dance, and member of the Rothschild banking family.-Biography:...
.
Soon after, in 1975, Naharin left Israel to go to Manhattan and study with Martha Graham. In New York he received much of his training, attending Juilliard for a year as well as attending the Graham School and the School of American Ballet. In 1978, he married Mari Kajiwara, a native New Yorker and an Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
dancer. After working alongside him for over 20 years, his wife died of cancer in 2001 at age 50. Also in New York, he choreographed and presented his first dances from 1980–90.
Batsheva Dance Company
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company is an internationally acclaimed dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964....
, thereby launching the company into a new stage. The company is international in nature, made up of individually unique dancers from Israel and abroad. Dancers are encouraged to affirm their distinct creative gifts, as creators on their own.
Naharin’s signature style and technique has developed during his time with Batsheva. His style is “distinguished by stunningly flexible limbs and spines, deeply grounded movement, explosive bursts and a vitality that grabs a viewer by the collar.” His dancers do not rehearse in front of a mirror. This enables them to move away from self-critique and feel the movement from within. Naharin is known to be a reserved and private person, and this is apparent in the studio as well. He does not get angry or raise his voice, but comments constructively and calmly. Since he has also been musically trained, Naharin sometimes collaborates on the compositions used in his pieces.
Gaga
Naharin developed a type of technique called Gaga. There are two venues for this technique: one for dancers and one for people. This distinction is meant to draw a line between those who will perform and those who are dancing simply to better themselves. In his technique, he has a series of words that signify particular ways to initiate movement and the parts of the body involved in initiating and feeling that movement. One example is “Luna.” When he says this, he is referring to the joint between the metacarpals and the proximal phalangesProximal phalanges
Proximal phalanges are bones found in the limbs of most vertebrates. In humans, they are the bones at the base of a toe or finger, the prominent, knobby ends of which are often called the knuckles....
on the palm. These circular areas, which can be found at the base of the fingers as well as the toes, are our “moons,” hence the name “Luna.” In this movement, the objective is to isolate the moons, both on the hands and the feet. This develops a rich sensation and sensitivity in the hands and feet that are important for movement throughout the body. Naharin’s technique establishes a flow throughout the entire body that allows complete fluidity, no matter where the movement is initiated.
Choreography
His works have been commissioned by the Frankfurt Ballet, Opéra National de Paris, Grand Théâtre de GenèveGrand Théâtre de Genève
Grand Théâtre de Genève is an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland.As with many other opera houses, the Grand Théâtre de Genève is both a venue and an institution. The venue is a majestic building, towering over Place Neuve, officially opened in 1876, partly destroyed by fire in 1951 and reopened in...
, Sydney Dance Company
Sydney Dance Company
The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australia's most successful and well-known contemporary dance companies. The company was founded in 1969 as the dance-in-education group Ballet in a Nutshell by Suzanne Musitz , later changing its name to Athletes and Dancers, and Dance Company ...
, Lyon Opera Ballet, Les Grand Ballets Canadiens, Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...
, Compañia Nacional de Danza, Cullberg Ballet
Cullberg Ballet
The Cullberg Ballet is a Swedish contemporary dance company.It was founded by the modern dancer and pioneer choreographer Birgit Cullberg in 1967, who brought it to fame...
, Finnish National Ballet, Ballet Gulbenkian, Balet da Cidade de São Paulo, Bavarian State Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
Cedar Lake is a New York City-based contemporary ballet company dedicated to the continued development of dance by providing choreographers a comprehensive environment for creation as well as curating work for presentation to a worldwide audience...
, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is an American professional ballet company based in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.- History :...
and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is an American dance company based in Chicago. HSDC performs in downtown Chicago and its metropolitan area and tours nationally and internationally throughout the year....
.
After his many years of experience, his purpose remains to make movement that is universal in its ability to be personal to many. 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 most well-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.”
Awards
- In 1998, Naharin was awarded the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des LettresOrdre des Arts et des LettresThe Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
” by the French government. - In 2005, he was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for dance. - In 2009, he was honored with the Samuel H. ScrippsSamuel H. ScrippsSamuel H. Scripps was a patron of the arts, and played a significant role in gaining support and recognition for theatre and dance companies throughout America in the second half of the twentieth century....
American Dance Festival for lifetime achievement in dance. - In 2009, he was awarded the EMET PrizeEMET PrizeThe Emet Prize for Art, Science and Culture is an annual Israeli prize given for excellence in academic and professional achievements that have far reaching influence and significant contribution to society....
for contribution to the advancement of arts and science in Israel. - In 2009, he received doctor honoris causa of the Hebrew University of JerusalemHebrew University of JerusalemThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
.
In 2005, he was voted the 137th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
Ynet
Ynet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...
to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
External links
- Batsheva Dance Company website
- Israel Prize Official Site – CV of Ohad Naharin (in Hebrew)
- Archive film of Ohad Naharin's Deca dance performed in 2004 at Jacob's Pillow
- Choreography:
- “Deca Dance” in Israel – a view of Ohad Naharin’s "Deca Dance" within the context of Israel’s dance history.
- “MAX” – Connecting to Ohad Naharin’s Choreography
- "Hora" – a report from the world premiere preview
- Batsheva Dance Company: Deca Dance
- Ohad Naharin’s “Project 5″
- Batsheva Ensemble in Ohad Naharin’s “Kyr/Z/na”
- Batsheva Dance Company: Ohad Naharin’s “Shalosh” (“Three”)
- Batsheva Ensemble in Ohad Naharin’s “Kamuyot”
- Gaga Movement Language:
- Ohad Naharin on Gaga (Video)
- Gaga: Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language, in His Own Words – Quotation from Ohad Naharin about Gaga (from March 2008)
- Intro to Gaga Dance Classes – an intro to Ohad Naharin’s movement language, by Deborah Friedes.
- Gaga: A Foreigner Explores Ohad Naharin’s Movement Language – An article about taking gaga class with Ohad Naharin, by Deborah Friedes