Go Behind The Scenes with Ohad Naharin at SXSW
A still from Mr. Gaga
Sometimes when you’re watching highly original dance, you can’t help but wonder: Who thinks to make this stuff up? One choreographer who almost always puts that thought in my head is Ohad Naharin.
Well, I’ve got good news: It’s just been announced that the long-awaited documentary Mr. Gaga will make its North American debut at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, March 11–15. The film, which has been eight years in the making, offers an intimate look at the man behind the mind-bending moves. There’s footage of everything from Naharin’s childhood growing up in a Kibbutz to his intense rehearsal process with Batsheva dancers, who treat their artistic director like a guru. Interviews with the choreographer himself as well as his collaborators shed light on how he revolutionized modern dance as we know it today.
Check out this outtake, which shows him trying to get his very specific movement qualities out of his dancers:
It’s easy to see why he wrote in his “Why I Choreograph” for Dance Magazine in 2013, “I love the great level of intimacy I can reach in a process with the people I work with—more than most relationships I’ll ever have out of the studio.”
Here’s hoping the film quickly gets picked up for a national release.
