Peek Inside a Hypnotic L-E-V Rehearsal

“Start with less.” Those are the first words that Keren Lurie Pardes says as she guides her fellow dancers through a pre-rehearsal class in New York City. They have recently arrived to make their debut at The Joyce Theater as members of L-E-V, the small, intriguing company founded in 2013 by Israeli artists Sharon Eyal […]

#TFW Ohad Naharin Makes You Run Onstage for 65 Minutes

Bobbi Jene Smith in Naharin’s Sadeh21. Photo by Joe Toreno. Sometimes, the simplest parts of choreography make the biggest impressions. For weeks after seeing Batsheva perform Ohad Naharin’s Last Work, I couldn’t stop thinking about the woman running for the entire 65-minute piece (probably 6-7 miles) on a narrow treadmill upstage. I had so many […]

Ohad Naharin To Mentor a Fledgling Choreographer

Rattle off the names of a few dancemakers whose brains you’d love to pick. Did Ohad Naharin make your list? He made mine, too. I’ve always wondered what goes on between his ears. How Naharin makes work that shows off his dancers’ technical and physical skills to the maximum, while balancing it with sincere and […]

Watch the Trailer for the New Ohad Naharin Documentary

It’s been nearly a year since I first heard rumblings of a new documentary about modern dance genius Ohad Naharin. (Though it turns out the film had already been a whopping seven years in the making at the time.) Batsheva on our February 2012 cover And now, finally, Mr. Gaga is here! The Film explores […]

Movement in the Moment

Choose an improv method that will challenge your weaknesses. Freedman (left) practices a phrase in the studio. Photo by Anna Maynard, Courtesy Helen Simoneau. Often, the key to growing as a dancer is getting out of a mental or physical rut. One solution? Improvisation. Its unpredictable, uncomfortable challenges can help dancers find their voices while […]

10 Minutes With Ohad Naharin

In Ohad Naharin’s provocative Sadeh21, 18 elastic-bodied members of the Batsheva Dance Company explore movement in 21 studies, set to a moody soundtrack. Its striking imagery—narrative gestures such as beating the chest and blowing a kiss—has been interpreted alternately as political and personal, with the work coming to a surprising and dramatic conclusion. U.S. audiences […]