With French and English subtitles
Run time: 80 minutes (includes post-show interview with the choreographer)
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Hora – The Movie is Ohad Naharin’s second film. Just like in YAG – The Movie in 2020, Naharin once again transports choreography created for the stage through the lens of the camera, adapting it to create a new piece.
The camera allows an intimate, tender and disturbing glimpse into a parallel universe. In this dark world, the dancers emerge from a black space to the timeless music of Isao Tomita, their bodies delineating a human-dance calligraphy, like a code that is constantly being written and erased.
Naharin’s cinematic lab adds a new choreographic layer to the stage work – the movement of the camera through space. Actions carried out in the editing room like acceleration or deceleration, transitions and cuts, are given a central place and lead to the discovery and revelation of new creative expressions.
Hora – The Movie is another opportunity to delve into the fascinating evolution of Naharin’s work in search of new ways to create and experience dance.
Dedicated To Sofia Naharin
Batsheva Dance Company thanks its American friends for their generous support in the production of this film: The Chleck Family Foundation; The Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation; The Jerome L. Stern Family Foundation; Nurit and Rick Amdur; American Friends of Batsheva New Works Fund.
Co-produced by Factory 54
This Digidance livestream is an initiative of DanceHouse (Vancouver), Danse Danse (Montreal), Harbourfront Centre (Toronto), and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa).
“The film itself is unlike anything made before by Batsheva Dance Company or Ohad Naharin.” - The Jerusalem Post
“Batsheva Dance company [is] widely recognized as one of the foremost contemporary dance companies… The singular Batsheva dancers are the film’s core.” - Broadway World
“Naharin’s style—blunt, uninhibited, and dense with eccentric incident, drama, and high-definition detail—transfers exceptionally well to the screen.” - Brian Siebert, The New Yorker
The Batsheva Dance Company was founded in 1964 as a repertoire company by Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild. It is one of the leading and most respected dance troupes in the world thanks to the bold choreographic voice of the house choreographer Ohad Naharin and to the uncompromising performance quality of the company’s dancers.
Ohad Naharin – Choreographer
Ohad Naharin is the House Choreographer of Batsheva Dance Company and creator of the Gaga movement language.
Naharin was born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel. His mother is a choreographer, dance teacher, and Feldenkrais instructor, and his father was an actor and psychologist. He joined Batsheva Dance Company in 1974 despite having little formal training. During his first year, guest choreographer Martha Graham invited him to join her own company in New York. Between 1975 and 1976, Naharin studied at the School of American Ballet, The Juilliard School, and with Maggie Black and David Howard. He then joined Maurice Béjart’s Ballet du XXe Siecle in Brussels for one season.
Naharin returned to New York in 1979 and made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko Hirabayshi studio the following year. From 1980 until 1990, Naharin presented works in New York and abroad, including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and Nederlands Dans Theater. At the same time, he worked with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, and a group of dancers in New York. Naharin and Kajiwara continued to work together until she died from cancer in 2001.
In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same year, he established the company’s junior division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble. He has since created over thirty works for both companies. After almost thirty years of leading Batsheva, Naharin stepped down as Artistic Director in 2018, and continues to serve as the Company’s House Choreographer.
In addition to his stagework, Naharin also developed GAGA, an innovative movement language based on research into heightening sensation and imagination, becoming aware of form, finding new movement habits, and going beyond familiar limits. GAGA is the daily training of Batsheva’s dancers and has spread globally among both dancers and non-dancers.
Over the course of his years in Batsheva, Naharin has won many awards and honors, among them Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government (1998), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Weizmann Institute of Science (2004), the Israel Prize for dance (2005), a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by the Hebrew University (2008), the EMET Prize in the category of Arts and Culture (together with Yair Vardi, 2009), the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2009), an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Juilliard School in New York (2013) , the Israel Ministry of Culture Award for Lifetime Achievement (2016), an Honorary Fellowship by Tel-Aviv University (2018) Honorary doctorate by Ben Gurion University of the Negev (2019) and many more.
Naharin trained in music throughout his childhood and continues to infuse his work with a unique musicality. He collaborated with the Israeli rock group, The Tractor’s Revenge (Kyr, 1990), Avi Balleli and Dan Makov (Anaphaza, 1993), Ivri Lider (Zina, 1995), and Grischa Lichtenberger (Last Work, 2015). Under the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed music for many pieces he created for the company.
Naharin’s work has also been featured in several films. In his 2007 documentary, Out of Focus, Director Tomer Heymann filmed the process of restaging Decadance with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. And in 2015, the Heymann Brothers released their comprehensive documentary about Naharin, Mr. Gaga, to critical and audience acclaim.
A citizen of both Israel and the United States, Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife, dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and their daughter, Noga.
Roee Shalti – Filmmaker and Editor
Director, film and video editor since 2010.
Has a special connection to the world of dance, on a professional and personal level.
Roee investigates the world of movement and dance through the lens of the camera, and in recent years has been experimenting with cracking codes that will make the work of dance accessible to viewers, of which the stage is its natural and familiar place, through video.
Top photo: Batsheva Dance Compnay, Hora – The Movie @ Roee Shalti.
