POST IS \ ADI PAZ

Monday, 29 December 2014, 20:30

Klipa Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel

Choreography: Adi Paz                     

Dancer:  Adaya Berkovitz

Music: composer: Hilit Rozental     Singer: Stela Gotshtain

Lighting: Yanir Liberman

Genre: Dance Theater.

 

Adi Paz is an Israeli actress, maker\choreographer and dancer. At her new piece post it, she brings to light one of the difficult issues of the society, which is sexual harassment. Through her piece, she is trying to touch on this sensitive subject, with focusing on the world of images of post sexual trauma. 

 

As they present it, stories about sexual harassment are occurred just under our noses. In this sense, a lot of people and especially women are living in their post trauma way of living. Through this performance, she created a sensitive story that rising questions that we all should ask ourselves. For example, who are we tends to blame in those situations, and way? Is there something that can actually have been done in order to avoid from those cases.

 

The young talented dancer Adaya Berkovits, performed a complex character which was developing through the piece. Dressed with short jeans and blue shirt, her childish pink underwear is peeking out, she is playing on the fine line between being a girl and a woman. This duality that she brings through her character is quit confusing – on the one hand, she is becoming more sexual and flirting with the audience, and on the other, she seems to be like a young girl. Within 40 min performance, Adaya succeeded to fascinate her audience with strong charisma, exploding energy, playfulness and honesty.

   

In my opinion, the most powerful part of the performance was at the end. In some moment, she went toward the audience, and slowly she started to travel between us. Crossing between the audience, her gaze starring into the space, with no clear direction and she is looking but not seeing. At once, we could all feel the compassion and the wish to help her, supporting her physically when she is about to fall.

 

However, the choreography itself, together with music, was unbalanced with the strong presence of the dancer. It created some drops in the intensity and wasn't developed enough in order to complete the performance into one whole thing.

 

In spite of it, post it is an intimate and touching performance which deals with a sensitive subject that should be talked more. Adi touches in those areas that we usually trying to avoid from deal with.

LINK TO THE ADI PAZ FACEBOOK PAGE:

https://www.facebook.com/AdiPazDanceTheater/photos_stream?tab=photos_albums

 

VIDEOS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuW-SOpkb40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqHF0hh84Y4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZ8nyEe3PY

 


written by: Keren Ben-Shachar

Photo: Karl-Heinz Krauskopf

'Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört' – Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch 

20 december 2014 – deSingel Antwerp 

Pina, Pina, otherwise we are lost 

There you are, a very expensive ticket in one pocket, the program in the other, surrounded by hundreds of people, all waiting for the lights to dim, as another Pina Bausch masterpiece is ready for take-off. And so it begins; a stream of dancers runs across the edges of the stage into the audience. They carry frightened faces and hurried bodies. Immediately the tone is set for the rest of the piece. Quite literally the audience is sucked into a powerful performance where emotions of relentlessness, desire and vulnerability are key.  

As the piece unravels, the audience witnesses different scenes; dynamic group pieces make place for demure solo parts. The stage transforms from a living room setting to a forest, to a rowing contest. Sometimes scenes reoccur, allowing the audience to sit back in their seats and take a breath. Admirable though is the ease with which one scene follows the other. The strong dramaturgical line carries the audience through a two hour lasting performance without them drifting off.  

Although it may feel like flipping through TV channels, the piece forms a coherent whole. The different scenes are united as they portray social issues and reflect recognizable human emotions. The whole performance is covered in an air of ruthlessness and destruction, leading to a fearful and hurried dance vocabulary. The dancers are agitated and beaten up. Exhausted they run, flee across the stage over and over again until they surrender. The choreography is energetic and engages the audience.  

Photo: peek a boo magazine

A man walks on stage with nothing more than his swimming pants and bathing cap to cover his naked body. He takes a balloon out of his pants and starts to blow it very slowly until it explodes. Later on he comes back and carries a couple of blown up balloons and lets himself down with a thud, aiming for the balloons to explode. These actions seem quite dramatic as I write them down, but in fact they appear funny due to the total lack of facial expressions and awkward context.  Although the pieces underlying tone is that of sadness and vulnerability, it seems like  it is covered with humour and lightness.  

‘Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört’ is another strong Pina Bausch performance. The choreographer managed to find a balance between energy and vulnerable and  sober parts, between despair and lightness, severity and humor. The clever transitions create an engaging rhythm between the different scenes. Although they are well put together, it must be said that not all scenes give an equally powerful image. All together ‘Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört’ is certainly a strong and universal piece, but isn’t as memorable as some of Bausch’s other pieces.   

Jo Tengan