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Emanuel Gat Dance

Artistic Director and Choreographer: Emanuel Gat

Sadler’s Wells

September 19 – 20, 2008

ary Couzens

A review by Mary Couzens for EXTRA! EXTRA!

Emmanuel Gat Dance company was formed by its Israeli namesake choreographer in 2004. Although Gat had studied music at Tel Aviv Academy, in the hope of becoming a conductor, just six months after his first encounter with dance at ‘a workshop for amateurs led by Nir Ben Gal,’ he, rather remarkably, ’ joined the Liat Drior Nir Ben Gal Company with whom he toured Israel and the world.’ Since then, Gat and his company have gone on to win many awards, which, is understandable, given the high calibre and originality of the work contained in this programme.

This mixed program, choreographed by Gat himself includes ‘Winter Voyage’, a beautifully imaginative and emotive piece formerly first performed at Sadler’s Wells as part of its Sampled in 2007, which included various highlights from the upcoming season of dance. This programme also includes its intriguing opener, a U.K. premiere, ‘Silent Ballet,’ and as its closing piece, ‘Through the Centre, All of You At the Same Time and Don’t Stop’, in which the company of eight dancers seem to be vying for position.

‘Silent Ballet’ is a bravely mounted and executed contemporary dance piece, which is distinctive, not just for its lack of music, apart from some machine like sounds near its conclusion, but for its stark, everyday, often somewhat repetitive aspects of its choreography. Its movements appear to mimic some of the body movements we all undertake continuously, but do not consciously acknowledge: bending, lifting, dancing, running, jostling for position in crowds. But rather than actually convey these movements, Gat’s choreography merely suggests them, as impressionist painters suggest light in order to offer viewers a feeling of their subject matter. The focus in ‘Silent Ballet’ is solely on the movements of its dancers, which, alternate between moving in semi-unison and seemingly, randomly. The only discernable sound through much of the piece is the light stomping of a bare foot or the faint scrape of my pen across the page. The mood of the piece shifts from benign to threatening as a territorial battle begins with the originally lone dancer surrounded by the company who appear in turns, to be hostile, then wary of him. Industrial sounds, suggestive of crowded public spaces, and body language indicative of cramped environments seems to say as much about the space between the steps of Gat’s dancers as it does about the movements themselves. Whether the piece is about human struggles or simply the lack of presence in moments of everyday life is left to viewers to decide. Much of the piece gives an impression of individuals coming alive after a long deadening day. Without music, the mind tends to focus on the emotion behind the movements. Any way you’re inclined to view it, ‘Silent Ballet’ is a fine reflection on the art of the dance.

For me, ‘Winter Voyage’ offered the ultimate crowning moments of this trio of pieces, with its alternately seamless, impressively knowing movements as well as beautifully poignant ones, both suggestive of human fragility and folly. Two male dancers meet without touching in a furtive duet, completing one another’s movements much in the way that long term partners might finish one another’s sentences. Some lyrically effortless moments of nonchalance make their presence felt as well as seen, like thoughts before actions or after thoughts, following rashness perhaps, as themes surrounding the search for identity begin to surface in the work. Youth, independence, need, loneliness and emotional torment, as well as revelations are alternately apparent on the faces of the dancers. Their movements are fluid, with just enough choppiness infused to suggest realism. Each hand movement and gesture communicates, so much so that the music, Franz Schubert’s beautifully haunting song cycle, Die Winterreise, rather impossibly, almost seems incidental. When the music ends, the pair are still entwined, without touching. This is emotionally charged choreography designed to move its onlookers.

The programme’s final piece, ‘Through the Centre, All of You, At the Same Time and Don’t Stop,’ features the entire company dancing to live tracks by Squarepusher, complete with the intermittent sounds of their audience. As the music percolates, the dancers pop and prance, to the sound of the crowd oohhing and aahhing. As the sounds become more spacey, with gongs and reverb, the dancers pause and, pose. The ghost of West Side Story seems to be attempting resurrection in this piece with its wry stretches and leap postures which never fully manifest themselves, through the choreographer’s design. As an electronic voice, like a contemporary welcome wagon, echoes the Weiner welcome with a capitol W, the movements seem to slot right into the angular rhythms. This segnent creates the sensation of something embryonic, not yet fully formed. Its effect is a bit like that of the perpetual aimlessness of youth, as seen through the eyes of more senior beholders. With movements and music suggestive of the components of an electronic game, the dancers sway and tilt, keeping time with the rhythms the sounds inspire, rather than with the sounds themselves. One rubber limbed dancer swayed, rolled and stepped to a drum solo, his head literally, rotating on his shoulders. The group joined forces for the final leg of the piece, creating discordant harmony in the face of undeniable discordance. Although this piece seemed a little too fragmented at times, it was still interesting, most specifically for the fact that it featured a host of mini dramas, as expressed through the gestures, movements and facial expressions of the dancers.

The Emmanuel Gat Dance company is definitely one to watch, and see in future, if you haven’t yet had the privilege of doing so. In hindsight, having seen this programme, my first by the company, I have to say that there were countless innovations here that may have been suggested by Gat’s former musical training and/or his distinctively original creative eye. Among other experimental attributes these pieces displayed, I must say that I have never seen choreography that made such use of reclining figures. In one such instance, a lone dancer initially crouched, as if in meditation, only to rise up and seemingly, bang a gong, then spring up cat like, unfurling his attuned body as if to greet a warm summer sun.

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