Repertoire

Venezuela
Ohad Naharin

“Venezuela” explores context and interpretation. Based on duplication, it presents two executions of the same choreography. In each iteration, the cast, music, and lighting change, imbuing the same movements with different energies that challenge the audience to carry out a different reading.

In a study of possibilities, of excess, Naharin demonstrates how diverse realms can be embodied in the same gesture, if we entrusted it to a different body. The piece is laced with cultural and political references: a Gregorian choir sings a hymn of deep sorrow, the dancers spit raunchy hip-hop bars by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. at the audience, and white flags-cum-shrouds are drenched in paint and political tones.

Venezuela explores reality and movement that overflow but also collapse under the downpour of meanings, running towards emptiness time after time, in vain. Repetitive and full of contradictions, they underscore the violence alongside beauty, the intensity in the absence of movement, and the elegance of chaotic movement.

Choreography: Ohad Naharin
Lighting Design: Avi Yona (Bambi) Bueno
Soundtrack Design and Edit: Maxim Waratt
Musical Advisor: Nadav Barnea
Costume Design: Eri Nakamura
Assistants to Ohad Naharin and Eri Nakamura: Ariel Cohen
Dancers Instructor: Natalia Petrova. Assistant: Omri Mishael

Music:
“Coma” by Converter, “Ae Ajnabi” (From “Dil Se”) by Mahalakshmi & Udit Narayan, “Bullet in the Head” by Rage Against the Machine, “Mirage” by Biz, “The Wait” by Olafur Arnalds, “One Large Rose” by Niblock Phill, “Dead Wrong” by The Notorious B.I.G, “Kyrie fons bonitatis, Litany”, “Beata Viscera” – Gregorian Chant, Songs of the Spirit; “Offertorium: Lubulate Deo Universa Terra” – Gregorian Chants from Mönchsschola der Erzabtei St. Ottilien; “O Euchari” by Hildegard Von Bingen; “De Profundis”,”Alma Redemptoris”- Gregorian Chants;” Alma Redemptoris Mater”, “Litany: Litany” -Gregorian Chant from Westminster Cathedral Choir.

Text about the piece: Shira Vitaly

Performed by Batsheva Dance Company dancers

80 Minutes without intermission

World Premiere – May 12, 2017, Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel-Aviv.

Produced by Batsheva Dance Company. Co-producers: Chaillot National Theater, Paris; Hellerau – European Center for the Arts, Dresden.
Special support provided by Batsheva’s New Works Fund, and the American Friends of Batsheva’s New Works Fund
Special thanks to The Israeli Ballroom Dancing Fund

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