Dance In Israel » Lazaro Godoy

Dancing Differently: New Works by Lazaro Godoy and Dana Ruttenberg

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:52:36 +0000

Lazaro Godoy in Zero-Z-One.

March has been a particularly rich month for dance in Tel Aviv, with both Shades of Dance (Gvanim) at Suzanne Dellal and Home Port in Jaffa. But two of this month’s more unique offerings – Lazaro Godoy’s Zero-Z-One and Dana Ruttenberg’s NABA – premiered outside of these festivals.

In background and approach, these two artists are themselves unique. Cuban-born and Juilliard-trained, Lazaro Godoy performed in Switzerland before landing in Israel last year; since his arrival, he has caught my eye in dances by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak, Sahar Azimi, and Maya Levy. Dana Ruttenberg, an Israeli native, also made her way to Manhattan. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Columbia University, she showed her choreography throughout New York before returning to her native country.

Both Lazaro and Dana cast away the conventions of dance concerts in their latest works. With Zero-Z-One, Lazaro trades the proscenium theater for an open plaza and multi-room gallery in old Jaffa, where he dances a response to visual artist Ayal Shifron’s exhibit Positioning. Meanwhile, Dana’s NABA stays on the stage but abandons a traditional sound score. Instead of piping music into the theater, Dana provides audience members with headsets and audio guides like those used in museums.

Dana Ruttenberg’s NABA. Photograph by Ascaf.

Although these artists’ aesthetics are different, the end result of their innovative choreography is similar. Audience members at Zero-Z-One and NABA do not passively watch the performers but actively experience the dances by moving through a series of choices. As Lazaro travels from space to space in his solo, spectators decide where to situate themselves; when he approaches and occasionally touches them, they can respond and affect his actions. With layered visual stimulation from the paintings and movement combined with evocative music, physical contact, and even fragrant spices, Lazaro awakens nearly all of the viewers’ senses over the course of Zero-Z-One.

While audience members stay in one place during NABA, they are no less active. Throughout the performance, viewers are asked to make choices about which audio track they want to hear. The dance onstage is set, but each attendee has a hand in directing their experience by selecting the sound; indeed, the audience members’ decisions shape their perceptions of the four performers in Dana’s choreography.

Though I have seen a lot of good dance in recent weeks, both Zero-Z-One and NABA stood out and made me reconsider performance norms anew. It’s not often that I see such adventurous work, and to have two bold challenges to traditional concert structure in one month was extraordinary.

Those of you in town have a few more chances to experience these works for yourselves. Lazaro Godoy presents Zero-Z-One at the Shifron Gallery in Jaffa on April 4th, and Dana Ruttenberg’s NABA continues at the Inbal Dance Theater in the Suzanne Dellal Center on March 28th. An excerpt from NABA will also be at the Home Port festival on April 4th. Visit the Dance In Israel Events page for more details.

Snapshots from International Exposure 2008

Deborah Friedes Galili — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:51:04 +0000

Hydra by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak closed International Exposure. Photo by Seto Hidemi.

Most visitors to this year’s International Exposure were festival directors, arts presenters, diplomats, or critics. I, however, came as a researcher. With this festival – as with my other research activities – I sought to discover, to interpret, to understand. I searched for old connections and new pathways.

Featuring over 40 works, International Exposure was exactly the right place to look for the threads which tie together this country’s concert dance scene. The festival is a like a yearbook for Israeli dance. The offerings by each choreographer serve as the album’s individual portraits. Mixed bills drawn from some of the country’s other festivals (Curtain Up; Machol Acher/Other Dance Project) hint at the structure of the dance community, just as club pictures reveal a school’s cliques and groups. And with the 20+ concerts clustered together in a mere six days, it’s possible to see the trends which characterized much this year’s artistic output. (( It should be noted, though, that some choreographers were missing from this year’s International Exposure. Some well-established artists including Nimrod Freed, Anat Danieli, and Adama’s Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror did not present work at the festival. Meanwhile, younger independent choreographers are far greater in number than those represented onstage. ))

Indeed, International Exposure brought the dance scene into focus for me, clarifying and sharpening some observations I had started to form since my research began in 2007. Israel is a small country, the size where everyone in the dance community knows each other, and this shows – not only during the mingling at receptions. For instance, it’s worth noting just how many collaborations there are within the dance scene. Several pairs presented work: Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak, Yossi Berg & Oded Graf, Ya’ara Dolev & Amit Goldenberg, Renana Raz & Ofer Amram, and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor (with the participation of choreographer Ronit Ziv, who performed). (( Ronit Ziv wasn’t the only choreographer who performed in another artist’s work. Ya’ara Dolev danced in Michael Getman’s duet, while Getman in turn appeared in the work Dolev co-choreographed. Lazaro Godoy popped up in dances by Sahar Azimi, Maya Levi, and Inbal Pinto & Avshalom Pollak. Although neither Nadar Rosano nor Iris Erez showed work this year, both choreographers danced in the festival (Rosano in Ronit Ziv’s choreography and Erez in Arkadi Zaides’s offering). ))

The fact that most choreographers are clustered in Tel Aviv probably facilitates this partnership, and it may also foster the cross-pollination of ideas in the work itself. At International Exposure, pure, abstract dance was trumped by theatricality and props (ranging from squeezy toys to green slime, with numerous pairs of shoes and other items in between). There was very little movement for movement’s sake, something I have noticed throughout my time here.

As for the movement itself, many of the dances were influenced by release technique. Assertive fast-paced partnering also dominated, especially in the trios and quartets which filled the four Curtain Up programs. The prevalence of contact improvisation in Israel also seems to have made its mark on how partnering is built.

Yet even as many of the works bore a similar aesthetic imprint, there were glimpses of what lies beyond the borders of contemporary dance in Israel. Elina Pechersky put belly dance on the concert stage, Tamar Borer mined the Japanese butoh tradition, and the Israel Ballet brought another flavor to the festival.

International Exposure may be over, but my research continues! I’m looking forward to talking with many of the choreographers I met at the festival in the months to come – and as my understanding of Israel’s concert dance scene develops, I’ll share more snapshots with you.

Snapshots from International Exposure 2008:

Top row: Barak Marshall’s Monger (photo by Gadi Dagon); Yossi Berg and Oded Graf’s Bloody Disco (photo by Gadi Dagon)
Middle row: Yasmeen Godder’s Singular Sensation (photo by Tamar Lamm); Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor’s Post-Martha (photo by Ascaf)
Bottom row: Noa Wertheim’s White Noise (photo by Gadi Dagon); Noa Dar’s Tetris (photo by Tamar Lamm)

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International Exposure 2008: Day 4

Deborah Friedes Galili — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:40:20 +0000

(Video: Barak Marshall’s Monger)

Just like the dancers, the audience is moving around a lot today at International Exposure.

Our day kicks off at 11:00 a.m. in a high energy fashion with Rami Be’er’s 60 Hz, performed by the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in the Suzanne Dellal Hall. Afterwards, we’ll walk across the plaza to the Inbal Dance Theater for Sahar Azimi’s Torus. Then we move to the complex’s third theater, the Yerushalmi Hall, for the Other Dance Project: Yuval Shalem’s If Not a Flag, Then a Sandwich, Lazaro Godoy’s Jugo de Limon, Gyula Csakvari’s Amarili, and Eyal Munteanu’s Limits.

For our next move, we’ll head over to the reception tent for a traditional Kabbalat Shabbat, the welcoming of the Sabbath. After this brief break, we’re on the go again. Our next stop is Kibbutz Yakum for a performance by the Israel Ballet; the company will be performing Xta and Ni-Na by artistic director Berta Yampolsky.

Back in Tel Aviv, we’ll walk through Neve Tsedek to the Tavi Dresner Gallery for Solo Colores by Arkadi Zaides. And finally, we’ll end up right back where we started: the Suzanne Dellal Center’s main hall. Barak Marshall’s Monger, which premiered at this year’s Tel Aviv Dance festival, will complete our busy day.

See below for more video and links.

Here’s another clip of what we’ll see today:

(Video: Eyal Munteanu’s Limits)

Dance In Israel » Lazaro Godoy

Dancing Differently: New Works by Lazaro Godoy and Dana Ruttenberg

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Snapshots from International Exposure 2008

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International Exposure 2008: Day 4

Related Articles on Dance In Israel

Links to Choreographers and Companies

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