(Video: The Noa Dar Dance Group in Tetris, a collaboration between Noa Dar and visual artist Nati Shamia-Opher)

I first wrote about Noa Dar’s Tetris (טטריס) in “From Studios to Stages” on my own blog and have edited an excerpt of that article for this post.

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It’s no wonder that Tetris (2006) premiered at the Acco Festival for Alternative Theater, or that it won a prize there.  This collaboration between choreographer Noa Dar and visual artist Nati Shamia-Opher shapes the performance space into the most alternative set-up that I have ever witnessed, and it left its mark on my mind when I saw it last year.

I heard about Tetris soon after arriving in Israel and eagerly looked forward to seeing a staging in Tel Aviv at the Noa Dar Studio.  I was familiar with the the chosen location because I had taken several contemporary technique classes there – but when I arrived for the performance November 10, 2007, I found the studio cleverly transformed.  Tetris‘s treatment of the spectator-performer relationship in this redesigned space is so unique that I would like to describe a bit of it below:

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(Video: Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s Mamootot)

Last year, I viewed excerpts from Mamootot on DVD, but I suspected that nothing could compare to attending a live performance of the dance.

I finally got to see Batsheva Dance Company in Mamootot today – and I was correct in my assumption.

Created in 2003 by Ohad Naharin with the participation of Sharon Eyal and the company’s dancers, Mamootot trades the comfort zone of the proscenium for the four-sided square of the studio.  Like Naharin’s other choreography, the dance is filled with inventive movement, but here it is the exploration of this unusual space – and the interplay of the performers and spectators within it – which assumes center stage.  Indeed, as the dancers sit motionless among audience members to the song “We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together,” it’s clear that what will follow is not the typical concert experience.

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