It had been a 15-year wait for some audience members at the State Theatre in Melbourne on Thursday night. Batsheva Dance Company was appearing at the Melbourne Festival for a performance of Decadance for one night only – and it was to a full (and very enthusiastic) house. The heart-in-mouth moments for me came right at the start.
The dancers, in black suits, each moving around a chair to thumping, Balkan-esque percussion throw themselves on the stage and fold back – like cards fanning out from a deck. They then remove one item of clothing at a time – until shoes, pants, jackets are all in a pile at the centre of the stage.
It’s beautiful and affecting. The words are in Hebrew – it’s Echad Mi Yodea, the song sung at Passover – some of which is chanted by the dancers in forceful bursts. Their moves managed to be both fluid, and violently precise at the same time.
Dancers in the Israeli company mix sound (lots of “ha!” and “hey!”), group formation, audience participation and moving moments of stillness. Ohad Naharin choreographs the young troupe, who mainly wear the sort of leisure wear favoured by middle aged people on vacation: knee-length coloured shorts, singlets and polo shirts in primary colours.
But there is nothing middlebrow about this performance. Dancers bump against each other violently, fall heavily onto the ground as if they’ve been shot, pull their shirts up to reveal skin, Nicky Winmar style.
The performance is a mixture of Naharin’s old and new work– and is mostly seamless – although each piece felt distinct and a common theme was hard to pinpoint. The music also makes swift changes of tone, tempo and style.
In one section the music is soft, and the dancers are in elegant clumps, bending together like coral or seaweed in an underwater world we can only marvel at through the glass. But the glass is broken and the audience becomes the dancers during Dean Martin’s Sway as random audience members are brought onto stage to dance with the troupe.
Lucky ducks – they are cheek-to-cheek in clinches with the dancers, having the time of their lives. The dancers are also having lots of fun. They get to move their bodies in ways that few works allow: deep backbends and Michael Jackson-like hip rolls mixed with more classical poses.
Judging by the standing ovation, perhaps they shouldn’t leave it quite so long until their next visit.
