Batsheva Dance Company To Premiere 'Hora - The Movie'

Batsheva Dance Company , widely recognized as one of the foremost contemporary dance companies, presents the world premiere of Hora - The Movie, directed by Batsheva house choreographer Ohad Naharin and co-produced by Factory 54. Shot at Batsheva's home, the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, and featuring the members of the 2021-22 company, this film adaptation of the internationally celebrated 2009 work continues Naharin's pursuit of new ways to create dance, and the newest chapter in his career as an artist. It follows YAG - The Movie, his debut as a filmmaker, which premiered in the fall of 2020.

In Hora - The Movie, the camera allows an intimate, often tender, sometimes disturbing glimpse into a parallel universe. In this dark world, the dancers emerge from a black space to the timeless music of electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita, their bodies etching a sort of dance calligraphy, like a code that is constantly being written and erased. As the director of the film, Naharin, in collaboration with cinematographer Roee Shalti, adds a new choreographic layer to the stage performance: the movement of the camera through space. Work carried out in the editing room-acceleration and deceleration, transitions and cuts-is fundamental to the experience.

The singular Batsheva dancers, performing Naharin's signature Gaga movement language, are the film's core. They are the 2021-22 company members Chen Agron, Billy Barry, Matan Cohen, Yael Ben Ezer, Ben Green, Sean Howe, Chiaki Horita, Londiwe Khoza, Chun Woong Kim, Shir Levi, Ohad Mazor, Yoni (Yonatan) Simon, Hani Sirkis, Amalia Smith, and Igor Ptashenchuk.

The score includes a wide range of music: Isao Tomita, Modest Moussorgsky, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, Yehonatan Oppenheim, Ikeda Ryoji, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Joaquin Rodrigo, Edvard Grieg, and Jean Sibelius.

In addition to direction by Narahin and cinematography by Shalti, Hora - The Movie is edited by Naharin and Shalti and features costume design by Eri Nakamura.

Hora - The Movie runs 60 minutes. Tickets can be purchased here.

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