Annotation:
Uri Shafir (IL): Somewhere in The Now
Somewhere In The Now is a performance for two dancers and one video artist. Is what happens in a live performance really live? What is real and what is not? Three men and eight television screens move around the stage to music by Ennio Morricone and create a new space, a landscape that permits observation both from outside and from within at the same time.
What is happening right now, in this moment? What does the here and now actually mean? These are questions which each spectator must answer by themselves. The talented creator of the performance is a certified Gaga teacher, a former member of Ohad Naharin's Batsheva Ensemble and a collaborator with Yasmeen Godder, among others, who is now making a name for himself with his own works.
Mr. Gaga – film screening
This excellent documentary by Israeli production company Heymann Brothers uniquely portrays the life and work of choreographer Ohad Naharin.
Biography
Uri Shafir (IL)
Uri Shafir, a graduate of MASPA (Kibbutz Ga'aton Dance Workshop), worked in Ohad Naharin's junior company the Batsheva Ensemble. He started collaborating with Yasmeen Godder and other top Israeli choreographers, and has been creating his own works since 2009. He is a certified teacher of Gaga – Naharin's movement language – which he teaches at workshops around the world.
Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin is one of the most important choreographers in the world, whose work fundamentally influences the development of contemporary dance. He is also the creator of the Gaga universal dance technique, a movement system that he has developed both for top dancers and amateurs, which is also an important therapeutic method for people with various illnesses and disabilities.
Naharin spent his childhood with his parents on a kibbutz, which significantly shaped his values and attitudes. He embarked on a career as a professional dancer at the age of 22 and became a member of the Batsheva Dance Company, where he met the legendary Martha Graham. He became her favourite, and so he found himself in New York where he lived and worked for ten years.
His great support was his wife Mary Kajiwara, who helped him build the Ohad Naharin Dance Company. He became the head and choreographer of the Batsheva Dance Company in 1990.
Naharin is also musically gifted, a distinctive singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He founded the rock band Tractor's Revenge and composed music for some dance works under the pseudonym Maxim Warrat.
In addition to creating choreographies for the Batsheva Dance Company, Naharin has staged productions all over the world. In the Czech Republic his works are performed by 420PEOPLE, the National Theatre in Prague and the Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava. His ensemble has performed several times in the main program of the TANEC PRAHA International Festival of Contemporary Dance and Movement Theatre.
