MOMO has two souls. One sends long roots to the depths of the earth – a soul that embodies archetypes and myths of hardened, raw masculinity, and the other is in a constant search for an individual and distinct DNA; one moves within its own autonomous and independent force field and the other is a constellation of elements that spin around the same nucleus – alternately drifting away and towards it, making room for necessary tenderness and catharsis.

With a soundtrack comprised mostly of the album Landfall by the legendary Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet, one of the foremost contemporary classical music ensembles, a shared passion of deep sorrow and beauty unfolds on stage. Relinquishment becomes a dedicated search for a crack, and glitches in the movement code turn out to be free, playful, and emotive material.

Duration: 70 minutes without intermission

Major sponsor:  Chelck Family Foundation

Supported by: Batsheva New Works Fund, American Friends of Batsheva, French Friends of Batsheva, The Zita and Mark Bernstein Family Foundation, Factory54

Co-producers: Orsolina28, Moncalvo

Presenting Co-producers: Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale / Festival Aperto – Fondazione I Teatri, Reggio Emilia / Fondazione del Teatro Grande di Brescia.

World Premiere: 10 December 2022, Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel-Aviv.

Against a bright green background, the eleven dancers move with great virtuosity, immense grace and visceral physicality in the hyper-defined dance vocabulary known by Ohad Naharin.

The new world created on stage in Hora is largely futuristic. This is implied both by the color – phosphorescent green, which in the Western imagination is usually associated with aliens – and by the eclectic soundtrack. Isao Tomita’s electronic and synthesized soundtrack combines classical works by Wagner, Ives and Debussy with the opening theme of “Star Wars” and the music from “2001: A Space Odyssey”. These cinematic works deal in different ways with our technological future and how it can lead to disaster.
In a way, Ohad Naharin does something similar: he attracts us and at the same time distances us from what is happening on stage; captivates us with beauty and destroys it in the next moment. At the same time, he scoffs at our obsession with predicting the future.

Naharin’s Hora unfolds a captivating vision of abstraction, sensuality and playfulness. In a sexy and elegant way, Hora flirts between contemporary dance and science fiction in a production that does not seem of this world.

„Hora is about itself, but it suggests several points of reference. It refers to music you’ve heard before. It’s about not letting the points of reference prevent us from having a fresh experience. I purposefully created many climaxes, and the climaxes have a weird rhythm. It’s not an idea or story that holds it—it’s a tension“. (Ohad Naharin)

Duration: 60 min.

A production by Batsheva Dance Company. In coproduction with Montpellier Danse 2010 and Lincoln Center Festival, New York City.

“Its immediate visceral and kinetic impact mostly makes you want to jump onstage and dance,” proclaimed The New York Times about the original Decadance, created in 2000 by Batsheva Dance Company’s acclaimed artistic director Ohad Naharin in celebratation of the 10th anniversary of Ohad Naharin at the Company. 

In Decadance, Ohad Naharin takes sections from different works from the last 20 years. “Deca” stands on the one hand for the 10 years (lat. “Decem” = ten), on the other hand for the 10 dance units. Featuring intimate duets to exhilarating full company pieces against a soundtrack veering from Vivaldi to Dean Martin, this evolving retrospective is regularly reshaped each time it is staged. “It’s like I am quoting only either the beginning, middle or ending of many stories, yet, my task is to create a coherent whole new story” says Ohad Naharin.

Duration: 75 min.

In Venezuela, created in 2017, Ohad Naharin and his dancers explore the dialogue as well as the conflict between movement and its meaning. This dance with palpable energy is filled with jumps and ensembles, shaken bodies and spasms as well as uncompromising lifts. Faithful to his eclectic tastes, Ohad Naharin has given carte blanche to Maxim Waratt to imagine a soundtrack like a trip between two cultures. Gregorian songs, rap (The Notoriuos B.I.G.) or rock (Rage Against the Machine) give rhythm to the show. The urgency of the gestures, the volte-face of the performers who go from softness to frenzied virtuosity in a few seconds make Venezuela a piece with a message: Ohad Naharin still believes that living together is possible. The stage becomes his platform: but no long speeches here, just the strength and the generosity of a plural company. Dance has this power, the choreographer seems to say, of bringing together the public and the performers in the same communion. Art in movement.

“Seventeen dancers sweep the stage with an energy that no one can evade or resist”. (Dorion Weickmann, Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 2017)

Duration: 80 min.

A production by Batsheva Dance Company. In coproduction with Chaillot National Theatre, Paris, and Hellerau-European Center for the Arts, Dresden. With special support provided by the Dalia and Eli Hurvitz Foundation, as well as the New Works Funds of Batsheva and the American Friends of Batsheva. Special thanks to the Israeli Ballroom Dancing Fund.