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.