In the end everyone ducks down, bends to their knees, puts their hands on their heads like little umbrellas. Maybe they make themselves small as if they can’t do anything while they look at us, the audience. Or it’s the last thing they can do when bombs fall, when the house is broken. “Last Work” is the piece of the moment, in all its ambiguity, which is not fluffy indecision, but sharpness. It cuts into the brain as a warning against quick judgments, black and white sorting, and inertia in thinking and feeling. This is how the “Last Piece,” which is never made explicit, could be interpreted.
As a production with the Hessian State Ballet, “Last Work” celebrated its premiere at the Darmstadt State Theater and received a standing ovation. But there are some clearer signs in what is by no means the last work by Ohad Naharin. A white flag appears and is waved, right at the back. Then the tumult really begins, a wandering chaos. When it no longer flutters, someone holds the corner of the material and it becomes the white sheet that has yet to be written on. A rifle appears briefly, which a dancer has extensively worked on, with his back to the audience. Someone fixes a standing pole to the ground with packing tape, which from a distance looks like the tent made of branches in the doomsday film “Melancholia”. Then he fixes and connects the dancers, who are already standing around like sculptures, with the nasty creaking tape. How do you choreograph immobility? Lack of excitement?
Lying, sitting, bending
With paradoxical contrasts, with looks into the void, to the ground, to the silent sky and past each other, or with covered faces, anonymized. With running in circles and scurrying in a crowd and crouching. With loungers. Sit. Slow bending, with exercise. Short bouts of mating, teasing, holding, hitting, hugging, apart, over, different each time. Otherwise, repeated fragments of behavior, picked up somewhere. Standing stable on one leg, being able to support yourself.
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After “Sadeh 21” from 2011, which Naharin gave to a company other than his own Batsheva Dance Company, the Hessian State Ballet, for the first time in 2018, “Last Work” from 2015 now shines on the stages in Darmstadt and later Wiesbaden. Another special gift to the ensemble, because everyone is celebrating the 71-year-old Naharin, who gave up the batsheva direction in Tel Aviv in 2018 but continues to choreograph.
The Staatsballett doesn’t quite come close to the sinewy, specially trained quality of Batsheva, but the 18 cut a very good figure to Grischa Lichtenberger’s mix of music, long electric string tones, eternal three-tone repetitions, dance studio noises, techno noise and old lullabies. Naharin does not explain his pieces, nor their titles. Being able to see a piece like this, especially this one, several times offers the chance to fathom it, this dance that is not nice. It calls for awakening the gaze and the body imagination. What are they doing with their hands? Surrender? Ask, pray, wait for rain? Grope or protect? Where does the dancer in the blue dress go for an hour without ever moving?
Critical look
As a work by an Israeli artist, “Last Work” can of course also be related to the situation in Israel. In 2015, however, Naharin had no idea about the huge demonstrations against the judicial reform or the current state of war. However, he has long been very critical of Israel’s occupation policy in the Palestinian territories. The Minister of Culture therefore wanted to cut off state funding for Batsheva Dance 2019. Naharin, on the other hand, is familiar with the calls for a boycott from the anti-Israel BDS (“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”) and demonstrations against Batsheva guest performances; He takes part in discussions, supports non-governmental organizations, but not the BDS. However, he does not reject his criticism of the occupation, as he reported to the newspaper “Haaretz” in 2019. He considers boycotts or performance interruptions to be useless because they do not offer any solutions.
In a letter about controversial performance licenses in Russia, Naharin even compared Russia, with its war of aggression against Ukraine, to Israel and its human rights violations, “war crimes,” against the “Palestinian people.” That was before the current attacks and Hamas’ call for war.
With a long statement published on the State Ballet’s homepage, the ballet and theater management in Darmstadt are now defending themselves against the impression that they are supporting this attitude by taking on “Last Work” while a Russian ballet is performing Naharin’s work. “Every single performance of a choreography by Ohad Naharin in Russia contradicts Putin’s values and is understood by those who also stand for human rights and diversity in Russia,” it says.
It’s war, everyone is watching. In “Last Work” for a little while, then they move on. Or it’s not a war yet, you look around, at others, move on, sit down, live, love a little to yourself. God’s “last work” was man.
Last Work next performances on October 12th, 13th and 21st at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, from November 18th at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden
#Ohad #Naharins #Work #inspires #Darmstadt
