A great final picture: It is snowing in the Negev desert. It is the place where “anger and anger” begin. “Rage” is also the name of the program that the group showed in Neuss. Photo: Kfir Bolotion
Neuss The international dance weeks have started: The Kamea Dance Company kicked off with their “Rage” program. Anger, anger, and frenzy were depicted in strong body images. But it was also about the trigger for these states of mind.
From Claus Clemens
It’s back, the Neuss International Dance Weeks. Since 1983, top-class ensembles have come to the town hall every year in the winter months. Her choreographies and productions were popular with the public and almost always sold out. Until the pandemic broke that tradition. But now the first performance of the program planned for six evenings could take place again. With corona gaps, without gastronomy, but all the greater enthusiasm.
It all started with the Kamea Dance Company from Beer Sheva in Israel . She is touring Europe with two programs this winter. “Rage” celebrated its German premiere in Neuss , the second program is called “Matthaus Passion 2727”. In the town hall, the one-hour choreography by Tamir Ginz first amazed the audience and then gave them endless applause.
As is well known, the English word “rage” stands for anger, rage and anger. With his twelve dancers, Tamir Ganz translates these three states of mind into strong body images. Like a shadow play, the dancers initially move behind the cold white light of three large spotlights. The men and women meet, there is first contact. But then they quickly diverge. The entire troupe can be seen on stage several times in a flash, only to disappear to both sides in a flash. A flash mob ?
This is followed by the first solo, like a street dance. Initially artistic, exalted, with the dancer’s claim to the entire stage space. Then looking for an opponent for an argument. It’s easy to find, but more interested in the ritual than in real violence. So for the time being you decide to fight with feather swords. Aggressive stroking, dressed entirely in white, more atmospheric than unleashed. In the further course it becomes clear that the lust for violence is not a male domain. Like combat drones, the dancers fly back and forth between their camouflages. This is virtuoso artistry at its best.
Anger, frenzy and anger usually follow a trigger of this “rage”. In the city of Beer Sheva, on the northern edge of the Negev desert, anger and anger are part of everyday life for people who are actually peaceful. Because time and again, objects in flight from the Gaza Strip hit the middle of this world. The invisible source of this violence seems almost unreal, its latent potential determines everyday life. This is exactly where Tamir Ginz wanted to locate the dance company he founded together with Daniella Schapira twenty years ago. He himself had danced on Israeli and international stages for many years. The name “Kamea” in Hebrew stands for a lucky charm. The “Jerusalem Post” wrote about the new production: Here Tamir Ginz traces the different faces of violence that upset our lives.
A surprise guest can be seen several times in the moving spectacle, a man dressed entirely in black and white. On his first appearance he even leaves the stage and takes a few steps into the rows of spectators. One wonders if he himself is the message he seems to be delivering. At the end he reappears with a red umbrella in the middle of the ensemble. Because now it is snowing in the Negev desert, which only happens once every hundred years. A great final picture.