FESTIVAL REVIEW
MONTPELLIER DANCE FESTIVAL
Our local dance is basically Eurocentric, with little awareness of contemporary dance in neighboring countries and the Arab world. Jean-Paul Montanari, artistic director of the Montpellier Dance Festival, made a point of presenting artists from countries like Iran, Tunis, Morocco, Algeria, Burkina Faso and more, alongside world dance luminaries such as Dimitris Papaioannou or Lia Rodrigues, which made the 36th edition of the festival unforgettable.
Algeria-born Montanari is “half Jewish” he jests, born to a Jewish mother and Muslim father. His own social activism on some issues reflects his perception of dance as an art form tied to social and political issues. His choices represent pluralism and affinity with original, off-mainstream acts.
In that niche, we were delighted to meet Albert Ibekwe Khoza, a humongous South African performer, in a new solo by choreographer Robin Orlin. Dealing with gender issues is rather popular on stage, but rarely is it done with such brilliant humor and poignancy. Walking on the edge and dealing with her own gender ambiguity was young Iranian performer Sorour Darabi, who kept the audience spellbound using a table, chair, a bottle of water and silence. She sat, wiggled, twitched and chewed a pile of paper. Her innocent, delicate face, with implanted chin hair, told an unresolved tale.
Lia Rodrigues propelled her company, based in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to the best stages in the world with. Their outstanding performances echoed shamanist rituals, with singularly contemporary sensibilities and a daring naked group of dancers who mingled with the spectators, sharing the same space, smelling their sweaty bodies smeared with freshly ground coffee, white chalk and aromatic cumin. Her creation and Papaioannou’s Still Life were the highlights of this edition.
This superb Greek choreographer presented his Medea at Suzanne Dellal before he became an international maverick following his impressive choreography for the opening of the Olympic games in Athens. That piece was a non-narrative interpretation of the Sisyphus myth, produced a slow, serene, visually stunning performance, based on illusion and surreal actions, spiced by tightly reined dry humor. Though the work needs huge space for its ballooned skies, the artist told The Jerusalem Post, he considers both creations part of his Arte Povera approach.
Last but not least were our own Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, presenting their latest, most interesting creation, OCD Love. In an interview a day before the premier, Eyal confessed that she herself has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and said: “Before I speak on art and thoughts, I need to say that since I fell in love, everything evolved from there.” The work, intimate yet very intense, is a culmination of her artistic efforts and expresses her inner energies, passions and insights in a far more honest and complex fashion than ever before. Behar added that each movement comes from Sharon’s body, using no improvisations. In this case, she had all the movements ready two years prior to rehearsals. Eyal grins: “The work is so intimate, as if you’re peeping at us through the keyhole.”