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Ohad Naharin
Gaga
Biography:
Born in Israel, Naharin began his training as a dancer with Batsheva and continued his studies at Juilliard. He danced for one season in the Martha Graham Company and with Maurice Bejart. Between 1980-1990 Naharin was active in the dance scene of New York and worked with various companies. Jiri Kylian, of the Nederlands Dance Theater, saw his work and their encounter was the basis of a long comradeship, both with Kylian and NDT, and the beginning of a series of commissions from the leading dance companies in the world.
Already a renowned choreographer, Ohad Naharin was
appointed
Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company in 1990. The
Cullberg Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet,
Nederlands
Dans Theater, Le Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve,
Compania
Nacional de Danza de Madrid and other top international
dance
companies have commissioned works from him.
Naharin also appears on stage as a performer in his own
pieces,
and is involved in the total act of creating, from words to
costumes, lighting and stage design.
Seeing movement as healing and strengthening, Naharin's
main
source of inspiration is the human body and its individual
abilities.
"Gaga challenges multi-layer tasks.
We are aware of the connection between effort and pleasure,
we
are aware of the distance between our body parts, we
are aware of the friction between flesh and bones, we sense
the
weight of our body parts, yet, our form is not shaped by
gravity... we are aware of where we hold unnecessary tension,
we
let go only to bring life and efficient movement to where
we let go . . . We are turning on the volume of listening to our
body, we appreciate small gestures, we are measuring and
playing with the texture of our flesh and skin, we might be
silly,
we can laugh at ourselves. We connect to the sense of "plenty
of time”, especially when we move fast, We learn to love our
sweat, we discover our passion to move and connect it to
effort,
We discover both the animal we are and the power of our
imagination. we are "body builders with soft spine."
We learn to appreciate understatement and exaggeration, We
become more delicate and we recognize the importance of
the
flow of energy and information through our body in all
directions. we learn to apply our force in an efficient way and
we
learn to use "other" forces.
We discover the advantage of soft flesh and sensitive hands,
we
learn to connect to groove even when there is no music.
We are aware of people in the room and we realize that we
are
not in the center of it all. We become more aware of our form
since we never look at ourselves in a mirror; there are no
mirrors. We connect to the sense of the endlessness of
possibilities. Yielding is constant while we are ready to snap...
We explore multi-dimensional movement, we enjoy the
burning
sensation in our muscles, we are aware of our explosive
power
and sometimes we use it. We change our movement habits by
finding new ones, we can be calm and alert at once.
We become available . . ."
--Ohad Naharin