Emanuel Gat: The future of dance
Move it.
Rising Israeli dancer and choreographer Emanuel Gat and his company are launching the Sadler's Wells Debut series, which is presenting relatively unknown up and coming artists to the UK at the bargain price of £10 a ticket. Based in France, the Emanuel Gat Dance company are performing a triple bill of diverse works on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 September 2008 including the UK premiere of ‘Silent Ballet' co-produced by Sadler's Wells.
Performed by the full Company, ‘Silent Ballet' mixes live and pre-recorded ‘sounds' with moments of complete silence. "I work with basic tools. I'm not interested in using sets, props, video and other mediums on stage. My work is based on the movement of the body, nothing else." Gat's choreography is abstract, he prefers the meaning to be open to audience interpretation (a bit of an artistic cop-out) but he says that you cannot call it minimalist. "My
work is complex and rich with many layers of form".
Born in Israel in 1969, Emanuel Gat completed his military service in 1990 before studying at the Rubin Academy of Music intending to become a conductor. His introduction to dance began a little later, when in 1992 aged 23 he attended a workshop for non-professionals led by Israeli choreographer Nir Ben Gal. Several months later he joined the Liat Dror Nir Ben Gal Company and performed around the world before launching himself as an independent choreographer and lead dancer in 1994.
In 2004, frustrated with the system in Israel, Gat and his dance company moved to the South of France. With him went nine dancers, his wife and five kids. "In Israel it is hard because there is no financial support for dance and the arts, which are a low priority."
Although Gat says that he misses the food and sun of Israel, he is particularly looking forward to performing in the UK again. "Sadlers Wells is a magical place with an intimate atmosphere perfect for dance, sometimes the dance gets lost in big theatres."
The other two works being showcased are a dance duet called ‘Winter Voyage' and ‘Through the Center' choreographed to music by electro pioneer Squarepusher.
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| Winter Voyage. |
‘Winter Voyage' a futuristic space-monk homo-erotic dance duet set to Schubert'sWinterreise (Winter Journey), which is all about death, suicidal thoughts and wandering lonely through life was premiered first in 2004. With shaven heads and dressed in long flowing white gowns Emanuel Gat and fellow dancer Roy Assaf perform synchronized moves that are both masculine and elegant creating an atmosphere of pent-up aggression and sexual tension with highly charged moments of face-to-face confrontation. Gat says that it is ‘a reflection of one person, not two.' And even though they do look like a pair of Tibetan space monks there is ‘no political connotations, just beautiful and modern choreography.'
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| Through the Center. |
'Through the Center' is a piece using eight dancers to music by Squarepusher who Gat has admired for years and has always wanted to choreograph a dance to their music. "Some people call it techno-acid music, but to me it's just another piece of music, I just hear the movements and start to make formations."
Go to www.sadlerswells.com for more info.
All images copyright of Gadi Dagon.
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