Emanuel Gat Dance.

Emanuel Gat Dance

American Dance Festival Durham, NC June 27-29, 2005

Emanuel Gat and his company from Israel performed his powerful, contemporary movement with a high polish without making it fussy. His choreography, though non-narrative, is deeply evocative and utterly spellbinding.

With Roy Assaf, Gat performed Winter Voyage, set to songs from Schubert's Winterreise. The men wore elegant, vaguely clerical, long silver tunics that, with the songs, set a somber, bittersweet tone. With clockwork precision, they paralleled or echoed each other--scooping armloads of air, one foot chasing another, or notching tight chains of quick pivots. They butted heads and engaged each other's gaze, continued their dancing side-by-side, and wound up contemplating an embrace. In the closing moment, Gat stood by Assaf's side, their barely tangent arms poignantly conveying an unbreakable, if mutable, partnership.

Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is a frequently self-imposed rite of passage for choreographers. Cat's version took on a contemporary urban setting indicated by a vibrant red carpet of nesting rectangles, and sleek black garb dripping in blood-red lighting--all designed by the choreographer. The cast of five gathered on the rug and began a mesmerizing salsa, then transformed into dervishes, carving overlapping figure eights. The odd number meant that one woman danced alone; she moved drone-like, not missing a step, partnered by a ghost.

The group clustered, then scattered to dance independently--the men leonine, pawing the air or slotting their right-angled arms in planes, the women tossing their hair--and dropped onto their stomachs to nap. After a reprise of the salsa segment, a woman--the Chosen One--despondently shuffled her feet. Gat, more violent than before, stripped her to the waist; she lay down, left alone to face her fate. See www.americandancefestival.org.

Susan Yung