‘Status’

Beersheba-based company Kamea premieres Status, which deals with the interfacing of virtual world and reality.

By ORA BRAFMAN
Kamea Dance Company – ‘Status’ (photo credit: Kfir Bolotin)
Kamea Dance Company – ‘Status’
(photo credit: Kfir Bolotin)
Beersheba-based company Kamea premieres Status, which deals with the interfacing of virtual world and reality as manifested on social networks. Choreographer Tamir Ginz, the company’s artistic director, alongside Daniella Shapira, has developed proficiency which comes through experience.
One may always count on Tamir’s pleasing compositions and fine use of space. Status, in contrast to most of his work, is less overtly theatrical, which is good, since interpreting verbal messages through expressive movement had hindered several of his previous works.
Another move in the right direction was clever use of projection techniques and video art, prepared by lighting designer Shai Yehudai and video artist Peretz Markish, which produced the stronger sections of the work. Three duets involving a dancer and his virtual partner – a video projection – were performed by same dancers during the piece.
In the first, the male dancer had a delicately detailed movement dialogue with a projected image of a female dancer. On their next encounter the male image was a projection and the female dancer was actually on stage.
Toward the end, the two interacted live on stage, while their images were reflected on a screen on the ceiling.
Another brilliant idea was the close up images of the dancers on the back screen.
Beautifully shot in black and white, it added depth and contemporary flavor to Tamir’s choreography.
Unfortunately, the bulk of the work occurred between those short scenes, and there, one could see that the dancers’ capabilities and stage experience varied enormously. Some of the dancers were simply not ripe enough. The group scenes repeated themselves and lacked stylistic cohesiveness. Probably the simplicity of the soundtrack collage didn’t help much either.
With further polishing the piece has the potential to get tighter.