A new adventure

The Inbal Pinto Dance Company sweeps audiences into an alternate reality with its latest work, ‘Bombyx Mori'.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
Pinto and Pollock 311 (photo credit: Gadi Dagon)
Pinto and Pollock 311
(photo credit: Gadi Dagon)
There is a point in every fairy tale when the protagonist gives him or herself over to adventure. The point when Alice decides to eat the cake or when Hansel and Gretel wander out of their home and into the woods. In every story, this moment marks the beginning of an epic change and the start of a journey of sorts.
The real life expression of this moment can be found in the minutes preceding any Inbal Pinto Dance Company performance. Much like the great storytellers, Pinto and longtime partner Avshalom Pollack offer audience members portals into magical, parallel universes full of astonishingly intricate vignettes.
This week, Pinto and Pollack will unveil a new work entitled Bombyx Mori, named after the domesticated silk moth. The duo have described the work as “the older sister of Toros,” which premiered last year at the Nahmani Theater in central Tel Aviv.
Like their previous works, Toros depicted a surreal environment where seamstresses carefully construct and animate a companion for themselves and where a flailing man takes comfort in his dog (who is actually another man wearing a painted box). The show was charming and witty; however, it failed to coalesce as the company’s previous works do. For the past several months, Pinto and Pollack have further refined the images and ideas presented in Toros to create a more finely tuned narrative for Bombyx Mori.
Descriptions often fall short of Pinto and Pollack’s nostalgic and moving imaginings. It seems there are never enough words to articulate the delicacy of Oyster or the intensity of Trout.
Pinto and Pollack, parents of two children and artistic partners, seem to have found the perfect blend of stage aesthetics and movement. Known to perfect every inch of the design, down to the color of thread that closes the neckline of a costume or the type of snow to fall, Pinto and Pollack’s curatorial eye is frighteningly sharp. And, like the characters found in children’s stories, with one note from Pinto and Pollack’s fiddle, the audience is swept away into an alternate reality, one in which most of them would want to stay longer.
For Bombyx Mori, Pinto and Pollack used the Mysterious Sonatas by Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Biber von Bibern, one of the most important composers in Europe in the 17th century. His haunting violin sonatas have been the source of inspiration for artists the world over for hundreds of years. Pinto and Pollack’s interpretation of his notes will undoubtedly reveal an unseen side of the composer’s music.
Bombyx Mori will premiere at the Suzanne Dellal Center on November 28 and 29 at 9 p.m. and on November 30 at 8 p.m. as part of the International Exposure Festival. For tickets, visit www.suzannedellal.org.il.