Dance Review: Tarab Inbal center, July 11

The connection between choreographers Zvika Hisakias, a former Batsheva Ensemble dancer of Ethiopian descent, and Shiri Kapueno, worked extremely well. Both are able, very expressive and passionate dancers.

This evening they showcased their choreographic credo through dance and music, accompanied by texts and video art, about the quest for freedom on the socio-political as well as personal creativity levels.

Their lexicon is highly influenced by African rhythms and dance, with strong accents on torso and pelvic swaying and touches of sensuous Oriental dance in a contemporary context.

Original music by creative partner Amit Khai Cohen, who also did the video sections, helped to put all the parts together and supply a supportive frame for the structure as well as the fusion style.

Trained at the dance academy, Hisakias is probably the only Ethiopian-Israeli male dancer whose references are within contemporary dance rather than ethnic or folk dance.

Both Hisikias and Kapueno have strong presence on stage and work most beautifully together, particularly in both duets. Even though Hisakias is a bit rusty, his presence is both sensitive and strong, while Kapueno moves in an impressive manner, with total control and a vocabulary full of nuances and subtle moods.

For some reason, they added two more female dancers for the last scene, which wasn’t really necessary and seemed like an afterthought, or at least like it needed a lot more work. It slightly over-stretched an otherwise a very interesting evening.