Dance review: Tamar Borer – BOHU

Tamar Borer – BOHU
Clipa Theater, October 17

An artist with unique stage presence, Tamar Borer found her voice in the realm of performance art, with a minimalist approach toward movement.

Creativity and originality often thrive within constrains and limitations, as Borer’s work demonstrates.

As a former dancer who lost her mobility years ago, she circumvented her disabilities and used inner intensity, rock-like stillness, expressive hands and upper body, much influenced by Japanese Butoh, which charges her works with hypnotic inner power wrapped with strong, esthetic touch.

After a series of political works, BOHU is different. Its enigmatic title alludes perhaps to Hebrew biblical expression Tohu Vavohu, the primordial chaos, and the Hebrew verb meaning “to stare.”

On the black floor, covered with remnants of some major calamity, we see a shallow pool of water glowing in the dark, as a symbol of hope and future. BOHU is a journey within the landscape of the soul that manages to distill the mundane with great sensitivity into art.

The elongated figure of an Ophelia- type beauty, pale, almost transparently lean, with deep ginger red hair is stepping down off a narrow metal ladder with unnoticeable moves. This is Tamar Lam, Borer’s close collaborator in this project.

Borer, dressed in black, her long black curls loose, her black eyes fiery and hands strong, portrays an inverted image of Lam. She is the powerful figure who controls the process on stage, like a sorcerer, in spite of an effort to play it down.

Borer lets off a measure of her stern self control and allows herself to smile openly. The duet between the dark and the fair beauties takes place on the floor, and slowly, with hinted gestures like brushing fingers, each body resonates and acknowledge the other, and finally blooms into a unique intimacy.

Special mention is due to Borer for the unique stage design, to Tamar Or for designing the lights, Tamar Lam for the video and Uri Frost for the original score.