Men dancing

The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company takes an original turn.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (photo credit: GIL NEMET)
The Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company
(photo credit: GIL NEMET)
To be a dancer in Rami Be’er’s company means to not only execute steps but also to create them. As such, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company has been the springboard for many a talented choreographer. To honor and promote this element of company life, KCDC has initiated a new program called Another Stage in which company members are able to present their own choreographies. Tonight, KCDC will present the first such evening entitled Croissant al Ha’esh.
The performance is part of the Suzanne Dellal Center’s Men Dancing Festival and consists of works by two KCDC company members, Eyal Dadon and Martin Harrangue.
The two dancers/choreographers chose to name the evening Croissant al Ha’esh (Barbecue Croissant) as an analogy of their meeting. Dadon was born and raised in Israel; Harrangue is from France. The two met in Kibbutz Ga’aton. Although they shared little common background, they became fast friends.
“We wanted to make an evening that would be connected. We are each showing two works and though each of us has his own voice and language, it comes together as one,” explains Harrangue.
The 29-year-old dancer has made his way through Europe to Israel, dancing with companies such as Noords Nederlandse Dans and Malandain Ballet Biarritz. In 2013, he first traveled to Israel to attend Batsheva Dance Company’s Gaga Intensive.
“When NND closed, I decided to come and see Israel. I had heard a lot about Batsheva and gaga, so I came to see what it was all about. While here, I went to Kibbutz Ga’aton to visit some friends. I immediately had a crush on the place and people,” he recounts.
Be’er quickly offered Harrangue a place in the company. Since joining, Harrangue has become accustomed to a new way of working.
“The physicality has a very strong and important place in the creative process. There is something visceral about Israeli dance and Rami’s movement.
Through my career I’ve worked with choreographers that come with steps, and we have to fit those steps and try to develop and way to reproduce exactly the steps and the vision. With Rami, there’s a lot of freedom to insert our own language and creativity,” he says.
The creative atmosphere inspired Harrangue to continue pursuing his own choreographic endeavors.
Tonight, he will show his solo You Man for which he received a public prize at the International Solo Dance Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany. It took Harrangue more than months to create this work, largely due to the fact that he composed the movement and the music.
“My intention is to expand this solo to be a full evening,” he says.
Harrangue will also present a duet based on Beauty and the Beast. KCDC company members Niv Elbaz and Frida Dam Seidel will dance the duet.
“This work is inspired by my personal experience, mainly in Israel. It’s an exaggerated and even absurd interpretation of the story,” he explains.
Eyal Dadon will present Flea, danced by himself and Tamar Barlev, as well as When We Finally Arrive, a trio danced by Dadon, Daniel Costa and Ilya Nikurov.
For both artists, this opportunity is a golden one.
“Rami is giving me a lot of freedom, which is quite a gift because not everybody would do that. I think it’s something that he understood and that we understood together, that it was a need of mine to do it. I believe that it benefits me and benefits the company,” says Harrangue.
Croissant al Ha’esh will take place tonight (Friday) at 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.suzannedellal.org.il.