Dance Review: 'Swan Lake'

Without the support of its romantic narrative, Swan Lake is stripped to its fundamentals by Idan Cohen.

By ORA BRAFMAN
dance review 88 (photo credit: )
dance review 88
(photo credit: )
Swan Lake By Idan Cohen SummerDance at Suzanne Dellal August 26 Without the support of its romantic narrative, Swan Lake is stripped to its fundamentals by Idan Cohen. It is an intriguing expedition by three female dancers in search of the basic choreographic building blocks. Cohen is one of the more talented representatives of today's young, independent choreographers; he steadily perfects his craft, and now, for the first time, has offered an ambitious, full-evening production set to Tchaikovsky's renowned score. Looking for ties or interconnecting points between the 19th-century ballet and Cohen's may be futile, since obviously he is not offering a revised version of the old ballet (which was a common practice in the '80s and '90s). Instead, he uses the ballet in a conceptual manner, utilizing little bits and pieces as inspirational aides. Two of the dancers, Reut Levi and Rita Komisarchik, were already impressive when they took part in his previous creation last year, and now, joined by Daniel Gal, they solidified a triumphant triumvirate. Strong, assertive and precise, the three execute Cohen's cohesive lexicon with panache. His vocabulary is a carefully developed deconstruction that covers a wide range of textured details, enriched by varied intensity. It was a pleasure to follow all three in their solo and duo variations as they toyed with slight innuendoes, moved in between pauses, posed still mid-phrase, rolled, practiced their vertical jumps, acted out fleeting moments and slowly got wilder and more animalistic. They ended in a frenzied, brilliant scene, slouched on a stage covered with red, ripe tomatoes, already crushed beneath them. Thus, the dance evolved from secured innocence to risqué decadence.