Dance Review: Anat Danieli's Planned Moves to Silence

It has been a while since Anat Danieli premiered a new work, and longer yet since she put on such an intriguing one in which all the stage elements fully support and enhance each other.

By ORA BRAFMAN
anatdandance88 (photo credit: )
anatdandance88
(photo credit: )
Anat Danieli Planned Moves to Silence "Curtain Up" at Suzanne Dellal November 16 It was a pleasure to see that the opening event of the Curtain Up Dance Festival- "Planned Moves to Silence" by Anat Danieli - was not an obvious crowed pleaser, but still a wonderful work. The decision, taken by Nava Zuckerman, artistic director of "Curtain Up" for her fifth and last season, indicates a measure of artistic daring and raises expectation for the rest of the festival. It has been a while since Danieli premiered a new work, and longer yet since she put on such an intriguing one in which all the stage elements fully support and enhance each other. Particularly impressive was the continuous dialogue and physical interplay between the four dancers and the all female Israel Contemporary String Quartet that superbly played String Quartet No.1 by Joseph Bradanshvilli. The basic structure was loose, composed of broken-down short movements, followed by frequent pauses which often marked a shifting of the dancer's attention and focus. Yet it maintained an inner logic and rhythm that produced an cumulative effect. The performance was much like reconstructing a gloomy palette's picture, out of numerous broken pieces - each miniature almost meaningless without the context of the whole. This process - rather rare in dance - brought to mind the detailed grey-brown, layered abstract watercolor paintings of Streichman. As a result, a maze of futile contacts and human yearning unfolded on stage, in a moving way. The creation retained the careful, understated elements that typified Danieli's choreographic touch, but it also exposed new strength and masterful control in her work.