Dance Review: Bein Kodesh Le'Hol

Artistic director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Rami Be’er, joined the fashionable trend of recycling previous dance sections.

By ORA BRAFMAN
Suzanne Dellal 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
Suzanne Dellal 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
Artistic director and sole choreographer of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Rami Be’er, joined the fashionable trend of recycling previous dance sections, which turned to be an imaginative way to conserve choreographic energy. Strangely enough, this trendy reshuffling and remaking of older materials within new arrangements may work on occasion, when the reconstructed pieces create a completely new and viable puzzle.
The first section opened with a converted rendition of a solo Be’er created for the company’s most distinct dancer, Renana Randy, approximately two decades ago. Again, she is found moving in ceremonial fashion, perhaps a preparation for an obscure sacrificial rite, totally commanding the stage as she did back then. She treads on a semi circled picket fence, parted by a stream of sand that falls from above and glows in the light. She showers under the torturous yet purifying sand's stream. It is visually beautiful, intense scene.
The following part ends with yet another dance section, previously composed for an older work which involved the same metal sculptured structure used in a different context. Both sections were cleverly interlinked with smooth, well designed transitions which maintained similar compelling energy.
They are packed with a variety of solos, duets and trios executed by the company’s male cadre who were quite impressive and performed rather demanding, highly physical challenges exceptionally well, particularly Daniel Costa, Nir Even- Shoham and Shay Partush.
The third – and totally new section – was danced by six female dancers clad in white tulle made to evoke classical tutus. The scene was foreign in spirit and seemed to follow a different train of thought. It also suffered from reduced investment in imaginative vocabulary of dance movements and compositions. For those reasons it seemed to drag a bit and lost the momentum that was adequately being built up earlier.