Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company: Horses in the Sky
Sydney Opera House, 31 August
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (KCDC) was established in a newly founded kibbutz several years after World War II ended and the story of its founding director Yehudit Arnon, is one of great spirit and resilience in the face of wartime atrocity. Her legacy lives on in the continued growth and expansion of KCDC, still located in Kibbutz Ga’aton in Northern Israel, and the company’s direction by one of her former proteges and KCDC dancers, Rami Be’er. This is the first time KCDC has performed in Australia for 23 years and the first time Horses in the Sky has been performed outside of Israel, but on opening night both the work and the company dancers’ performance of it were impressive.
The cast of sixteen dancers are lithe but extraordinarily strong. More than that, they move with a looseness of limb that contrasts with their mental focus and commitment to Rami Be’er’s intricate choreography, enabling them to sustain the kind of pace that leaves a dancer no room to second guess what comes next. The choice of music was varied, with a total of nineteen music tracks from artists including Bjork and Elvis Presley. But for the most part they were not easily recognisable and could not be described as mainstream popular music. In fact the works title, Horses in the Sky, comes from a song of that name by a music group named Silver Mt Zion.
Choreographically there is a focus on gestural, mimetic movements that draw attention to the dancers’ expressive upper bodies. Putting aside from the occasional dark or humorous moments, Horses in the Sky has a somewhat ethereal quality and this is magnified by the satisfying union of costume, lighting and choreography. The lighting is masterful in the way their arrangement decorates and brings to life what is otherwise an empty stage, attached like large abstract grapes to five vertical ‘stems’ descending from the ceiling. Although the stage itself is bathed in light that illuminates the dancers’ bodies, there is a sharply linear contrast towards the black depths of the wings and back of the stage. In the visual arts the term 'chiaroscuro' refers to stark tonal variations between light and shade as they define three-dimensional objects and Horses in the Sky takes on a similar aesthetic - chiaroscuro onstage. In keeping with the emphasis on tonal variation the dancers wear pale cream shorts and shirts, with some quirky detailing that emphasises the androgynous similarity of both genders.
Interestingly, it was much easier to tell the male and female dancers apart when they faced the back of the stage because of the cutout sections in the back of each male dancer’s shirt. According to the program notes, Artistic Director and choreographer Rami Be’er also designs the costumes and lighting; they were well realised by Lior Cohen (Sound and Lighting) and Ofra Sharon Heimann (Wardrobe).
Thanks go to the Sydney Opera House and associated donors whose assistance brings Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company to our shores on this occasion.
It was a short visit, but a good one.
- GERALDINE HIGGINSON