A Batsheva Dance Company Playlist

Photo: Courtesy of Ascaf

Music plays an integral role in the work of Ohad Naharin, house choreographer for Batsheva Dance Company—but perhaps never more so surprisingly than in Venezuela, which comes to BAM Mar 27–30. We asked Kyle Scheurich, a dancer with Batsheva, to curate a playlist of music featured in past (and current) Batsheva BAM performances.

Beyond the Canon: The Fits + Picnic at Hanging Rock

By Lindsay Brayton

Dreamy, mysterious, mood-driven: words that accurately describe both Anna Rose Holmer’s debut feature The Fits (2015) and Peter Weir’s much imitated classic Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Both films engage with themes of girlhood, femininity, and female adolescence in enigmatic and unsettling ways. The Fits is tightly, almost claustrophobically, focused on Toni (Royalty Hightower), a prepubescent tomboy who becomes fascinated with the older girls on the drill team at her local gym. Much of The Fits involves spending time with Toni as she wanders the gym, practices boxing with her older brother, and takes tentative steps towards joining the drill team. The Fits never ventures outside of Toni’s life at the gym—her school life, home life, and parents all remain off screen—and the film’s carefully calibrated camerawork and editing create the film’s dreamy atmosphere as one by one the girls on the drill team succumb to sudden full body “fits.”

A First Look at the BAM Strong

In October, just in time for the start of the 2019 Next Wave Festival (the first season curated by David Binder, our new Artistic Director), we’ll open the doors to the BAM Strong, an array of expansions and new features uniting our spaces along Fulton Street. Designed by architects Mitchell Giurgola with construction by Hunter-Roberts Construction Group, it’ll include building improvements, allow greater accessibility, and expand our institution. Here’s a peek at what’s in store.

The Reluctant Muse Who Inspired One of the 20th Century’s Most Original Composers

All photos: Jan Versweyveld

By Steven Jude Tietjen

“I am only writing to you because of the memories of the most beautiful day in Luhačovice in 1917. I have nothing but memories now—well, I live in those,” wrote Leoš Janáček, one of the 20th century’s most original composers, to Kamila Stösslová in September 1918. Janáček had become transfixed by Stösslová the previous summer when they were both staying at Luhačovice, a resort town in the Moravia region of present-day Czechia. Janáček had just turned 63 years old and was unhappy in his marriage, while Stösslová was a happily married 26-year old mother of two. For Janáček, who had recently achieved long-awaited success with his opera Jenůfa, the encounter reignited his creative flame.

In Context: Venezuela

Photo: Ascaf

Acclaimed Choreographer Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company are renowned worldwide for their adventurous vision and distinctive movement language. Combining visceral physicality with a rigor and consistency in their training, the company compels audiences with its virtuosity and raw energy.

Created in two 40-minute sections placed in juxtaposition, Venezuela, their latest evening-length work, is a multifaceted piece in which the endless possibilities of a choreographer’s craft are at play and, in turn, the audience confronts the limits of their own freedom of choice.

After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought by posting in the comments below, and on social media using #BatshevaBAM.

Program Notes

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Venezuela (PDF)

On Resentment: An Interview with the Programmers

A Separation (2011)

In June of 2018, the magazine Triple Canopy began publishing an issue devoted to the topic of resentment. In the issue, the editors ask, who has the right to be resentful? How is resentment stoked, mobilized, policed, and to what ends? From March 20 through March 28, BAM and Triple Canopy present a film series that engages these questions by looking at how resentment has been expressed through the medium of film. Below Triple Canopy senior editor Emily Wang and series programmer Ashley Clark discuss the series.

A Visual Guide to the Theory and Practice of Gaga

Photo: Ascaf

By Susan Yung

Ohad Naharin, house choreographer for Batsheva Dance Company, developed Gaga, a movement language based on intense response to the body and sensations. In the eight productions presented at BAM over the years (including Venezuela from Mar 27—30, Howard Gilman Opera House), the tenets of Gaga have been present in the intelligent minds and bodies of Batsheva’s dancers. Here are a few examples.

An Extremely Concise Guide to the Multi-Sensory Installations of Teknopolis

If a picture is worth a thousand words, an immersive, multi-sensory experience is worth quite a lot more. But that didn't stop us from asking Steven McIntosh, BAM's Director of Family Programs, and Teknopolis’ lead curator, to describe some of the exhibits at our immersive technology showcase … in 10 words or less.

It’s time … for the Teknopolis lightning round! Go Steven!

In Context: Rameau maître à danser

Photo: Philippe Delval

Widely considered among the foremost interpreters of early-music for modern audiences, celebrated conductor William Christie and his acclaimed ensemble Les Arts Florissants present two pastoral opera-ballets that burst with the sensuous promise of spring. Originally penned by 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau for the court of Louis XV, these enchanting operatic miniatures, La naissance d'Osiris and Daphnis et Églé, served as both a symbol of the court’s opulence and a source of evening entertainment. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought by posting in the comments below, and on social media using #Rameau.

Program Notes

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Rameau, maître à danser (PDF)

Les Arts Florissants and BAM: A 30-Year Romance

What does an American in Paris do? If you are William Christie, you start a music ensemble excavating long-ignored French Baroque opera! The Buffalo-born, Harvard and Yale-educated music scholar founded Les Arts Florissants in 1979. Named after the 17th-century opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier—who, at that point, was known mostly as the composer who gave the Eurovision Song Contest its theme music—Les Arts Florissants was formed as a period instrument ensemble dedicated to Baroque music. Ten years later, Christie brought his ensemble and the now-legendary production of Atys to BAM, starting a 30-year romance of Baroque operas, many of them seldom heard or seen, a significant component of BAM’s artistic legacy.

With Rameau, maître à danser (Mar 1—3), Les Arts Florissants presents a double bill of two rarely seen opera-ballets by Jean-Philippe Rameau, continuing the artistic collaboration. Here are some other highlights.