To say that this weekend’s Cincinnati Ballet presentation is bold would be redundant. The program is called Bold Moves, after all — it features a demanding performance of the very physical “Minus 16” by Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company. Naharin’s so-called Gaga style of dance, which encourages free movement and even improvisation, has become so renown he’s the subject of a new documentary, Mr. Gaga. The evening also features the world premiere of “Cut to the Chase” by Adam Hougland, Cincinnati Ballet’s resident choreographer, set to the Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 18, No. 1 in F Major. The Ariel Quartet will perform the music live.
“It could be our most contemporary ballet in the entire repertoire,” says Victoria Morgan, artistic director and CEO of the ballet, of the program.
Of his own “Cut to the Chase,” Hougland agrees by saying, “It’s the most physically demanding work I’ve ever choreographed.”
“It may be the best thing I’ve ever seen him do,” Morgan adds.
In “Minus 16,” Naharin has choreographed with the intent of getting dancers to connect with their bodies and the space in which they’re moving. “It’s very individualized and freeing,” Morgan says. “He creates visual ideas inside your body, like a ball that’s rolling around inside your body, and you’re responsible for keeping it rolling.”
She describes a part in the documentary Mr. Gaga — which had a sold-out screening at last month’s Jewish and Israeli Film Festival but has yet to have a theatrical run here — where Naharin wants a dancer to move like he’s trying to hammer a nail into the floor with his shoulder. “There’s a lot of reference to attaining movement quality and also accepting your own authenticity, because it’s up to you to find it,” she says.
Authenticity shouldn’t be hard to find in Bold Moves. Both choreographers are bringing their personal stories to the table and translating them into a performance that’s reflective of their lives, but also open to interpretation from the audience. Naharin brings his Israeli upbringing and unique take on dance and movement; Hougland brings his appreciation and mentorship from more than 10 years of working under Morgan’s leadership.
“This is Victoria’s 20th season,” Hougland says. “She’s been so good to me. She was one of the first artistic directors in the country to commission me. It’s all about making something that celebrates how she’s helped me grow.”
As for Naharin’s cultural background, it certainly shines through in the movements he’s so carefully crafted. Without giving too much away, Morgan describes one part in “Minus 16” where a row of chairs is arranged in a semicircle. The dancers move, with beautiful synchronization, around and with the seats, except for one who continues to fall. All the while, the dancers shout out a popular Israeli nursery rhyme.
“Usually a nursery rhyme is told quietly before you go to bed at night, but this is taken in a very different way,” Morgan says. “It feels to me that it’s to remind you of your history. You shout it out to remind you who you are. The person on the edge of the stage keeps falling. The story for so many us is that you fall and then you get back up.”
This scene is especially poignant given that Naharin was raised in a kibbutz, a community designed around the premise that everyone works for everyone. Community and communal living is most important in this structure. “He describes the kibbutz as a place where everybody was together,” Morgan says. “Everybody did everything together — you ate together, you baked together, you played together.” Presumably, you danced together, too.
Hougland’s “Cut to the Chase” will itself have big movements full of athleticism and difficult technicalities.
“The dancers have their pointe shoes on,” Hougland says, “but it really has a lot of contemporary movement in the upper body. It’s very open and detailed and quirky. It’s really hard. It really pushes them to their limits. It’s kind of seeing what you can do with today’s ballet dancer and today’s training. I was inspired by the individual dancers to give them something unique and personal that related to the way I see them as a dancer. Sometimes, they bring something out in me. It’s always very collaborative.”
The Ariel Quartet fits in nicely as Bold Moves’ live orchestra, both because it was founded in Israel and because it’s currently the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Even Hougland’s costume designer, Miki Avni, is from Israel. Avni’s creations are unlike any kind of ballet costume you’d find in more traditional performances. There are patterns within patterns. Hougland remembers seeing a face on one, only to realize it was composed of many tiny skulls. Morgan says they look like second skins, since they envelope the dancer so completely.
Naharin will not be in Cincinnati, but sent assistants Danielle Agami and Shamel Pitts to stage the performance. Of Naharin’s overall contribution to Bold Moves, Morgan says this: “In the long run, it’s very hopeful. You throw off the things that are keeping you back and holding you down.” That’s bold, indeed.
After this program, Cincinnati Ballet will have one more show that’s adult-oriented left in its 2016-17 season — the Kaplan New Works Series, from April 20-30. It will be devoted to women choreographers and feature Jennifer Archibald, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Heather Britt and Morgan.
Cincinnati Ballet also recently announced its 2017-18 season, which features — among other highlights — two ballets choreographed by George Balanchine and a Bold Moves that will include New York City Ballet dancer/choreographer Justin Peck collaborating with Bryce Dessner for Murder Ballades. That will have music performed by the Grammy-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird. It will occur April 26-29, 2018 at the Aronoff.
Bold moves seem a way of life for the Cincinnati Ballet.
BOLD MOVES will be performed 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Tickets/more info: cballet.org.
This article appears in Mar 15-22, 2017.