A journey of mind

Published on September 26, 2007

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's "Upon Reaching the Sun", the first contemporary performance at this year's International Festival of Dance and Music, proved to be the most intriguing show staged so far.

Quite apart from the invigorating choreography, highly imaginative stage visuals and the eerily captivating music, no one left the Thailand Cultural Centre's Main Hall without praising the ingeniously practical and artistically handsome use of mats.

These everyday objects were meticulously designed and modified to effectively serve the dance theatre from Israel. They were manipulated by the dancers in all sorts of meaningful ways, and transformed as parts of the costumes at times. Rolled up, carried in, and lined up like posts at one point, lowered from above at another, they became the set in other scenes. Unwrapped and laid on the floor, they even reflected the lights from above in one scene.

The day before the company's Bangkok debut, Rami Be'er, artistic director of the dance theatre - KCDC as it's known for short - talked to The Nation. His narrative may answer some of the questions the audience found themselves asking after the show, like "Why did the pelican keep appearing?"

Born to a family of musicians, Rami Be'er grew up playing cello and his sister, violin. The two siblings performed chamber concertos.

"Music was a very strong part of my childhood. At the same time, I started to take dance and movement classes with Yehudit Arnon [a World War II concentration camp survivor and founder of KCDC]. Hearing the music and reacting in movements was very strong and special. This combination of music and movement is what I didn't get when I played music alone."

Be'er has developed into a unique kind of choreographer. He not only creates dance and movements for his company members, but also envisions the total stage picture.

"Later on, I felt the need to create, and I saw visions in my head. When I hear music, I see dancers move and I see pictures. [In my creative process] I find myself combining the elements that interest me: the movements, the text, and the visuals - stage, props, lighting, costume designs. I try to create a small world on stage. To be able to work with all the tools and possibilities gives me great satisfaction that I can create a unity from all of this."

"It was a long process [of creating "Upon Reaching the Sun"] from many sources - slowly the piece became clearer and clearer. I began with a certain text I had in mind, a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, which Georg Buchner later used in his [expressionist play] 'Woyzeck'."

The story tells of a girl, left alone on the earth, who travels to the moon, only to find that it's merely a tree trunk. The sun turns out to be a wilted sunflower, the stars small golden flies, and on her return, the earth is an overturned pot. She sits down and cries.

This tale is piped through the loudspeakers during several scenes, and many audience members, myself included, could find little or no association with the movements of the dancers on the stage.

"This is just the theme not the story in the piece," Be'er explains. "The spectators can choose [any part of] the piece to connect with - it's their association, their feeling, their soul and their memory."

Be'er repeatedly says what he means in the pieces is not as important as the individual interpretation of each member of the audience.

"Look at it as an option. Everyone can look through his own eyes. It's like I am inviting the spectator to go on a journey. I give him a rope and I take him to a certain point and then I leave him. Then, he can give his own interpretation to what he sees."

"Maybe when he gets out of the theatre, he has some questions and some points to think over. I don't give answers or solutions. Maybe he can leave the theatre feeling a little differently from the way he came in."

For this reviewer, his work walked the walk. Experiencing "Upon Reaching the Sun" last Tuesday evening, I was hypnotised by a happy marriage of thought-provoking text, vigorous movements, stunning visuals, music of various genres, as well as dancers of different body types and skills.

My mind was also taken to many places it had never before explored. Yet I wasn't left feeling exhausted for a single moment during this 70-minute dance-theatre journey. A few minutes before the end, though, I gave up travelling and searching for what was far away and uncertain and instead tried to reach inside myself, eventually feeling satisfied with where I was.

The person sitting next to me had a different take. Glancing at her reaction during the performance and hearing her interpretation after it, I was even more mesmerised. Unlike the girl in the fairytale, I'm definitely not alone.

Bangkok's 9 International Festival of Dance and Music continues through October 11 at the Thailand Cultural Centre. Compagnia Aterballetto performs contemporary ballet "Romeo and Juliet" on Thursday. Tickets are available from ThaiTicketMajor.com. For information, visit Bangkokfestivals.com or call (02) 661 6835-7.

The writer can be contacted at Pawit.M@chula.ac.th.

Pawit Mahasarinand

 The Nation