Though controversy sometimes follows it, Israel’s acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company aims for work that transcends politics

Those outside die-hard dance circles may be surprised to find out that one of the hottest contemporary acts in the world hails from Israel. In fact, to some, it would come as a surprise that there’s much of a contemporary-dance scene there at all.

Those attitudes promise to change dramatically when Batsheva Dance Company, the troupe founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva De Rothschild in 1964, finally makes its Vancouver debut on Friday and Saturday nights (February 20 and 21) at the Playhouse. Befitting such a late introduction, Deca Dance finds 20 performers highlighting diverse scenes from choreographer Ohad Naharin’s most acclaimed pieces—from big group works where explosive movement ripples around a semicircle to a dreamlike solo that finds a chanteuse teetering on short stilts. Think of it as a crash course in what one New York Times critic calls Naharin’s “weird and wonderful poetry”.

“People do have preconceptions but once they face the reality of what we do, it clears their pipes,” says Naharin, the hugely influential artist who has helmed Batsheva since 1990. Speaking from his home in Tel Aviv, he takes one of many thoughtful pauses, and adds: “You can have an idea about a certain food, but once you eat it, the taste and the smell are so strong that all that you experience is the moment.”¦Yes, some people can never get politics or prejudice out of their mind, but I think very quickly they realize that my dancers and my dances don’t present national, ethnic, or religious connotations, but something else. And in terms of the politics, it is violent here, but Israel doesn’t have a monopoly on violence; you find violence in some of the most isolated, quiet places in the world.”

For his part, Naharin has striven to create an oasis amid that violence at Batsheva’s Tel Aviv headquarters. “I think it’s a nice metaphor because it’s physically beautiful in this area. And then the quality of the people that I’ve surrounded myself with is way above anywhere else in society, in terms of their generosity, their intellect, and the fact they’re very hard workers.”

Out of that oasis has come innovative, exhilaratingly kinetic dance repertoire, not to mention an entire new dance movement—GAGA, a nonelitist exercise program for dancers and nondancers alike.

To understand Naharin’s unconventional approach to dance, you first have to look at his background. He was raised in the communal atmosphere of a kibbutz. His mother was a dancer, but that wasn’t the only reason he eventually gravitated to the form. “I danced for fun and because it was a social thing to do: folk dance in Israel is something that is everywhere,” he says. More than anything, he says, it was curiosity, a questioning about the moving body, that drew him deeper into that world. “It’s a mix of a lot of things—curiosity of the human physiology, watching animals, the kicks I got from physical risks, the fear of heights, the sweat, the musicality.” The musicality remains a huge feature of his works, and a reflection of his own wide, eclectic tastes: over the course of Deca Dance, you’re likely to hear everything from classical music to “Cha-cha de Amor” or a Passover song set to a heavy rock beat.

The same curiosity drew Naharin to Batsheva in 1974, and the next year, Graham brought him to New York to train at her seminal Martha Graham Dance Company. From there, he developed quickly as a force on the international-choreography scene, eventually returning to Israel and his home company. Today, he’s one of the most in-demand choreographers in the world, his résumé spanning collaborations with such esteemed groups as Nederlands Dans Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Frankfurt Ballet, and Opéra National de Paris. As Jim Smith, coproducer at Dance House, which is helping to bring Batsheva here with the Chutzpah! Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, says, “He’s been picked up by all these other companies and everyone wants a work by Ohad Naharin.” Smith compares Naharin’s international influence to that of Pina Bausch in the ’70s. Of Batsheva, which now performs more than 200 shows a year around Israel and abroad, he adds, “They’re one of those companies recognized as carving out the state of the art.”

Along with acclaim, controversy has occasionally followed the troupe—another reality that comes with being an artistic ambassador for Israel. Last October’s London shows met with protests, and there were calls for boycotts at a few U.S. dates this year. Activists have pointed to violence in Gaza and Palestinian calls for a boycott of all cultural groups from Israel. Here, too, there have been rumblings.

“I totally forgive and totally understand the frustration and the people that want to fight for human rights. They see the injustice that is sometimes happening in my country and they want to protest about it,” says Naharin. “I think it can’t really make a difference to boycott a dance company and I’m thinking, where else they can channel their energy? I think this energy should channel into getting moderate powers and people on both sides to talk to each other. The boycott [of Batsheva] is just preventing something that is good to come out of Israel, something that actually opposes the violence. On a personal level, I oppose the violence and in my work I think I teach for something else.”¦I think artists represent something that is usually missing in politics, which is the search for new solutions. So I recommend to leave the artists alone.”

With all these issues to weigh, the thing that might most surprise audiences who do decide to catch Batsheva this weekend is its generous touches of humour, an attribute not often found in the self-serious world of modern dance—let alone dance that comes out of a country sometimes ripped with grief. To describe what the company does to first-time viewers is difficult. As Naharin says, “It hits multiple levels. It is something you can only experience in the theatre.” But one thing is sure: “We like to laugh at ourselves. This is a requirement to be part of what we do.”