FURO WORLD PREMIERE MARCH 24 AT THE JEWISH THEATRE By Ohad Naharin and Tabaimo. Produced by the Jewish Theatre. SOUND DESIGN Ohad Fishof LIGHTING DESIGN Avi Yona Bueno ”Bambi” TECHNICAL PRODUCTION Tomas Franck and Kenneth Björk COSTUMES Rakefet Levy THEATRE DIRECTOR AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR THE JEWISH THEATRE Pia Forsgren A MEETING The Jewish Theatre is a laboratory for per- When Naharin saw the Japanese artist formance art. Each and every production Tabaimo’s video work “Japanese Bathhouse” is intentionally jeopardised by the wish to in New York, he sought out the possibility to experiment and make new discoveries, both realise his idea of a unique encounter. artistically and technically. Furo is a comple- In the course of many meetings, discus- tely new experiment. A meeting between sions and technical and artistic attempts dance, visual arts and music. A collaboration together with the Jewish Theatre and spanning three continents and countries: Tabaimo, he created Furo, based on “Japanese Japan, Israel and Sweden. Bathhouse”. Furo grew out of the Jewish Theatre’s friend- The space is that of the theatre. The move- ship with Ohad Naharin and his Batsheva ment and music are from the realm of dance. Dance Company. For Ohad Naharin experi- The projected scenes are from video art. The mentation has also been a motivational force, fusion of art forms creates the potential for making him one of the most important inno- experiments also for the onlooker. For the first vators of modern dance. At the age of 22, he was time, the audience at the Jewish Theatre is discovered by Martha Graham. In 198o, he encouraged to behave as if they were at an art made his debut as a choreographer and formed exhibition, to enter and leave the auditorium his own Ohad Naharin Dance Company. Since as they wish. 199o, he has been the artistic director of the Is it a theatre gallery? Is it a dance installa- Batsheva Dance Company, with dancers who tion? It’s Furo at the Jewish Theatre. practise Naharin’s own technique, Gaga. Welcome in! CONVERSATION WITH OHAD NAHARIN ...ON TIME AND SPACE By Lena Andrén She came to me in a dream… Ohad Naharin giving the work the form that Naharin was smilingly interrupts himself. In reality, he was striving for, so he has decided to create a space wide awake when he first saw Japanese artist with the same proportions if he is presenting Tabaimo’s work “Japanese Bathhouse – Gents” the work in a larger venue in the future. at a New York gallery a year or so ago. This exquisite animated video work, with an aes- ABOUT THE TITLE. thetic evocative of Japanese woodcuts, inspired Naharin gave his work the title Furo, a in him the wish to create a choreography based Japanese word meaning bath and a reference on Tabaimo’s animations. The opportunity to to both Tabaimo’s video work and the setting, a do this came when he was invited to produce a traditional “Japanese bathhouse”, that the video new work for the Jewish Theatre in Stock- depicts. Obvious, one may think, but since I holm. The surrounding space contributes to was familiar with Naharin’s complex approach to titles, I wanted to know what caused him to with time, in that its most dominating char- place than in chronological time. The move- themselves when to enter or exit the work. choose this title. It turned out that the word acteristic is that it runs out. The only thing to ment does not chase ahead towards an ending The audience also decides how long they want for bathhouse is “ofuro”, but he preferred the do about time, he says, is to split it up; you – temps mort – but rotates around its own to be present, and in this way each individual sound of the shorter word “furo”, which also can’t create time in the way that you can create axis, creating a potential for experiences to be can create their personal experience of the relates to traditional Japanese bathing. I am and shape space. What Naharin attempts to superimposed and deepened and become more work, an experience that is beyond the control also given to understand that if the word for do in Furo, can be interpreted as creating real. This heightened sense of reality can give of the choreographer. This is something new bathhouse had been different, say, “kubi ni time. By interrupting the flow of time in rise to a feeling of total presence and openness for Naharin, who has departed for the first naru”, he would probably have chosen a title Tabaimo’s animations and expanding an to the inner and outer world. This feeling time from the chronological format of the that had no connection to baths at all. existing time unit many times over he creates goes by many names, and Naharin calls it traditional performance concept and its defined a new temporal space. the “groove”, an essential component to his space, and consequently he is excited about TIME. feeling of being alive. finding out how the audience will deal with In Furo the choreography and the animation STRUCTURE. this work. are two autonomous units that together One could even see the shape of the work – a SPACE. form a unity, without losing their individual loop – as an attempt to break free from the Since chronological time is dethroned in Furo, THE STORY. integrity. The interplay of choreography and tyranny of chronology. Ever since the renais- space is the element that delineates the It is through an exploration of the space, in animation takes place on an abstract level, sance, western time has been formulated audience’s experience. Naharin has long had a the narrative of the site itself which is not for- and by manipulating time in the video chronologically, as a linear, forward progress. fascination for spatial design, since he is a mulated in words but in spatial qualities such Naharin expands time in the work. In these Contrary to this idea, the loop is based on a dancer and spatiality is central to dance. A as structure, inherent atmospheric charges, expanded time segments, which Naharin calls circular concept of time, on repetition, on dancer is constantly dealing with the concept the distance between points, and textures, “moments”, the narrative of the dance deve- returning to a certain point in time and space. of his or her own space, the space between one that the audience encounters Naharin. The lops in form and symmetry. The result of this body and the next, and between the body and abstract narrative contains fragments from process can be described as resembling a still- REPETITION. the universe. But until he created Furo, this Naharin’s own biography, and it expresses the life, an arrangement of objects that we know To walk into a loop is thus a way of liberating was something that went on at an intuitive humanly sensuous, the sensual, along with the belong to the real world although they are oneself from chronological time, but that does level. In creating this work, Naharin has pushed ridiculous. The associative form, liberated now immobile. not mean than circular time is synonymous himself to formulate this intuition in thoughts from the time-flow, evokes a state of mind When I read through what I’ve written so with immobility. Naharin describes how and words – and to implement it. redolent of dreaming, where the experience far, I see I have formulated a thought that was repetition resembles walking; the motion of The liberation of the dance installation is shaped by the space rather than by time. present in our conversation but remained placing one foot in front of the other is repeat- from the chronologically rigid time scale of The Jewish Theatre is an important factor, unverbalised. A thought that arose from ed, but the result is a movement in space. In the conventional dance performance leaves the since the venue itself constitutes the frame- Naharin’s repeatedly expressed frustration circular time another form of activity takes audience free to reshape Furo by deciding for work for the audience’s experience. It is fairly small compared to the spaces that Naharin is they can and should be challenged. No matter used to working with. Nevertheless, he expe- how I phrase my questions, Naharin refuses riences the Theatre to be an infinite space, to attribute characteristics and opinions to since the limitations he experiences here are people according to their geographic origins. merely the limitations he sets for himself. He experiences his audience as more similar Like time, space ultimately exists only in our than different, regardless of where in the mind. It is in our mind that the limits are set world they are when they see his work. – and dissolved – and it is only when our Consequently, it would be unthinkable for mind experiences freedom from limitations him to try to adapt his creative work to a that we can make our dreams come true. specific geographic place. This reminds me of Since time and space exist primarily in our an old saying: Home is not where you hang mind and can thus be regarded as constructs, your hat but where you are in your dreams. CONVERSATION WITH TABAIMO By Yukiko Duke Over the past fifteen years, manga and anime “‘Japanese Kitchen’ was my first piece in a – Japanese comics and animations – have series that explores everyday Japanese life. grown popular in the west. This has led to an Like many other young Japanese, I feel there’s international breakthrough for a new genera- so much going on in Japan today that I don’t tion of Japanese artists.