Staatsballett Berlin: SAABA & Minus 16

Deutsche Oper, Berlin
November 29, 2024

The first work in this Israeli-choreographer double bill, SAABA, is the fourth of Sharon Eyal and partner Gai Behar’s work to be danced by the Staatsballett Berlin. Created in 2021 for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, much is familiar.

There’s plenty of evidence of the pair’s distinctive and unique style. The dancers work largely on high demi-pointe for what seems like insanely long periods, as if wearing super-high stilettos. To all intents and purposes, on pointe, but not actually on pointe. There is the extravagant use of the body, all strange ripples, undulations and curves. And mostly in nude bodysuits, here by Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri. It all conspires to produce dance that has a strange beauty, albeit an imperfect one, and that frequently gives the performers an alien look.

And yet, SAABA is different. Behar’s choreography feels more dreamy. Ori Lichtik’s music still has a good beat, but it’s more rounded, less techno or house all the way, and alternates between genres, including pop. At times, it almost feels gentle.

It opens with a Danielle Muir solo to the Indie number, ‘Hold You Down’ by Rhye. Other dancers bourrée on and off behind. When the ensemble finally coalesces, the movement is perfectly synchronised. The patterning and the way formations build and dissolve are both eye-catching.

Alon Cohen’s lighting is fabulous, highlighting the bodies in the surrounding black space, all under a dramatic, gently shifting, smoky cloud.

A few motifs reappear time and again, most notably, the dancers clasping their hands around their necks. Although distorted and distended, look closely and it’s remarkable how much ballet technique Behar draws on. Apart from the bourrées and endless standing in fifth position, there are repeated coup de pieds front and back, balletic developpés and much more. The dancers were terrific. Everything tightly controlled, the detail was remarkable.

When soloists do break out from the group, separated from their fellow dancers, they appear strangely lonely and vulnerable. To that extent, Eyal does succeed in the exploration of emotional spaces, which is her theme.

There is also a clear sense of a journey. Away from the group, dancers often cross the stage left to right. There’s a determination about it, an intensity. It’s as if they are being driven on, not only by the music but also by something inside.

Meaningful, poetic even, and with lots of space for personal interpretation. That’s SAABA.

In contrast, Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16 is an out-and-out lively, joyful affair performed by a large ensemble, which at one point includes invited members of the audience. The choreography might be something of a collection of unconnected ideas (but what ideas!), as indeed is the music. But enjoy it for what it is: a celebration, and a great deal of fun.

It starts before it starts, Lewis Turner entertaining the audience during the interval. At first, he appears serious, but it all very quickly turns tongue-in-cheek, his repertoire including a sort of Dying Swan and a rather neat and right on the spot set of fouettés. How he kept a straight face, I have no idea.

What follows thereafter is a combination of excerpts from Naharin’s other works. The most well-known comes early, what many refer to as his ‘chair dance’ to the hypnotic ‘Echad Mi Yodea’ (Who Knows One?), a traditional cumulative song sung at Passover. Unlike that song, the choreography has a rebellious air, though. With the dancers in black suits and hats, it follows the music, the sequence slowly building, the performers gradually disrobing.

After a quieter section for seven women in a line across the front of the stage, sometimes in unison, sometimes individual.

Minus 16 then gets really personal in a series of dance vignettes to spoken text. As the cast walk back and forth across the stage, one dancer drops out, subsumed again on the next crossing. It’s sometimes serious, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes downright humorous as we hear little snippets about lives. Best of all, the dancer whose parents would like her to get married. “But it’s hard to find someone. My Instagram is…” Cue much laughter.

I am not normally a fan of audience participation. But Minus 16 gets it spot on. After the cast look for partners among those watching, there as fast number to Marusha’s techno take of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ (you can’t help feeling there’s meaning there), and then a slower dance to Dean Martin singing ‘Sway.’ Why does it work here? Perhaps because it has a joie de vivre about it, the audience participants not in any way figures of fun and are absolutely looked after by Staatsballet partners.

It was all an absolute delight. Dance with a smile on its face. And the Staatsballett dancers were again fabulous.