Riveting & Rare

10\10\2016

Heroes part 2 is an early work by another renown team of Israeli choreographers, Oded Graf and Yossi Berg, which was also performed by the pair. It’s the second half of a full length work called Heroes created in 2005-2006. Their most recent work,Come Jump With Me, which I found to be one of the most memorable pieces at International Exposure, is also a duet. Graf and Berg relayed to me after the show that most of the works in-between are group pieces.

Heroes part 2 is an endearing portrait of men at play, love, competition, connection and other shenanigans. Graf and Berg gallop about with reckless abandon in some mind-bogglingly tangled movement sequences, haphazard on the surface, but remarkably precise in execution. We learn how exact they really are when a sequence is repeated with each detail intact.

Graf and Berg move with an animal grace, free, elongated, off-balance, yet so capable of a mid-turn change of direction. There’s such a generous sweep to their motions, some of which are resolved in clever theatrical moments of one upmanship. The design of the dance is more located in its momentum than static shapes.

Heroes lets Graf and Berg’s full throttle charm shine through, especially in the intoxicatingly ingenious partnering. I’d like to imagine that their onstage charisma and connection to each other could be felt from the top of the Miller hill. We root for these two as they lay motionless on the stage floor as the lights go on and off, and finally fade to black.

http://artsandculturetx.com/riveting-rare-core-presents-dance-from-israel-at-miller/