Sharon Eyal & Gai BeharThis Is Not A Love Show
11 Dec 2021 - 27 Jan 2022
Kraftwerk Berlin
A Series of Dance Performances at Kraftwerk Berlin
This Is Not A Love Show, a series of dance performances by world-renowned choreographer Sharon Eyal and co-creator Gai Behar that brings highlights from their repertoire to Berlin, plunging the audience into a world of intense emotions, expressive movement and immersive techno-beats.
LAS presents a series of live performances conceived by acclaimed Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal and co-creator Gai Behar and set in the iconic building Kraftwerk Berlin.
Eyal & Behar have gained world acclaim for their artistic creations since they started working together in 2005. Trained in classical ballet and a long-term member of the renowned Batsheva Dance Company under Ohad Naharin, Eyal’s visceral style merges physicality, striking delicacy and uninhibited passion. Behar is well-known for having shaped Tel Aviv’s nightlife for years. Together their compositions are accompanied by the hypnotic sonic compositions of long-term musical collaborator Ori Lichtik, and characterised by nuanced expressions unique in contemporary dance.
Their dance company L-E-V (lev in Hebrew means heart) was founded in 2013 and is the confluence of movement, light, music, fashion and technology. Eyal’s signature style combines extreme emotions through movement. L-E-V is the culmination of years of momentum, and their original creations are delivered by fiercely talented dancers in cross-disciplinary stagings equally at home in a techno-club or opera house.
LAS showcases a survey of Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar’s major works, introducing Berlin audiences to key highlights from their repertoire, including the Berlin premieres of Soul Chain and Promise, both tanzmainz productions and OCD Love a piece made by Eyal & Behar uniquely for L-E-V Dance Company. During their two-month residency with LAS, they developed a new striking choreography incorporating music collaborations. The series culminates in the world premiere of the new commission Wet, a site-specific creation featuring live performances in three acts by musicians CURL, Koreless and Ori Lichtik.
The creations are adapted to be in dialogue with the industrialist architecture of Kraftwerk Berlin. A former power plant in East Berlin, Kraftwerk Berlin is recognised for hosting Berlin's music and underground culture since the forming of the adjacent legendary nightclub Tresor in 1991. Kraftwerk Berlin not only becomes host to the series of live performances, it is also the stage for the company to develop their work over two months.
‘I believe in the story that comes from inside the body. My dancers always say that this style is really hard, both physically and emotionally. But the more extreme it is on the body, the more the emotion comes out!’
– Sharon Eyal
Performances
Soul Chain
A production of tanzmainz
Inspired by strong emotions about love, Soul Chain combines ballet and electronic music in an exciting contemporary dance performance. The ensemble becomes a swarm full of energy as part of an extremely challenging choreography that won the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST in 2018 and was invited to the renowned TANZPLATTFORM DEUTSCHLAND in 2020.
Even though Eyal says Soul Chain is a play about love and longing, you should not expect too much romance. Rather, the movements are animalistic and pure, a steaming group moves with the highest discipline in rhythmic unison. The longer a unisono lasts, the more time we as a public have to search for the differences – to find the dancers’ intention. As the choreographer says, one can see from the same thing how different we are. Here, in the contrast between the group and the individual, Eyal expresses her love for the absolute uniqueness of each individual.
Saturday 11 December 2021, 8.30 pm
Sunday 12 December 2021, 8.30 pm
Duration: 55 minutes
Credits
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
Co-Creator: Gai Behar
Costume: Rebecca Hytting
Music: Ori Lichtik
Stage and Light Design: Alon Cohen
Assistant Choreographer: Rebecca Hytting, Tom Weinberger
Rehearsal Director: Natalia Rodina
Dancers: Cristel de Frankrijker, Madeline Harms, Daria Hlinkina, Bojana Mitrović, Nora Monsecour, Amber Pansters, Maasa Sakano, Marija Slavec, Milena Wiese; Zachary Chant, Finn Lakeberg, Federico Longo, Cornelius Mickel, Alberto Terribile, Matti Tauru, Louis Thuriot, John Wannehag
Director tanzmainz: Honne Dohrmann
Production Manager: Lisa Besser
Assistant of Dance Directorate: Hannah Meyer-Scharenberg
Touring Manager: Maria Eckert
Stage & Sound set-up on tour: Luka Curk
Light set-up on tour: Dominik Hager
Stage Manager on tour: Matthew Tusa
Photos: Andreas Etter
Promise
A production of tanzmainz
After Plafona Now and the internationally acclaimed Soul Chain, Promise is Eyal & Behar’s third world premiere with tanzmainz. In this creation they have taken the complex interplay of discipline and devotion, the magical formula of dance, to the extreme. On stage, a group of people are intrinsically linked to one another, sometimes even as a single body. Figures in a shadowy world at each other's mercy – confinement and love, closeness and longing, ecstasy and loneliness – everything seems to blur and yet is clearly discernible in precious brief moments.
Wednesday 15 December 2021, 8.30 pm
Thursday 16 December 2021, 8.30 pm
Duration: 50 minutes
Credits
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
Co-Creator: Gai Behar
Costume: Rebecca Hytting
Composition: Ori Lichtik
Stage and Light Design: Alon Cohen
Assistant to Choreographer: Rebecca Hytting, Keren Lurie Pardes
Rehearsal Director: Natalia Rodina
Dancers: Amber Pansters, Maasa Sakano, Marija Slavec; Zachary Chant, Finn Lakeberg, Cornelius Mickel, Matti Tauru
Director tanzmainz: Honne Dohrmann
Production Manager: Lisa Besser
Assistant of Dance Directorate: Hannah Meyer-Scharenberg
Touring Manager: Maria Eckert
Set up Stage&Sound on Tour: Luka Curk
Set up Light on Tour: Dominik Hager
Stage Manager on Tour: Matthew Tusa
OCD Love
A production of L-E-V Dance Company
LAS presents OCD Love made by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar uniquely for L-E-V Dance Company.
This powerful creation deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder as a challenge for love and for life, and is inspired by the text ‘OCD’ by Neil Hilborn.
Thursday 13 January 2022, 8.30 pm
Friday 14 January 2022, 8.30 pm
Saturday 15 January 2022, 8.30 pm
Duration: 55 minutes
Credits
Creators: Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar
Music: Ori Lichtik
Lighting: Alon Cohen
Rehearsal Manager: Leo Lerus
Dancers: Clyde Emmanuel Archer, Etay Axelroad, Darren Devaney, Edit Domoszlai, Guido Dutilh, Rebecca Hytting, Dana Pajarillaga, Keren Lurie Pardes
Wet
Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar (L-E-V Dance Company)
Featuring music by CURL, Koreless and Ori Lichtik
Music in partnership with Young and Manchester International Festival
Commissioned by LAS (Light Art Space)
World Premiere: 26 / 27 January 2022
Wednesday 26 January 2022, 9pm
Thursday 27 January 2022, 9pm
Duration: 100 minutes, 15 minutes intermission between acts
Credits
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
Co-Creator: Gai Behar
Music: CURL, Koreless, Ori Lichtik
Lighting Design: Alon Cohen
Dancers: Clyde Emmanuel Archer, Etay Axelroad, Darren Devaney, Edit Domoszlai, Guido Dutilh, Rebecca Hytting, Dana Pajarillaga, Keren Lurie Pardes
L-E-V Dance Company Producer, Tour Manager & Media Coordinator: Roy Bedarshi
Rehearsal Manager: Leo Lerus
Production Manager: Maya Manor
LAS
Director: Dr. Bettina Kames
Head of Programmes: Amira Gad
Assistant Curator: Sophie Korschildgen
Head of Production: Jan Sauerwald
Production Manager: Alexis Convento
Production Assistant: Harriet Collins
Relationship Manager: Monika Kerkmann
Partners
Dior
Kraftwerk Berlin
tanzmainz
Young
Manchester International Festival
Production
Amano Group
Ballhaus Rixdorf
DOCK 11
ELA Container
Maxim Gorki Theater
satis&fy AG
Studio Kristin Metho
Tanzhalle Berlin
visitBerlin
‘For me a movement is never the same. The beauty is that even when it looks the same or you think it’s the same it never is. It’s always something else.’
– Sharon Eyal
About L-E-V Dance Company
L-E-V Dance Company was founded by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar in 2013. Their company’s name is the Hebrew word for heart. The company has given around 700 performances in some of the most exclusive venues and festivals around the world such as: The Joyce Theatre, New York; Sadler's Wells, London; Festival Montpellier Danse; and Julidans, Amsterdam. L-E-V’s crew includes a musician, Ori Lichtik, light and costume designers, as well as a group of dancers.
About tanzmainz
tanzmainz is the contemporary dance company of the Staatstheater Mainz, Germany, and has been directed by Honne Dohrmann since 2014. The team of 22 dancers works closely with a diverse production crew to create up to 5 premieres per season in collaboration with renowned or aspiring guest choreographers. tanzmainz endorses a professional ethos shaped by openness, mutual respect and motivation.
The members of the tanzmainz ensemble are fully trained artists who are interested in developing a close working relationship with the guest choreographers. tanzmainz sees itself as a place of creation, therefore all works performed are premieres that have been created at the Staatstheater Mainz in cooperative projects involving their crew and guests. tanzmainz strives to constantly expand its repertoire with innovative forms of dance and production, and aims to be a bridge between the Staatstheater Mainz and the independent scene.
Biographies
05
Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar
Claude Adjil
CURL
Koreless
Ori Lichtik
