Emanuel Gat sets dances to works of music loaded with historical
baggage, such as Mozart’s Requiem, which accompanies "K626". He doesn’t
synchronize the start of the movement with the music, instead
beginning in silence, and inserting gaps between movements. Awaiting
the onset of the music adds some anticipatory tension, and though the
dance gathers richness when the music plays, it is fascinating enough
on its own merits so that the music feels less a necessity than a bonus.
Gat does not follow a narrative, and yet through groupings in unison
or opposition, varied dynamics, and simple interactions, he creates
great drama. His movement is rooted and gravity-bound, often moving
through deep, wide squats. The upper body ripples from the pelvis to
the crown; shoulders roil as the arms cling to the body or rise,
crooked at the elbow, fingers pointing askance. Big movements are
often sweeping lateral steps, and when leaps finally come, their
airiness is jarring.
The group of five women and three men frequently moves en masse, in a
flock. Like birds, they relate more by instinct, not by verbal
communication. One of Gat’s most powerful motifs is when a dancer
slowly and gently shoulders by another to move forward in a crowd,
and then reverses into sublimation. It is a subtle, amazingly complex
maneuver that can summon the most delicate of human interactions–
affection, care, growth, abandonment.
The choreography is neither overtly masculine or feminine, and yet at
times can feel extremely like one or the other, no matter which
gender the dancer, who all wear elegant long black tunics. Mostly, it
is highly sensitive and sensual, with as much care applied to the
impetus or the final settling of energy as the route itself. This is,
as well, a tribute to the skilled dancers, who convey the import of
players in the mass without taking on the acting chores.
Some sections are more familiarly gestural–dancers manipulate their
faces with their hands; one woman carries another to the point of
fatigue. But more often, as Mozart’s music can do, the dance uses
harmony, canon, fugue, solo lines, to evoke emotional states and
allude to an exaltation beyond word or mime. The feeling of sanctuary
is heightened by the set, the stage’s sides cloaked off with black
drops, and the amber and moon-like lighting, also designed by the
polymath Gat.
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