A last-minute program change failed to stymie the Novel Hall Dance 2010 series

By Diane Baker 

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Novel Hall Dance 2010 series did not get off to an auspicious start. One of Emanuel Gat’s dancers fell ill, so Rite of Spring had to be scrapped. 

What Taipei audiences got in exchange was extraordinary — an expanded version of Gat’s 2004 Winter Voyage duet with Roy Assaf, a 50-minute piece called Winter Variations that premiered in June last year.

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Seine Stücke sind Wechselspiele von Struktur und Emotion. Wie er selbst, der israelische Choreograf, der in Frankreich lebt und nicht nur dort gefeiert wird.

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In Winter Variations, Gat expanded on a stunning older duet with Roy Assaf, Winter Voyage.  There is such empathy between Gat and Assaf that when they do the same movement, they seem to move as one. Even when the choreography is different for each—whether it’s pugilistic darting, crouching, or pivoting—it has the same muscular weightiness.

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Fatima Miloudi / Les Trois Coups

Directeur artistique du centre chorégraphique d’Istres depuis 2008, Emanuel Gat, lauréat en 2006 du Bessie Awards, a proposé au Corum de Montpellier «Variations d’hiver», sa dernière création. Entre l’American Dance Festival et le Lincoln Center Festival, il fait une halte et offre en compagnie de Roy Assaf une heure de poésie et de pur enchantement.

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-- Victoria Looseleaf in Montpellier, France / Culture Monster << Los Angeles Times

A pall washed over the normally sunny town of Montpellier, France, when dance aficionados learned that Pina Bausch, the undisputed goddess of theater dance, had died unexpectedly Tuesday in Wuppertal, Germany, at age 68.

What better tribute, then, than to go on with the show(s) at the 29th annual Montpellier Dance Festival, where the art form continues to be on view at various venues through Saturday. In the case of Israeli choreographer-dancer Emanuel Gat, who makes his home in France, his extraordinary duet with Roy Assaf, “Winter Variations,” was performed to a full house at the 2,000-seat Opéra Berlioz. Filling such a vast stage is no easy feat, even for a medium-sized company, but to command the space for 50 minutes with this unabashedly intimate pas de deux proved a breathtakingly emotional journey.

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