Emanuel Gat Dance, Winter Variations

Two men in plain clothes dance for an hour on a big empty stage, sometimes shadowing each other, sometimes alone, sometimes in perfect unison.

Gat 1

It’s as if they are reading each others minds and responding without the need of sight. They rarely touch, rarely acknowledge one another with even a glance, but their muscular bodies seem to hold an empathy with each other.

Winter Variations grew from a shorter dance, Winter Voyage, also created and danced by Israeli choreographer Emanuel Gat and Roy Assaf. Performed at Sadler’s Wells and on tour as part of Emanuel Gat Dance‘s current programme.

Gat 4

A year ago I drew Emanuel Gat with Candoco Dance Company rehearsing ITranslation. This lyrical, beautiful dance was recently performed at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank as part of Candoco’s touring show Rendition’s. He works the dancers hard, creating an energizing supportive space, with clear intentions.

Gat 3

Winter Variations is meticulous in detail, the dancers never falter. Throughout the dance the relationship and mood shifts between playful, mournful, sensual ending with isolation. Music ranges from Schubert, to The Beetles urban “Day in the Life” moving on their knees; a song by Egyptian Riad al Sunbati to Gustav Mahler’s Song of the Earth, to which the men dance in tactile sensual unison, only to agonizingly separate.

.Gat 16

Comments are closed.