British Theater Guide - Lovetrain2020 Sadler's Wells

“Seventy uninterrupted minutes of joy: exotic figures in a playground, a catwalk, a stream of consciousness to the music of Tears For Fears…. Someone in the music business describes their music to me as honest, and I go along with that.

The dance is honest, the production is honest, the vibe is honest, generous and giving.

I read that he doesn't like to impose his signature on his dancers’ bodies, as some choreographers do. So, LOVETRAIN2020 is credited as created with and performed by Eglantine Bart, Tara Dalli, Noe Girard, Nikoline Due, Gilad Jerusalmy, Juhász Péter, Michael Loehr, Emma Mouton, Rindra Rasoaveloson, Abel Rojo, Karolina Szymura, Sara Wilhelmsson.

Thomas Alfred Bradley’s eccentric costumes are so Vivienne Westwood. All that camp strutting and preening... Different strokes for different folks: it’s a gig pure and simple. I am captivated.

Dancers are as unique as their variegated garb…. Many come forward to front stage and look at us openly, trying to make eye contact, inviting a communion with them, perhaps.

Solos are intense, though one looks to be marking his contribution as if in rehearsal, which takes me back and makes me smile. Nuts and bolts, so to speak. It may be a group, a community, but, they seem to be saying, we are not a homogenous mass.

Read More

Theatre News - REVIEW LOVETRAIN2020 Sadler Well’s

A glorious, physical journey through the iconic discography of Tears for Fears, it had me aching to jump straight back on board.

LOVETRAIN2020 was a loud, contemporary triumph, steeped in the irresistible charm of an era when things seemed flamboyant and free. Emanuel Gat has successfully paved the way for today's high brow culture to learn from the unbridled maximalism of the past, synths, smoke machines and all.

Read More

Die Rheinpfalz - Bejubeltes Tanzstück im vollen Pfalzbau: „Lovetrain 2020“ als Spiel mit geheimen Regeln

Explicitly formulated: a wild party where the lights go out again and again and people lose their evening wardrobe, is LOVETRAIN2020 at the festivals in Theater im Pfalzbau Ludwigshafen (Deutschland) The enormous presence of the Emanuel Gat Dance ensemble to the sound of the 80s hits a nerve in the audience, which jumps from their seats to cheer. Each performance is a web of game rules and structures, where dancers make thousands of decisions.

Read More

Les Inrockuptibles - Emanuel Gat refait danser Tears for Fears à Montpellier

“With LOVETRAIN2020 and its choreographic material drawn from the repertoire of Tears For Fears, Emanuel Gat is about to electrify the Montpellier Danse festival (…). Supported in France by some of the most important choreographic institutions, Gat never ceases to amaze with his gestural palette. From a SACRE with latino accents to Story Water of an assumed rigor, the choreographer varies tempos as much as movements. LOVETRAIN2020, a new controlled turn, could be defined as a contemporary musical. On condition of broadening the horizon of a genre, the musical, a little stuffy. “Take this term musical in the fourth or fifth degree. But we find the dynamics specific to this genre with constant peaks in intensity. “

Read More

The New York Times - In France, a Festival Delivers the Essential: Dance to Audiences

LOVETRAIN2020 is marvelous, a rambunctious yet rigorously staged piece for 14 dancers, set to tracks by the British pop group Tears for Fears (big in the ’80s), outlandishly costumed by Thomas Bradley: ruffles, peculiar shapes, huge skirts, missing parts of clothes, plaid mixed with satin. Mr. Gat melds gestural detail with larger-scale movement, sometimes working against the music’s rhythms, sometimes with them, frequently in silence. This eccentric physical dialogue with the music — mostly in a minor key and vaguely gloomy in content yet somehow gloriously singalong — is exhilarating. LOVETRAIN2020 is everything the small-scale, often somber work made for video during the past months is not. It’s loud, joyous, physical, close. […] A celebration of the body, of performance, of life.

Read More

France Culture - Emanuel Gat, ceux qui l’aiment prendront le train

The audience of Montpellier reserved a triumph to LOVETRAIN2020 by Emanuel Gat. This vibrant and magnetic show made them forget the pandemic. Tears for Fears come one after another, but the music doesn't overwhelm the choreography. It pauses at times to let the dancers invest the stage in magnificent chiaroscuro lights. Emanuel Gat’s show is a deep breath of fresh air. LOVETRAIN2020 is a subtle blend, a touch of baroque for the costumes, influences from Egyptian civilizations and India, all on pop music from the 1980s, Emanuel Gat achieves a stunning choreographic mix.

Read More

L'Oeil d'Olivier - Emanuel Gat embrase Montpellier Danse

“A fabulous choreographic firework carried by a troupe of bright and extraordinary dancers. Chaining the very 1980s hits - which the public finds themselves humming -, slows, silences, solos, pas de deux, group dances, the Israeli choreographer composes a sort of fascinating musical, flamboyant, kaleidoscopic. Each part transforms into a painting reminiscent of some masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, some ancient, romantic bacchanalia. (…) Carried away by the beauty of this subtle alliance between movement, music, lights, scenography and interpretation, LOVETRAIN2020 is Gat at his best, a really grandiose and hypnotic show, a piece at the crossroads of the arts to be indulged without moderation. The Montpellier audience got it right in this world premiere, standing well before the last note sounded, bursting into applause.. “

Read More

MAGMAA - LOVE TRAIN 2020, DANS LE TEMPS

Regrouped in clusters, with rapid moves that occupy the scenic space with tremendous enthusiasm, aligned in front of the audience, the performers are all up to a dance that is going crescendo. As a counterpoint, solos and pas de deux take shape, invite the eyes to wander in the background, structure a space conducive to an exhilarating dance that feeds itself and emancipates from the soundtrack, not to be formed under this musical influence, but to be present to the world.”

Read More

La Grande Parade - LOVETRAIN2020 : l'alchimie bienheureuse de Tears for Fears et d'Emanuel Gat Dance

LOVETRAIN2020 se présente comme une « comédie musicale contemporaine » autour des chansons du groupe anglais Tears for Fears. Tous ceux qui connaissent le travail du chorégraphe Emanuel Gat savent déjà que son travail se nourrit des spécificités de ses danseurs et de leurs interactions lorsqu’ils improvisent en répétitions. Cette pièce chorégraphique délicieuse ne dément pas son talent de « chorégraphe de la collectivité » mais donne à voir également des solos, duos ou trios de belle facture.

Read More