SACRE (2015) 33’ — emanuel gat dance

World premiere in 2004 at the Festival Uzès Danse
Bessy Award in 2006 at Lincoln Center Festival in New York

photos

SACRE is a revisited version of the piece originally created by Emanuel Gat to Stravinsky's eponymous score back in 2004. A work for three women and two men, SACRE takes apart the mechanics of Cuban salsa dancing, and reassembles them to create a complex and dramaturgically charged choreographic score.

A free spirited and challenging reading of Stravinsky's masterpiece, SACRE offers no notions of sacrifice, but rather a multitude of options for action.

"These five dancers move through Gat's simmering, undulating salsa steps in crimson light that enhances a red rug defining the action hotspot while adding a note of domesticity […] they weave the movement crisply and fluidly to the recorded orchestration of Stravinsky's score. It remains a hypnotic, inexorable ritual driven by primal instincts."

Susan Yung, Ephemeralist

"Did you know that you could dance salsa on Stravinsky? Proof of this is the scintillating performance of the choreographer Emanuel Gat. His interpretation of the "Rite of Spring" is as iconoclastic as it is exciting. The Israeli artist has captured the lustful liveliness of salsa, which slips effortlessly into the percussive flow of the music. As for the ascent of sex, it explodes with a fatalist peak which is at the heart of the spiral of love. At full speed, couples form, swaying together and then breaking off. They change partners without the movement stopping, forming an uninterrupted chain of salsa, blending in so swiftly that the individual dancers can no longer be identified. Amid this whirlwind, the impetus provided by Stravinsky's music is easy to discern. In this modern game of hunting, everything is beautiful and dangerous. The suspense is intense: men select a partner in turns, creating a crescendo of anxiety until the final choice is made."

Rosita Boisseau, Le Monde

Featured

Jerusalem Post - MODULAR DANCE WORKS

“Finding dancers is very intuitive, it’s a yes or no. I see someone and something happens to me, I want to work with them or not." In every creative process, there comes a point where deadlines creep up, time runs short and decisions must be made. At that point, the proverbial hair spray comes out, affixing the sequences and happenings that constitute a dance work. No matter how free or improvised the time in the studio had been, most dances are eventually set. Chance occurrence and experimentation take a back seat to further the comfort and knowledge of the performing team.

ResMusica - Emanuel Gat pour la première fois à Vaison Danses

Invité pour la première fois à Vaison Danses, dont la mairie de Vaison-la-Romaine a repris récemment la gestion, Emanuel Gat a choisi de montrer des pièces de son répertoire, Works et Sacre, en y ajoutant un trio en création mondiale.

NY Times - Shimmy, Spasm, Stamp With Mozart’s Requiem

When words and music are addressed to God, it’s a rare choreographer who can accompany them with movement that looks anything other than piffling. Dance — by showing the ideal qualities of the human form and/or by making use of time and space — can reveal the sublime, but it usually looks thin when it tries to address the religious.

NRC - Gat vertilt zich in ballet Requiem

Emanuel Gat is een waaghals. De Israëliër zet zijn choreografieën het liefst op beroemde muziekstukken. Zoals op Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps, een ontzagwekkend muziekmonster dat hij met salsapassen knap bedwingt tot een ingetogen en meeslepend dansritueel. Ook maakte hij al een duet op Schuberts romantische Winterreise. Zijn nieuwste waagstuk heet K626 en is gezet op Mozarts Requiem, ; die dodenmis beladen met zonde en vergeving en met aan het slot het eeuwige licht. Hoe vertaal je Latijnse koorzang naar dans, als je niet de verheven stemming ervan tot uitdrukking wil brengen in clichés van geheven benen en pathetische armgebaren?

Der Theaterverlag - Emanuel Gat « Rite of Spring », « K626 »

His shaved head, pronounced brow, his piercing eyes and warm smile, make for a disarming combination of looks and intention. In no uncertain terms, the Israeli-born choreographer is making people take notice. At 37, Gat is gaining international recognition for his choreographic work. In his newest evening-length work for 11 female dancers, “K626,” Gat turns to Mozart‘s solemn and spiritual “Requiem“ in D minor, and infuses it with hip-hop moves, while his “Rite of Spring” works with a sensuous salsa transforming the thundering opus. Dissonance? Perhaps.

Le Monde - Les tableaux sauvages et vertigineux du festival d'Uzès

Danser la salsa sur Stravinsky, c'est possible ! Pour preuve : la prestation brûlante du chorégraphe Emanuel Gat, programmé au festival Uzès Danse (Gard). Sa relecture du Sacre du Printemps se révèle aussi iconoclaste qu'excitante. L’artiste israélien a misé sur la nervosité lascive de la salsa qui se coule dans le ruissellement percussif de la musique. Quant à la montée du sexe, elle explose avec cette pointe de fatalisme qui est au coeur de l'engrenage amoureux.

The New York Times - Review: Polish National Ballet Shows Its European Side at the Joyce Theater

“Rite of Spring,” by the Israeli choreographer Emanuel Gat, is more distinctive. It’s a kind of stunt, hearing in the ritual sacrifice of Stravinsky’s score the ritual of a crowded dance floor in which three women and two men engage in the Möbius-strip partnering of salsa and swing dancing. This reading of the score, if perverse and diminishing, is almost entirely persuasive — as it was when Mr. Gat’s company first brought the work to New York in 2006.

Télérama - Emanuel Gat - Sacre/Gold

Revoir la version salsa du Sacre du printemps, d’Igor Stravinsky, imaginée en 2004 par le chorégraphe israélien Emanuel Gat, est un régal que l'on savoure à l'avance. Sur un tapis rouge, deux hommes et trois femmes tourbillonnent sur les élans percussifs de la musique. La chasse est ouverte, le plaisir déborde, les corps se choisissent.

Credits

Music: The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky
Choreography, Lights & Costumes: Emanuel Gat
For five dancers.

Production: Emanuel Gat Dance
Co-production: The Suzanne Dellal Centre (Israel), Festival Uzès Danse, Monaco Dance Forum.
With the help of: Dellal foundation, Theatre de Olivier in Istres, Ballet Monte-Carlo, the Foundation of Philippe de Rothschild.

Production 2015 : Emanuel Gat Dance
Created during a working residency at Montpellier Danse, Agora - Cité Internationale pour la Danse and at Maison de la Danse d'Istres