L-E-V Company is an Israeli dance and spectacle ensemble created by dancer Sharon Eyal and designer of multimedia events Gai Behar.
History
L-E-V (which means "heart" in Hebrew)
mixes
electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
, fashion and contemporary works into its productions. L-E-V has performed at venues in its native Israel (e.g. the
Israel Festival
The Israel Festival () is a multidisciplinary arts festival held every spring in Israel. Its center is Jerusalem. The festival operates as a non-profit organization. Some of the shows are offered free. Street performances and special performances f ...
in Jerusalem),
the United States (e.g.
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival),
Europe, Canada and the
Festival Internacional Cervantino
The Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC), popularly known as ''El Cervantino'', is a festival which takes place each fall in the city of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico. The festival originates from the mid 20th century, when short pla ...
in Mexico.
Sharon Eyal, born in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
, danced with the
Batsheva Dance Company
The Batsheva Dance Company (Hebrew: להקת בת שבע) is a renowned dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild in 1964.
Its inception was inspired by Israel's growing inter ...
from 1990 to 2008. She worked as a choreographer and associate artistic director from 2003-2004 and house choreographer from 2005-2012.
With Batsheva, she worked for 23 years under
Ohad Naharin
Ohad Naharin (; born 1952) is an Israeli choreographer, contemporary dancer, and creator and teacher of a unique system/language/pedagogy of dance called Gaga. He served as artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company from 1990; he stepped down i ...
, and adopted his “Gaga” technique as the base for L-E-V.
Since then she was created works for other companies along with L-E-V.
[
Gai Behar was a party producer in ]Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
and a curator of multidisciplinary art events from 1995 to 2005.[ Behar’s role in the company is to experiment with aspects of ]performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
, installation and video to combine with dance.[
The pair met at an electronic music event organized by Behar in Tel Aviv,][ with their first collaboration being the project Bertolina in 2005.][ L-E-V was founded in 2013, premiering in collaboration with the Goteborgs Operans Danskompani in ]Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
.[ Later musician Ori Lichtik joined the company. Lichtik is a percussionist and DJ, creating rhythms for dance movements. He was one of the pioneers of techno in Israel, working this type of musical production since 1996.][ The design of the shows include lighting by Avi Yona Bueno, and costumes by Ma’ayan Goldman and Odelia Arnold.][
]
Critical acclaim
A review in the New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
stated that L-E-V “has a defined style that takes most troupes years to develop… In the work’s best moments, this all suggests a Hieronymous Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter from Duchy of Brabant, Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, gene ...
painting of an extraterrestrial rave…. But though they range widely in size, they are too close to being clones. And though the choreography has multiple modes, the overriding aesthetic gives everything a numbing sameness.[
]
See also
*Dance in Israel
Dance in Israel incorporates a wide variety of dance styles, from traditional Israeli folk dancing to ballet, modern dance, ballroom dancing and flamenco.
Contemporary dance in Israel has won international acclaim. Israeli choreographers, among t ...
*Culture of Israel
The culture of Israel is closely associated with Jewish culture and rooted in the Jewish history of the diaspora and Zionist movement. It has also been influenced by Arab culture and the history and traditions of the Arab Israeli population and ...
References
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Dance companies in Israel