MOMO

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Based on his personalized technique “gaga”, community, support and ecstasy sustains much of Ohad Naharin’s choreography. But much has transpired over the past few years in Israel where Batsheva dance company is based. Choreographed in 2022, the NYC debut of MOMO casts references to a land split by politics and terror.

Before advancing to the doors of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, audience members were met by peaceful protestors chanting “Free Palenstine.” It was a reminder that this moment is stamped by passionate feelings and desperate fears in connection to world affairs.

No stranger to controversy, Naharin’s MOMO reflected divisions –dancers scrambling up walls escaping the melee, bodies smudged into angular shapes. Then in the midst of it all, dancers go still, arms raised high. Then, we heard a deep boom. This refrain continued and with each still body, and raised fist, the guttural boom assumed deeper and darker connotations.

Where Naharin generally emphasized community, MOMO was rife with tension. In the foreground, women in body hugging leotards and bare legs were flanked in back by bare chested men in pants. Perhaps they represented the constant chorus of soldiers fencing the perimeters.

There’s a constant foregrounding and backgrounding of activities, both normal and surreal, like a beefy man wearing a tutu skirt. What you see close up might be a woman twisting and stretching her body on the floor, mangled, only to unravel into off kilter leg extensions reaching beyond.

Developed over a strong ballet and modern dance base, MOMO returned Naharin to his dance roots with Graham and Ailey — woven through gaga, and charged with a very strong dollop of emotional reality.

MOMO leaves one with much to think about.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis

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