Appropriation

A ballet by Hillel Kogan
Performed by The Batsheva Ensemble

Appropriation
Photo by Ascaf
  • Appropriation A ballet by Hillel Kogan
    Performed by The Batsheva Ensemble
  • DurationApprox 70 minutes
  • 2.5.2024 At 20:30
    Haifa AuditoriumTickets
  • Additional Dates

Award-winning choreographer and performer Hillel Kogan returns to Batsheva Ensemble, where he danced in 1995-96 – this time, as a choreographer. His works We Love Arabs (2013) and THISISPAIN (2022) were a big success both in Israel and worldwide, positioning him as one of the most distinctive dancemakers currently working in Israel.

In his works, Kogan travels through various artistic worlds as a fascinated “tourist”, exposing how art in general and the dancing body in particular serve as sites of political and cultural constructs.
In the ballet “Appropriation” he visits the “dance company” institution, sending Batsheva Ensemble dancers on a quest full of conquests, quotes, tributes, and countless spectacular references to a bounty of cultures near and far – waiting to be plundered, decorated, erased, and eaten away.

Kogan’s ballet is a masquerade ball, where the lines of political correctness are crossed in the name of artistic and physical freedom, a carnival of body and flesh. The material (dancer) yields to the hands of the maker and the eyes of the viewer. His dancing body is virtuosic, seductive, and unattainable, elevated above the masses, sacred, and cool.

"Appropriation" by Hillel Kogan: funny, painful, and spectacular all at once
Ran Brown, Haaretz

Credits
  • Performed by the dancers of the Batsheva Ensemble season 2023-2024
    Gili Yaniv Amodai, Emil Brukman, Holden Cole, Victor Duval, Maya Marom, Bo Matthews, Mermoz Melchior, Celia Merai, Kylie Miller, Sofiia Pikalova, Leann Reizer, Kelis Robinson, Adi Schwarz, Annika Verplancke, Yarden Zana.
    Apprentices: Zoe Bayliss Nagar, DanDan Cohen, Shira Kestenboum, Noga Senna.

  • Dramaturgy

    Sharon Zuckerman Weiser

  • Lighting and Set Design

    Nadav Barnea

  • Art Director

    Laetitia Boulud

  • Costume Design

    Evelyn Terdiman

  • Masks

    Nothing’s Personal by Matan Meirson & Raz Sintova

  • Music

    "The Nutcracker", Op.17 Th.14 performed by The Mariinsky Orchestra | "Singing The Night Among Fishing Boats" by Vera Tsu, performed by The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra | "Signore, Ascolta" by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Anna Moffo, Tullio Serafin and The Orchestra of the Rome Opera House | "Overture" by Leonard Bernstein, performed by The West Side Story Orchestra | "Batucadas" by Gerardo Frisina, performed by Mitoka Samba (courtesy of Edizioni Ishtar srl/SIAE C+p Edizioni Ishtar srl) | "Les Sylphides – 6." Prelude by Frédéric Chopin, performed by Richard Bonynge and The National Philharmonic Orchestra | "Corner of the Sky" by Stephen Schwartz | "The Planets", Op.32: Jupiter ,The Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst, performed by Herbert von Karajan and The Berliner Philharmoniker.

  • Special Thanks

    Nirith Nelson, Yael Eshel

  • The piece pays homage to Michael Bennett and Bob Avian, the choreographers of the musical "A Chorus Line".


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