Workshop with Eldad Ben Sasson

[Rebecca Crystal]

As part of my program in Israel with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, last week, we had a three-day workshop with Eldad Ben Sasson, who is an indescribably genius choreographer/dancer.  He danced with Batsheva for many years, and his class is heavily informed by Ohad's technique.  After a Gaga-warmup (If you are new to this blog and don't know what Gaga is, see here), he then led us through movement exercises and eventually a long combination based on the principals of William Forsythe.  I have read in detail about Forsythe's ideas of space and dimensions, but I have never had a class that utilizes them.  Pretty much...it was awesome.  Eldad talked us through the combination, not by naming the movements or using ballet terminology, but in terms of the physics--the points in space we touch, the lines we create with our energy and direction, and through which dimensions (including time, and ones undiscovered) we are traveling.  He kept talking about how movement is full of infinite possibilities, and we should never cut a movement short, or stop in our tracks when we mess up, because then we just closed ourselves to the possibilities.  The class was so different from anything I had ever experienced before, and the movement was a completely different quality.  I really enjoyed the challenge of learning in this new way.  On Monday evening, a number of us met with him for coffee and asked questions about his experiences and philosophy.  We asked him about how he creates choreography, and he said he often starts by writing, which is influenced by books and films on quantum physics and simply observing the world around him. Well, I admit I'm a bit of a nerd about physics, so this whole experience was fascinating and illuminating for me, and I hope to integrate these ideas with my dancing.