Choreographer & Artistic Director of the Batsheva Dance Company
Ohad Naharin has been hailed as one of the world’s preeminent contemporary choreographers. As Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company since 1990, he has guided the company with an adventurous artistic vision and reinvigorated its repertory with his captivating choreography. Naharin is also the originator of an innovative movement language, Gaga, which has enriched his extraordinary movement invention, revolutionized the company’s training, and emerged as a growing force in the larger field of movement practices for both dancers and non-dancers.
Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of Batsheva Dance Company in 1990 and has served in this role except for the 2003-2004 season, when he held the title of House Choreographer. During his tenure with the company, Naharin has choreographed over 20 works for Batsheva and its junior division, Batsheva Ensemble. He has also restaged over 10 of his dances for the company and recombined excerpts from his repertory to create Deca Dance, a constantly evolving evening-length work.
Ohad Naharin
Gaga movement language developed by Ohad Naharin
Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. Gaga provides a framework for discovering and strengthening your body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while lightening the senses and imagination. Gaga raises awareness of physical weaknesses, awakens numb areas, exposes physical fixations, and offers ways for their elimination. The work improves instinctive movement and connects conscious and unconscious movement, and it allows for an experience of freedom and pleasure in a simple way, in a pleasant space, in comfortable clothes, accompanied by music, each person with himself and others.
“We become more aware of our form. We connect to the sense of the endlessness of possibilities. We explore multi-dimensional movement; we enjoy the burning sensation in our muscles, we are ready to snap, we are aware of our explosive power and sometimes we use it. We change our movement habits by finding new ones. We go beyond our familiar limits. We can be calm and alert at once.” – Ohad Naharin
From The Press
"Ohad is one of the most alive people I've ever known. His work pushes us all--himself, the dancers, the audience--to the limits of what we are, and then beyond"
(Nicole Krauss, Author of The History of Love)
"Ohad Naharin is one of the most original and confounding choreographers of our time"
(Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune)
"One of the most fascinating dancemakers on the planet"
(Roslyn Sulcas New York Times)
"Ohad Naharin has specialized in works that can be understood, if not necessarily comprehended"
(Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times)
"Pioneering some of the most innovative work - and intriguing movement language - in contemporary dance during the past 20 years"
(The Sydney Morning Herald)
"Naharin's choreography seems to be an infinite dance prism or artistry, commentary and sheer necessity of dancing amok. Naharin is a singular dance voice with a lot to say"
(Lewis Whittington, Ballet Magazine)
"Naharin is placed in a rarefied group of the world’s foremost modern-dance choreographers"
(Nigel Redden, Director of Lincoln Centre Festival and Spoleto Festival U.S.A.)