reviewed by Paula Citron
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Fellowship
Michal Herman Dance Group
Choreographed by Michal Herman
In Tel Aviv
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The cultural mission to Israel I’m attending is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance.
A scintillating dance theatre piece is Michal Herman’s Fellowship, adapted from an absurdist Kafka short story about a group of five who don’t want to be six.
Herman’s movement is both witty and quirky. Each of the favoured five is introduced by a different solo instrument which depicts their eccentric personalities through clever, individualized choreography. For example, the laughing party girl has a sprightly accordion background.
Kudos go to Dimitry Tulpanov and Dirk Kunesh for their sparkling score that brings out the idiocy of the situation by the way they combine instruments. The spoken Kafka text is perfectly to the point and superbly integrated with the dance..
The brilliance of the work is found in the close encounters, or how Herman blends the five together and how they treat the interloper. Her talented dancing actors are wonderfully committed.