Naharin’s Virus

In Naharin’s Virus (2001), some 15 performers of the Batsheva Ensemble succumb to the trance of Peter Handke's writing in Offernding the Audience (1966). Spoken, sung, written and danced, the words spill onto the stage through a masterful composition by choreographer Ohad Naharin.

What is this germ that runs through the bodies of performers and audiences alike? Is the theater, as a place of performance, no longer only one of illusion? Does time outside of the theater become the same on stage?

Nearly 60 years after it was written, the Austrian author's text expresses the urgent need to question the givens of an increasingly complex world. Recited by the dancers, the words here are associated with the power of gesture, with the freedom of movement that is slow and round, fast and repetitive, wild and delicate.

The political piece is set to traditional music, including that of Palestinian composer Habib Alla Jamal, making us hear the protest ever more clearly.