03.04.2016
NEVERLAND – Kamea Dance Company
Review in the “Jerusalem Post” by Ora Brafman

Tamir Ginz, artistic director of Beersheba-based Kamea Dance Company, managed in his Neverland to take this company to a new performance level, with dancers that looked better than ever. The group, composed of a dozen local and foreign dancers, has good technique and proven dedication, stamina and energy.

Since his earlier works for Bat Dor, Ginz seemed to feel safer leaning
on narrative to lead and frame his pieces and supply easily understood content. The more he let go and relied on pure movement, keeping the content as a tool for the creative process, the better he was able to convey his artistic capabilities.

Neverland, wrote Ginz, is a fantasy inspired by real events. The statement is redundant since Ginz managed to convey from the word go a solid background of post-apocalyptic ambiance, which supplied context for numerous artistic choices that have to do with movement style, its various dynamics and intensity, laced with moments of solidarity, tribal attributes, etc. All of these allowed him to offer a wide scope of scenes, set against a solid structure.
The first strong scene set the tone in free, contemporary style, without straying toward safe neo-classical ground as he had in the past. We see two official-looking figures scout a smoking disaster area, as a group of survivors sprawled among the rubble with soot colored stones around them. They rise slowly, hesitantly, dirty and disheveled.

The work was supported by the talented Avi Balleli’s mesmerizing
original score which accentuated, set the pace and ambiance and deepened the
artistic passages. Stage and set design by Adam Keller and lighting by Shay Yehudai added solid value to the whole production.

Ginz, who always had an eye for composition, created a whole line of impressive scenes. Fortunately, all this effort was not wasted, since, as mentioned above, his cadre is the best Kamea ever had, and Ginz used them wisely in his duets, short solos and group formations. This time, slin, long-legged Lukas Hartvig-Moller (Denmark) and his partner Gil Amishai attracted more attention.
Now that Ginz had proven his capabilities, it’s time to tighten the work a bit, even if it means discarding scenes that are perfectly fine, but which belabor a point.