Protest can’t deny wow factor as Sydney Dance Company presents Ohad Naharin’s Decadance

Sydney Dance Company’s stars’ work in Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Decadance is simply exhilarating.

Sydney Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s work set to the Passover song Echad Mi Yodea, part of the Decadance performance at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Daniel Boud

The protest against the Sydney Festival for its acceptance of funding from the Israeli embassy came to the Sydney Opera House on Thursday evening. A Boycott Israel sign, the Palestinian flag and a quiet group of activists were seen on the forecourt as one of the festival’s opening night shows, Decadance, took place inside.

Decadance is choreographed by Israeli dancemaker Ohad Naharin and performed by Sydney Dance Company.

In past weeks protesters have encouraged artists to boycott the festival and have had significant success, with more than 30 artists withdrawing from the event or dissociating themselves from it.

Anger has been directed at the festival itself rather than Naharin or Sydney Dance Company, and Decadance went on without incident.

The issue was touched on gracefully in Yvonne Weldon’s warmly received Welcome to Country, in which the chair of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council spoke of the need for peaceful action and to “connect, learn and share”.

These qualities were certainly in evidence in Decadance. At one point a series of solos is danced to a brief, highly revealing snippet of biography delivered by the dancer in voiceover. It’s brave, it’s touching and it’s very Ohad Naharin. He requires intense physical and personal commitment from performers and Sydney Dance Company responds magnificently. The wow factor is off the charts.

Decadance is a collage of selections from Naharin’s work for Batsheva Dance Company over 30 years and it never stays quite the same. For obvious reasons, this iteration doesn’t include the gorgeous, gentle, onstage audience participation seen in 2015 when Batsheva appeared at the Melbourne Festival, but the explosive chair dance to the Passover song Echad Mi Yodea is still there, 30 years old and utterly electrifying.

Arranged in a semi-circle, black-suited dancers fall from their chairs and return to them, heads bowed as if in contemplation. The power of ritual and group dynamics are to the fore until there’s a rebellion of sorts against conformity.

Another riveting section is Arab Line from a work called Virus, made in 2001. Performed to an arrangement of Arab folk music by Habib Alla Jamal, it ranges impassive dancers along the front of the stage until one, then another erupts into a wild explosion of limbs and energy. Suddenly all move together, hunched over, shaking arms and fists.

The effect would be startling at any time but right now has extra resonance. (For the record, Arab Line has long been part of Decadance.)

In the final section there is another unintended but potent image as dancers face the audience, outstretch their hands as if pleading and then flinch. It’s a small moment but surprisingly emotional. A real standout here was Holly Doyle, a former SDC member returning for this season alongside another spectacular alumna, Natalie Allen. What a joy to see them.

Occasionally the joins in Decadance show as time is needed for costume changes but Naharin’s exhilarating, take-no-prisoners choreographic language sweeps all before it. The men throw themselves through the air with apparent ease then show their soft side; the women are improbably elastic and powerful.

All are heroic as they tackle extreme positions and abrupt switches of tone and mood.

If they seem to be given no time to take a breath, the same is true for the audience. Thinking, feeling and reacting viscerally are built into the experience. The standing ovation on Thursday said it all.