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Israel's Mr. Gaga

The Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, considered a symbol of Israeli liberalism, says his work is not confined by the boundaries of a state, but are personal and universal.
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One of the scenes in "Mister Gaga" — the film by director Tomer Heymann that follows the dance career of Ohad Naharin, the world-class choreographer and 2005 Israel Prize laureate — shows Naharin having a conversation in a phone booth in New York in the late 1980s. During the call, he is offered the artistic directorship of the Israeli Batsheva Dance Company. Naharin has to choose between a promising and highly esteemed career in the capital of the world or a return to Israel. “It was a moment that stirred up sentiments, a longing and a certain feeling, and a sense of fragrance,” Heymann told Al-Monitor. “Ohad did not consult his wife or, in fact, anyone. He knew he was going back home.” For viewers, this is a critical moment.

Heymann's film, released commercially this month and already winning the Israeli public's heart — no mean feat for a documentary about performance dance — is a film about the art of dance and about a creative and prolific choreographer, “one of the most fascinating dance makers on the planet,” as a New York Times critic states at the beginning of the film. It is the kind of well-thought-out scene described above, skillfully inserted by Heymann, that makes the film a chronicle of what has happened to Israel in recent decades.

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