They cook so well, it’s unbelievable
I took my top off because I’m worth it. Photo of Rainer Behr by Bettina Stob
Istanbul has turned in the best of World Cities 2012 so far. Tinged with melancholy and littered with excellent music Nefés was full of the most incredible imagery:
A line of abstracted women are stunningly shifted across the floor by a square of light.
A paper-chain of heiroglyphic men criss-cross the stage.
Veiled by their own locks, strangely captivating women brush their hair to hypnotic drumbeats.
Shantala Shivalingappa dances a solo so good that one of the other dancers insists she do it again.
Azusa Seyama is spun horizontally, lifted up, put down, spun again and lifted to to spell-binding diagonals.
Fernando Suels Mendoza sings a sweet-sounding song acapella before unwinding a yearning solo for the hear-a-pin-drop audience.
A man tries to kiss his girl. Unfortunately she’s standing on top of a tall cabinet and he can’t quite jump high enough for his lips to reach hers. He tries many times.
The crystal-sharp reflections in Peter Pabst’s crisp-cool pool that gently fills and dries like a reservoir through the seasons are stunning.
Andrey Berezin sips water from the pool while performing a balance-perfect handstand.
A short downpour of water at first looks like a hammam shower but is quickly transformed into a waterfall when Rainer Behr jumps a wild dance beneath it.
The ending is simple but sublime; in their own time, two separate trails of men and women flip and slide their way across the stage to the croaky delights of Tom Waits.
And there’s so much more. It’s beautiful.
Gerard Davis
Dancing Review 