Ohad Naharin

Naharin was born in 1952 on Kibbutz Mizra and grew up in Tivon, near Haifa. His parents were involved in music and theater, and his family encouraged his interest in dance.[1][7] A later account of his childhood describes footage showing his athletic grace; before pursuing dance studies in New York, he had virtually no formal dance training.[7]

During military service, Naharin danced in an entertainment troupe and began choreographing simple routines. An injury kept him from serving in a combat unit, and he was sent to entertain troops in the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. The experience was later described as having made a lasting impression on him.[7] A documentary account also recounts that he performed for troops during the war as part of the IDF entertainment troupe.[8]

After completing his service, Naharin began professional dance training. He joined Batsheva for a year and performed in The Dream in 1974, after which he was invited to stay for another year.[1] Another account records that he performed the role of Esau in Martha Graham’s Jacob’s Dream during Graham’s 1974 visit to Israel. Graham invited him to join her New York company the following year and helped him obtain a scholarship to study at Juilliard.[3]

Naharin moved to New York and was accepted into both Juilliard and the School of American Ballet. He studied at Juilliard and danced with companies led by Graham and Maurice Béjart; after a season with Béjart’s Ballet of the 20th Century in Brussels, he left because he wanted to choreograph.[7][3] A career timeline places him with Graham’s company from 1975, at the School of American Ballet in 1976, at Juilliard in 1977, and with Béjart in 1978.[9]

Accounts differ slightly in how they describe the order and duration of his training and early performing engagements. One biographical account says he completed a year in Juilliard’s Professional Studies Program, danced for a year with Béjart, and then moved to New York; another places him in New York from 1980 to 1990 as a dancer and choreographer.[1][9] The accounts agree that his early career brought him into contact with Graham and Béjart, and that he turned increasingly toward making his own work.

Naharin’s first choreographic work is dated to 1980. One biographical account identifies it as Haru No Umi, while another names Passo de Pepsi, made at Kazuko Hirabayashi’s New York studio that year.[1][3] He founded the Ohad Naharin Dance Company in New York, which toured internationally, and his works began to be performed by leading companies abroad.[1]

His repertoire developed rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Works listed in career and repertoire records include Black Milk, Tabula Rasa, Passomezzo, Arbos, Kyr, The Fall of the Titanic, Wall, Flood, Perpetuum, Anaphase, Zina, Yag, Sabotage Baby, and Moses.[9] Other accounts list Sinking of the Titanic and King of Wara among his works, and later creations include Virus of Ohad Naharin, Mammoth, and Three.[1][9] The differences in some titles and dates reflect the way the sources enumerate works; together, the listings show a substantial body of choreography made for companies in Israel and abroad.

In 1987, the Dutch company Nederlands Dans Theater invited Naharin to create a work. Chameleon Dances was the first of a series he made for the company.[3] His choreography was also staged by companies including Frankfurt Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Madrid National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, and Nederlands Dans Theater.[9][9] Naharin later said that seeing foreign companies perform his works gave him a different perspective on them and helped him refine the choreography.[3]

In 1990, Naharin returned to Israel after being offered the artistic directorship of Batsheva Dance Company. Batsheva had been founded in 1964 by Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, who appointed Martha Graham as artistic adviser; Naharin’s appointment began a period of leadership that lasted, with a brief interruption, until 2018.[10][5] He had already established an international reputation through work in the United States and Europe.[3]

His arrival was associated with a major shift in the company’s artistic direction and public profile. A history of Batsheva describes the company as lacking a clear artistic direction before his appointment and credits his productions with influencing Israeli dance, revitalizing the troupe, and drawing a younger audience.[5] Other accounts describe his artistic vision and choreography as renewing the company’s repertoire and helping make dance more popular in Israel.[7][2] Batsheva dancers and former colleagues have described a particularly strong connection between the company and Naharin’s work, while also recognizing that the company passed through different phases and leaderships.[11]

One early production associated with his directorship was Wall (Kirot), created with the band Nektar HaTraktor and presented at the Israel Festival in 1990. It combined live rock music and modern dance in a way described as new for Batsheva’s work, and was reported to have helped attract new audiences to dance.[3] Naharin’s approach also involved close attention to music and costume, elements later highlighted by the Israel Prize committee as integral to his work.[12]

Naharin’s relationship with the artistic-director position changed over time. In 2003, he announced that he would leave the role, with the change due to take effect in September. He said the decision was his own, followed a long process, and was not prompted by a crisis. He believed that the company and its dancers were in a good place and that others could take on the managerial responsibilities, while he continued to work in the studio and create for Batsheva.[13] He returned to the directorship in early 2005.[3][13] The National Library of Israel records his appointment in 1990 and his tenure through 2018; after stepping down, he became the company’s house choreographer.[10][2]

His work for Batsheva included Anaphase, which premiered in December 1993 at the company’s 30th-anniversary celebrations. The piece brought Batsheva’s company and ensemble together onstage and used live music performed by Naharin and musicians from Nektar HaTraktor.[14] It was restaged several times and, by the time of a 2023 revival report, had been seen by about 300,000 people in Israel and abroad.[15]

A central segment of Anaphase was set to the Passover song “Echad Mi Yodea.” The work’s combination of the familiar song with the dancers’ movement became one of Naharin’s most widely discussed creations, and the scene later became part of a public dispute over religious sensibilities and artistic freedom.[3][15]

Another significant work, Decadance, premiered in 2000 as a compilation of excerpts from pieces Naharin had made for Batsheva. The production was adapted across successive seasons, combining passages from earlier works with newer material rather than remaining a fixed collection.[16] In 2004’s Playback, performed in Eilat, Naharin appeared as a dancer, singer, and instrumentalist, demonstrating a performance role extending beyond choreography.[1]

In 2023 Batsheva premiered Momo, which Naharin created with Ariel Cohen, a former Batsheva Ensemble dancer and costume designer. The work examined different facets of masculinity and marked the first time Naharin shared choreographic credit, according to the report on its premiere.[17] His later position as house choreographer therefore did not end his creative involvement with the company.

Naharin has described himself as an Israeli creator and said he had never considered making work elsewhere because Israel was his place. He also described being Jewish and Israeli as matters of fact, while hoping that audiences would understand his work as reaching beyond religious, national, or ethnic associations.[3] His international collaborations and performances allowed him to remain closely identified with Israeli dance while his choreography circulated among companies and audiences abroad.

Gaga is a movement language Naharin developed through sustained curiosity and research into how the body moves. It grew out of sessions he began with Batsheva dancers in the 1990s and became both a central part of the company’s training and a practice available to people outside professional dance.[4][17] The National Library of Israel identifies Gaga among innovative and distinctive Israeli dance-teaching methods, noting that movement practices can be structured, culturally dependent, and acquired.[18]

Naharin initially held weekly classes for Batsheva dancers. The sessions expanded to company staff, friends, and family, and classes opened to the public in 2001. Batsheva’s dancers asked in 2002 for Gaga to become their main daily training, and the name “Gaga” came into use in 2003.[4] Accounts describe the classes as replacing the company’s daily ballet classes and becoming its official movement language.[17]

Gaga is taught in two principal formats: Gaga/people, for the general public, and Gaga/dancers, for professional dancers.[4] Descriptions of the practice emphasize attention to bodily sensation and awareness, including habitual movement patterns, weakness, and pain. Its stated aims include strengthening the body, improving flexibility, agility, and efficiency, and awakening the senses and imagination.[19]

Rather than centering on how participants look, classes use spoken movement directions to guide them. The practice is described as encouraging practitioners to move beyond familiar patterns, broaden their movement range, and explore the sources of movement.[4][17] The approach thus connects physical training with bodily awareness and imaginative exploration, while offering a shared method for professional dancers and non-dancers.

A Jerusalem Post account says Naharin developed Gaga partly as a way to heal himself after a back injury. He described the creation of the practice as “my most meaningful experience using my body ... to create a language with words and movement,” and said he wanted everyone to try it because “Gaga makes people happy.”[7] These remarks frame Gaga not only as a technical training system but also as an accessible movement practice.

The practice expanded beyond studio classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Gaga sessions moved online. At the time of a Times of Israel report, eight daily classes taught by instructors in New York and Tel Aviv reached about 5,000 people, and there were 148 certified Gaga teachers around the world.[4] The online classes brought its spoken-direction format to a wider audience during a period when in-person movement classes were disrupted.

Naharin’s long tenure at Batsheva and the reach of his choreography made him a central figure in contemporary Israeli dance. Accounts describe his work as helping reshape the Israeli dance scene, revitalizing Batsheva’s repertoire, and attracting new audiences to artistic dance.[7][5] A survey of Israeli artistic dance places him and Batsheva among the notable figures and companies of the contemporary period, alongside choreographers and ensembles including Rami Be’er and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Yasmeen Godder, Emanuel Gat, and Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Polak.[20]

The Israel Prize in dance was awarded to Naharin in 2005. The prize committee praised his contribution to raising the international standing of artistic dance and changing the Israeli dance scene, as well as his distinctive movement language, originality, and boldness.[12] It also emphasized his involvement in music and costumes as part of an integrated approach to creating dance.[12] The Center for Israel Education and the Jewish Virtual Library’s prize list likewise record him as the 2005 dance laureate.[21][22]

He received other professional recognition. In 2009, the American Dance Festival selected him for the Samuel H. Scripps Award for Lifetime Achievement, a $50,000 award established to recognize choreographers who contribute to and influence modern dance.[23] His work also received two New York Bessie Awards: Virus of Ohad Naharin is listed as a 2002 recipient, while the date for Anaphase differs between sources, which place the award in either 2003 or 2004.[3][9] Other recorded honors include a 1998 French Order of Arts and Letters distinction, a 2001 Israeli Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport creation award, and an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute in 2004.[9]

Dance critic Deborah Jowitt characterized Naharin’s choreography through the image of a polished stone that appears smooth and sculptural but can become a weapon when hurled, emphasizing the combination of refinement and force in his work.[1]

The documentary Mr. Gaga, directed by brothers Tomer and Barak Heymann, follows Naharin’s life and work, including his choreography, family life, and artistic process. Tomer Heymann said he filmed about 600 hours of Naharin in studios, rehearsals, and auditions in Israel and abroad, as well as in personal conversations.[8] The film’s production depended in part on Naharin handing over old photographs and posters. Heymann recounted that, after seeking the material for years, he went to Naharin’s home at 11 p.m.; Naharin gave it to him with the words, “Take my past and free me of it.”[8]

The documentary received several festival awards. At South by Southwest, where it had its North American premiere, it won the audience favorite award in the Documentary Spotlight category. It also won First Prize for Best Documentary at the Sofia International Film Festival and Best International Documentary at Sweden’s Tempo Documentary Festival.[24] The film’s substantial archive of studio footage and personal material gave audiences a record of Naharin’s working process as well as a biographical portrait.

The “Echad Mi Yodea” segment in Anaphase became the focus of the 1998 “underwear affair.” During preparations for Israel’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, religious groups objected to the scene, in which dancers removed their clothes and remained in underwear while performing to the Passover song. Government officials asked Naharin to have the dancers wear long underwear as a compromise. He agreed, but announced that he would resign; the dancers refused to perform in solidarity, after which he withdrew his resignation.[3] The episode was reported internationally as a dispute involving censorship and artistic freedom, and was described as a national scandal over the work’s collision with the Orthodox community.[3][15]

Naharin’s public comments about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement have also been politically contentious. In 2019, he said he identified with the movement’s agenda opposing the occupation and would support a boycott of his own performances if he believed it could improve conditions in the territories or help resolve the conflict. In the same interview, he criticized the movement for not truly helping Palestinians despite its efforts.[6] The report also presented opposing characterizations of BDS: it described the movement’s stated aims and noted that critics, including heads of state, characterize it as opposing Israel’s existence or as a cover for antisemitism.[6] Those views are reported positions in a politically contested debate, not settled descriptions of the movement.