"“Trees warp time” writes the British author John Fowles in his poetic essay “The Tree”, when describing how he feels as soon as he enters “one of the countless secret little woods” where he lives, almost like “leaving land to go into water, another medium, another dimension”. The same feeling applies to spectating Nina Traub’s new extraordinary work “Faintings”, which begins with a beautiful Mise-en-scène: at the center of the large stage is a smaller, round, stage and in its heart a minimalistic wooden sculpture, resembling a weeping willow, whose naked branches canopies Zoe Polansky that sits in their shadow surrounded by musical instruments. The entire back wall is an acrylic painting on paper, huge in its dimensions, and in it more and more jets of green branches are bursting, slanting downwards, bending with tears.
When the eye gets used to the greenish darkness, it observes three additional characters: dancers Meshi Olinky, Tamar Kisch, and Traub herself, all in dark long wigs and greenish shiny garments. Throughout the piece they will stray amongst the misty sonic forest Polanski will
produce from the stage, meticulously executing a restrained and proudly performed, well-forged choreography, a systematic arrangement of actions, executed almost exclusively in unison, without breaking the lines. “Faintings”, it seems, does lead to a temporalblackout, for as I
have finished watching the performance, I felt as if awakening from a daydream, from a sweet- disturbing stroll through a thick brush of sublime thoughts and images.
“Faintings” offers an instructive multi-sensual experience: of visuals, of music, of movement. The choreography, dense and delightfully simple, is treated with an in-depth interpretation and wonderful execution by the dancers; Their chantings curtained by Polansky’s guitar; their movement wanders the thick green volume of the stage, and without noticing, the spectator is sucked into an elusive adventure in time, surprisingly ending with the sound of their choky wailings, testaments to the ongoing battle between the wild and the tamed, from which originates any work of art".
Text by Ran Brown
Choreography: Nina Traub
Co-creator: Meshi Olinky
Performers: Meshi Olinky, Tamar Kisch, Nina Traub, Zoe Polanski
Music: Zoe Polanski, Nina Traub
Stage design: Nina Traub, Dror Tshuva
Costume design: Sia Preminger
Light design: Hanni Vard, Yair Vardi
Artistic guidance: Tami Leibovits
Rehearsal management: Anat Vaadia
Produced by Hazira Performance Art Arena, Jerusalem.
Developed in residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts, La Briqueterie and Le Centquatre, Paris; Kelim- A body for choreographic work, Bat Yam; Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre, Tel Aviv.
With financial support of Mifal Hapais and the Fund for Independent Creators, Israel.
© 2020 Nina Traub