Gaga at the Opéra: catching dreams and connecting with “Decadance” [by Tracy Danison]

Photo: Children at the Opéra Garnier, October 2018 

Just before the show began the man loomed up over the children perched in the rows just ahead and below. They squirmed around to look. He told them, “‘Decadance’ is divided into several parts. See which part makes you dream. Then, after, tell us your dream.” They snapped back to watch to show

For the premiere of Ohad Naharin’s Decadance at the Opéra Garnier, we perched in the fourth balcony, right, fourth row, a very good value proposition if your eyes are still sharp, as ours are. Lacing together figures and themes from a variety of other works and interpreted by some of the world’s most professional and best classical dancers, Decadance showcases Naharin’s “Gaga” approach to dance performance.

Photo: Aurélien Houette rehearsing, 2018 © Julien Benhamou / Opéra National de Paris

Performers has to learn the Gaga dance dialect for Ohad Naharin’s “Decadance”. Gaga, observed Aurelien Houette, a 20-year veteran of the ballet, connects “the material and physical with energy, with the immaterial and imaginary”

Naharin believes movement is the universal language of universal values: Gaga is his dialect. Opéra cast dancers had to learn Gaga for the performance. A distinct ruffle rippled through the sharp-eyed dance-lovers already in rank, when about 20 sweetly excited children ranging from 6 to 10 took up most of the seats in the rows below. One of the adults who was with them, a teacher, we suppose, said they were the young studies from the Opéra ballet school.