At one point on Saturday evening at the opening of the Batsheva Dance Company, the 18 male and female dancers, looking ominous in black suits and fedoras, walked off the stage at the Gaillard and filtered through the audience.
At first they appeared to merely shake hands with some audience members, but then whispered something to them, and gently pulled a dozen women and three men to their feet and led them up onto the stage, where the women were picked up and flung about and then allowed to remain mostly stationary as the dancers cavorted around them to such tunes as “Hooray for Hollywood,” which has the appropriate lyrics “Hooray for Hollywood…where any barmaid can be a star made dancing with or without a fan.”
And of course it was all in good fun as an elderly woman who appeared to barely make it up the steps to the stage, launched into kind of a hip-hop, cha-cha-cha to a swinging version of “Dance With Me.”
Spoleto Festival board member David Rawle, appropriately attired in white tie, was one of the men enticed to dance with the stars for a few minutes. Said Rawle at the gala afterward: “It was terrific fun and a contrast to the serious message delivered by dances at the beginning of the first act and in the second act. The only thing I didn’t care for was that the young girl who picked me wouldn’t let me lead, and so I was dancing the Ginger Rogers part!”
Su-Su Johnson of Spartanburg was one of those chosen to show off her terpsichorean skill: “I was just shocked! I really hate to get up in front of anyone to just give a speech, much less dance with a professional dance group! But it WAS kind of fun.”
Having driven up from Bluffton for the event, Jan Kirk, who was seated near me, said as she left the auditorium, “I have to admit I never thought I could do that, and when they brought me to the stage, I thought they were going to ask me questions or something. I just don’t do this kind of thing! But it was great because it took my mind off the rough week I’ve just had!”
At the gala afterward, amid a gorgeous centerpiece of apricot and peach-colored roses, I sat by two of the Batsheva dancers, Yoshifumi (Yski) Inao of Kyoto, Japan, and Stefan Ferry from a little town in France near the Swiss border.
“We dancers are from many countries, Brazil, Australia and even the United States,” said Inao, 32, who is also rehearsal director for the troupe. “I was dancing in Europe when I was asked to join this company. Since I obviously am not Jewish, I have to ask the government to renew my residency each year and so far, I have been dancing with the company for 10 years. But the government is very strict about that (renewing one’s residency).”
Inao said the scare from a terrorist attack was not that great in Tel Aviv, “maybe one car bomb a year,” but that the company is traveling with a security detail while touring in Europe and in the United States because of the threat. “It’s good to have them, but sad that it’s necessary,” he added.
After this writer (horribly disappointed she was not asked on the stage to dance and be thrown over someone’s shoulder as the others were), asked how the audience members were chosen, Inao smiled and said, “We have a certain code: we pick the women who have on the most colorful dresses, usually not black or beige or white, but something very bright to contrast with the dancers’ black suits and hats. And we always try to include women of a certain age and put them in the spotlight. Of course, sometimes we can’t get anyone to come on stage, so we have to forgo the bright dresses.
“But it was nice to find the gentleman in the white coat to come dance (David Rawle). That lent a nice contrast because, of course, most men were in black.”
Entries (RSS)