Analysis Of Ohad Naharin's Deca Dance

The stress of always doing the same day-to-day routine eventually causes someone to break. In Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance, the second piece, features a large group of dancers in suits who stand in a semi-circle with a chair sitting directly behind each person. The dancers use tension and looseness in their movements as well as use different aspects of timing to perform a repetitive sequence that shows how the same patterns lead to breaking free from confinement within themselves.
In the beginning the dancers start out standing completely still and gradually sit down in a chair, with their heads facing down, which brings their upper bodies into a hunched over position. A few seconds later they quickly fling their upper bodies up into the air, taking them out of their seats, and then gently sit back down. When the dancers are on their chairs, their bodies tense up and with their heads facing down as if gravity and pressure weigh down the dancers, restricting them. The dancers free themselves as they break through confinement and jolt their bodies up out

of their seats towards the sky.
One overwhelming piece of evidence about time was the dancers’ change of pace during the performance. At the very end, the dancers stand completely still in a semi-circle directly in front of their chairs with articles of clothing in the center of the stage. Every other dancer then begins to gradually walk forward, and the others collapse to the floor and immediately crawl to the center to pick up the clothes. These last moments in the piece illustrate the change of pace as the dancers waver between abrupt and lethargic steps. Another way Ohad Naharin uses time is through simultaneous movements as the dancers perform the same steps at the same time. In the middle of the piece the dancers sit in their chairs and abruptly stand up with their heads facing forward. Immediately, they take their right arm above their head and forcefully place it in front of themselves, almost as if they were throwing a ball, and then go back to sitting in their chair. During each of these steps, they all match others’ movements, keeping the same timing and intensity.
During this piece, the dancers perform a sequence of movements that repeat and build on itself.

In the beginning, the dancers start this arrangement by slowly sitting down, hunched over in their chairs and then hurl their upper bodies into the air, only to gradually sit back down. After a few moments, the dancers suddenly wind their arms off to the right side and hastily throw them to the other side and then repeat the steps they did before. Throughout the piece, they add on to the sequence and eventually go on to reverse it before they finally break free at the end.
The elements of body, timing and a repetitive sequence make this second piece a memorable one in Ohad Naharin’s Deca Dance. These components work together in order to portray a theme of confinement and uniformity. These dancers move in simultaneous and restricted movements as they try to break free from routine, which they are able to do in the

end.