Imagery for the Willing

Men in black robes and full pants, and women with headscarves and long dresses are engaged in some kind of ritual or tribal ceremony. They could be villagers praying for water for their crops, or members of a religious order, or folk dancers at a celebration. Behind them is a stark white house, or church, or temple. This is Vertigo, the Israeli dance troupe, performing “Mana,” a mesmerizing and beautiful hour-long piece at Jacob’s Pillow last week. While not explicitly referring to Israel’s cultural and religious history and conflicts, the rhythms of the dancing, and the echoes of Klezmer in the music ground the piece in the company’s homeland. “Mana,” from the mystical Aramaic text, The Zohar, means vessel of light, and throughout the piece, dark and light play off each other. There is so little color in the costumes or on the stage it could have been a black-and-white film. When the dancers shed their robes and their skin is revealed, it has the effect of adding light to the stage. Darkness and light, yin and yang, perhaps even life and death, are the themes choreographer Noa Wertheim is exploring. Surely there is no movement that hasn’t been done before, but Wertheim’s choreography looks utterly original, as though each gesture and step were brand new. Sometimes low and grounded, simple walks and runs, sometimes terrifically intricate, with arms and shoulders and hips moving seemingly independently of each other, and often daringly high-flying and off-balance, the movements are constantly shifting; the dancers make them look effortless. At one point, a dancer leaps up and backward, landing on another dancer’s shoulders and draping his body down the other’s back, and then leaps back down, as light and quick as if it was just a little jump. At another, one man grabs another’s foot, who leans away and then launches upward, twisting over his own suspended leg, floating in midair as he spins over himself. The music, composed by Ran Bagno, is spare, moody and beautiful. Repeating piano figures and rhythmic strings, often in waltz time, are overlaid with murmuring vocalization to create a meditative yet driving backdrop. The simple backdrop is effective too. At certain moments, the door in the house moves backward, creating a softly lit chamber where the dancers gather before they enter the main action. The tableaux they create add to the mystery. After a long group section that used simple unison gestures, punctuated by moments of stillness, a woman in short shorts enters, with a gigantic black balloon suspended 10 feet above her. She tiptoes behind the group, her balloon drifting majestically overhead, and then pulls one dancer into a long duet. Is she trying to seduce him, separate him from his people, lure him from his traditions? And what is that balloon? I didn’t know what it was, but the dancing and imagery in “Mana” work at a subconscious level. I never needed to understand it to be moved by it. Program notes ask if it’s possible to “grasp what cannot be grasped?” Perhaps not, but you can let it work its magic on you if only you are willing. For the Jacob’s Pillow schedule and tickets, call 413-243-0745 or go to www.jacobspillow.org