Herd of Bulls

The choreographer Saar Harari was a commanding officer in the Israeli special forces. LeeSaar The Company charts an intrepid and haunting journey through violence and its emotional aftermath. With turbulent grace, visceral impact and arresting precision, four dancers manifest one soldier’s attempt to reclaim his humanity.

Before beginning his career in dance, Saar Harari spent six years as a commanding officer in the Israeli Special Forces. “In my unit they used to tell us that the ultimate weapon is our body and that we should develop our animal instincts to deepen our connection to our body,” explains Mr. Harari. The military’s intense physical training focused on developing speed, agility, and endurance in order to cultivate effective soldiers, able and willing to kill. After six years of military service, Mr. Harari left the Special Forces.

 

After leaving the military Mr. Harari returned to the world of dance, and recognized that his physical ability and deep awareness of his own body were the direct results of his military training. After seven years of suppressing memories of his time in the Special Forces, only now has he allowed that intense period of his life to inform his choreography.

 

Credits: (1 hour)

Choreography: Saar harari & Lee Sher

Dramaturge: Lee Sher

Dancers: Rossella Fusco, Shamel Pitts, Lee Sher, Saar Harari

Stage design:Saar Harari

Music: Collage

Light design: Katrina D. Maurer

Costume design: Saar Harari

 

The work was commissioned and presented by Performance Space 122 in NYC on October 2005 and January 2006.

Herd Of Bulls was made possible by the support of:

Performance Space 122

The Jerome Foundation.

The Office of Cultural Affairs,

Consulate General of Israel in NY

Reviews:”Mr. Harari intellectually and physically sharp and Troupe co-founder Lee Sher haunts the corners of the stage like a nighttime sylph… Finally, dance a government can love—a soul-feeding killing machine” - The Village Voice 

“Intense emotions and quick-shifting physical states. Ingenious. They fall, rise and inch across the floor as if wounded, slipping through quick bursts of emotions, hunting.” - The New York Times

“Its exploration of animal instinct ranges past the violent and murderous impulses of the body to the sensual and seductive.” - The New Yorker

“Last year’s interesting and mesmerizing “Herd of Bulls suggested, that dancing doesn’t exist without the heart being involved” - Newsday

 

Most of the movements referenced brutal physical discipline, hair-trigger reflexes, and the kind of trauma and apprehension that keep a body on high alert. This herd Of Bulls could have rushed close enough to trample us or spray us with sweat. At one point, feeling their dancing in my gut, I experienced a sharp, involuntary contraction. Even the dancers’ audible breathing made me wince and cringe. No place to retreat, not even somewhere in one’s head. let’s see what’s next for this intrepid artists.”

- On line Eva Yaa Asantewaa

 

 

 

 

 

A fetching performer, Harari moves with the agility of a wildcat. He’s strong, slender, quick, and fearless…. Harari launches into a thrilling solo performed in silence…. he conjures a highly expressive, original vocabulary of abstract actions suggestive of warfare.” - BACKSTAGE