Emanuel Gat Dance - Marseille, France

Lovetrain2020

choreography, lights: Emanuel Gat
costume design: Thomas Bradley
music: Ideas as Opiates, The Prisoner, The Working Hour (piano version), Mad World, Pale Shelter, Memories Fade, The Way You Are, Listen, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, The Big Chair, Shout, Famous Last Words, Sawing the Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears
costume construction: Thomas Bradley, Wim Muyllaert
technical direction: Guillaume Février

created, performed by: Eglantine Bart, Thomas Bradley, Robert Bridger, Gilad Jerusalmy, Péter Juhász, Michael Loehr, Emma Mouton, Eddie Oroyan, Rindra Rasoaveloson, Ichiro Sugae, Karolina Szymura, Milena Twiehaus, Sara Wilhelmsson, Jin Young Won

duration: 75’
premiere: Opera Comedie, Montpellier Danse, 2020.

production: Emanuel Gat Dance
co-production: Festival Montpellier Danse 2020, Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse, Sadler’s Wells London, Arsenal Cité musicale - Metz, Theater Freiburg, with the support of Romaeuropa Festival.

Emanuel Gat Dance acknowledges the support of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, and of DRAC Provence Alpes-Côte d’Azur, of City of Istres, Région Sud - Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Conseil Départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône. Created at Agora - cité internationale de la danse in Montpellier.

„Lovetrain2020“ unfolds within this charged space of references, counterpoints and endless possibilities, where movement and sound interact to once again, and from a different angle, reveal the obvious yet almost transparent layers in which people come together, drift apart, push and pull, question, resolute and move forward. A contemporary musical for 14 dancers, „Lovetrain2020“ will call upon the wonderful music of the 80s British duo Tears for Fears (Mad world, Shout, Everybody Wants to Rule The World, Change, Sowing The Seeds Of Love and many other incredible hits from that glorious decade). A choreographic ode to the sound and vibe of the 80s, as embodied in the music of Tears For Fears, with its utopic drive and epic groove.

Emanuel Gat was born in Israel in 1969. His first encounter with dance was at the age of 23 during a workshop led by Nir Ben Gal. He started working as an independent choreographer in 1994. He founded his company, Emanuel Gat Dance, at the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv in 2004, and has since created a diverse repertoire of works. With his independent company, he created several pieces including “Voyage d'Hiver” and “Le Sacre du Printemps” in 2004, which received the Bessie Award in 2006, before choosing to settle in France in 2007 at the Maison de la Danse d'Istres. In 2013, Gat was named associated artist to the Montpellier Danse Festival, where he created “The Goldlandbergs” and “Corner Etudes”, and presented a photographic installation that was his debut work as a photographer. In 2014, he created “Plage Romantique”, “Sunny” in 2016, and in 2017 “Tenworks”, in collaboration with the Ballet of Lyon Opera. He was also named associated artist to the National Theater of Chaillot in Paris in 2018, and during that same year he collaborated with the prestigious Ensemble Modern from Frankfurt and created “Story Water”. Gat’s work was presented in most of the leading venues and festivals all around the world for the past 25 years, danced by a strong and diverse group of long-term collaborators. Parallel to his choreographic work, Gat designs the lighting to all of his works, making it an integral component of his creative process. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Gat created “Lovetrain2020” to the music of Tears for Fears. The work has seen its premier between two lockdowns early October 2020, and received overwhelming response from audiences and critics alike. Gat is currently associated artist to l’Arsenal - Cité Musicale, Metz. He is regularly invited to create or transmit pieces to prestigious companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, Ballet of Lyon Opera, Sydney Dance Company, Royal Swedish Ballet, Polish National Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, among others. During his entire career, he has developed a rich methodological set of tools and an original pedagogical approach to dance making. He is regularly invited to teach and collaborate with the world's leading dance schools and institutions. During the previous years and editions, his works were successfully presented at the Belgrade Dance Festival.

A celebration of the body, of performance, of life.
©The New York Times