Video: Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout
A trail of miniature puddles leads a curious crowd of writers to Studio A at the Suzanne Dellal Center for a sneak preview. In the center of the room, a large protective tarp has been laid strategically over the marley floor. Overhead, the ceiling is awash in rippling shadows from a two centimeter-deep layer of water that, for now, calmly covers the tarp. But this water won’t lie still forever. Part of the set for Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout, it is meant to be danced upon.
Newton said that to every action there is a reaction, and in Trout, the reactions to many actions are made visible. Even the most careful steps trigger a cascade of gentle, circular waves across the surface of the water, while the dancers’ more vigorous jumps and falls shoot a spray of droplets into the air. The larger the action of the dancer, the larger the reaction of the water.
Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.
Pinto and Pollak were invited to choreograph Trout in Stavanger, Norway, as part of the city’s celebrations during its year as the European Capital of Culture in 2008 . The couple harbored a desire to work in an alternate space, and in Stavanger they were drawn to Tou Scene, a former brewery that has been transformed into a thriving center for contemporary art. One long room in particular called to them; Pollak said it felt like a “living space.” This became the first home for Trout.
Now Pinto and Pollak are transporting Trout to Tel Aviv, where the work will take up residence at the Yaron Yerushalmi Theater in the Suzanne Dellal Center. In the black box theater, as in Tou Scene, the walls of the space do not simply bound the action but become a central part of it.
Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.
As always, Pinto and Pollak have developed a highly distinctive, detailed movement vocabulary for this work which requires the dancers to engage their entire bodies. Yes, there are the sucked-in cheeks of fish faces and hands that alternately conjure up images of gills or fins, but some of the choreographic choices are more subtly evocative. One dancer skims across the surface of the water, first sliding her foot to one diagonal and then to the other; after a few steps, it seems as if each cell of her body is a fish in a perfectly coordinated school, zig-zagging decisively through the sea.
Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.
Into this magical mixture of mesmerizing movement and strikingly unusual space, Pinto and Pollak have added another key ingredient: live music. The dancers are joined onstage by five members of the Kitchen Orchestra, an experimental group of musicians from Stavanger. Combined with the sounds of water splashing and metal pails clanking, the Kitchen Orchestra’s music creates an otherworldly atmosphere for Trout.
Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s Trout. Photo by Asaf Ashkenazi.
Trout will be performed as as a guest concert in the Curtain Up festival on December 7, with additional performances from December 5-December 12. The program also features a new solo choreographed by Talia Beck, a dancer with the Inbal Pinto Dance Company.
Related Posts on Dance In Israel
- Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak: An Interview on Imagination (Podcast)
- Inbal Pinto Dance Company: Oyster and Shaker