Two dancers return to Batsheva as (temporary) choreographers

Couple Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, who met in the renowned Tel Aviv dance troupe and left, are staging a comeback

By Jessica Steinberg

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16 March 2022, 2:47 pm Edit

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Former Batsheva dancer Bobbi Jene Smith has always been something of an enigma.

Now in her early 40s, she grew up in Iowa, attended Juilliard, and then left to dance with the Batsheva Dance Troupe, becoming for a short while the lover of longtime, enigmatic choreographer Ohad Naharin.

She then partnered with another Batsheva dancer, Or Schraiber, ten years her junior, and the two went to New York. Now they are returning to Batsheva with their own choreography, created for their former troupe.

This time, they’re bringing along their toddler daughter.

Their dance piece, “Purple Fugue” — being performed March 18 through March 23 with Batsheva — is one they’ve been planning for more than a year, said Schraiber and Smith in an email exchange.

Dance and theater, including some nudity, are integrated in the hour-long “Purple Fugue,” as well as collaboration with the Batsheva dancers and musician Yonatan Dascal, who wrote the music for the work and will perform it live onstage.

Batsheva dancers in ‘Purple Fugue,’ choreographed by Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, being performed March 18-23, 2022 (Courtesy Ascaf)

Schraiber said he never anticipated coming back as choreographer, and looks back at his seven years in Batsheva as helping to shape the way he perceives the “aesthetics of physicality.”

Ditto for Smith, who thinks of her Batsheva years as shaping her and helping her grow up and grow older with her dancer friends.

“I remember what it was like to be in the ensemble, so to be able to remember and to meet these people now… feels full circle,” she said. “I hope this piece reflects some of those meetings.”

Smith and Schraiber were the objects of the 2017 documentary film “Bobbi Jene,” about her decision to leave Batsheva after a decade and the moments when she informs Naharin of that decision.

https://youtu.be/dLY0NeLZhMQ

It feels like a good dream to return to Batsheva, one that may be difficult to wake up from, said Schraiber.

“I’ve missed this place,” said Smith. “To come back to the place that shaped me as an artist is truly a gift. The energy at Batsheva is like no other place. It’s wild and tender.”