BWW Coverage: WHITE NOISE 2018 at Tel Aviv Opera House

An hour-long show with a clear anti consumerism message. A juxtaposition of consumer culture with the peace and strength of "gray life".

The show starts by presenting the audience with humans as a consumer product, their backs adorned with large barcodes.

Dressed in their form-fitting black hooded costumes, they appear youthful, cool, vibrant. However, the longer the audience spends getting to know them, their truth is revealed. They seem trapped in the disharmony created by The Revolution Orchestra, unable to free themselves of the cacophony surrounding them. Their movement is frantic and erratic, guided mainly by the thrust of their midsection. They struggle to rise to their full height but seem to constantly be pushed into hunching or crawling positions. They seem troubled by the choice between hiding under the hood or keeping their face out in public.

As a group their movement creates chaos on stage, no character stays connected to any other character for longer than a second as they pass each other by. They travel around the stage aimlessly, often falling to the ground and abandoned by their peers.

The show then introduces the audience to the gray-clad dancers. As they enter, the orchestra plays a more harmonious piece, accompanying the dancers as they move together in a common direction, reach their full height, and even their body parts seem more at peace with each other, no longer pulled by their midsection. They too fall, but when they fall they are surrounded by other characters who bring them back up. It is a united community driven by the music but not trapped in it.

As more of the black characters become gray, they appear as if they've lost direction - running across the stage with not purpose or goal driving them. A GPS recording telling them it's tired of making their decisions for them emphasizes the sense that they're lost, seeking meaning and direction from an external source.

The show ends with all the black characters being reborn as gray, becoming a part of the community, becoming stronger as a group. Their movements becomes flowing and free, the music accompanies them to a place of freedom and elation as the last black characters fade into the gray.

For tickets and further information, visit Vertigo Dance Company.

Photo Credit: Rune Abro.