LOVETRAIN2020 (76’) - world premiere on October 3th, 5th & 6th 2020 at Montpellier Danse 40 bis, Opéra Comédie, Montpellier (FR)

Awarded best dance performance of the season 20-21 by the French Professional Syndicate of Theater, Music and Dance Criticism.

After working with scores by Pierre Boulez, Rebecca Saunders and Gat himself for Story Water, his last production for Festival d’Avignon 2018, Emanuel Gat pursues his long time exploration of the meeting points between the choreographic and the musical, the visual and the auditory, and the potentials they hold for observation, study and story telling. 

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”, 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

Artistic Director and Choreographer

Emanuel Gat was born in Israel in 1969. After his military service, he entered the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, with the aim of developing his musical practice. His first encounter with dance was at the age of 23 during a workshop led by Israeli choreographer Nir Ben Gal. Few months later, he joined the Liat Dror Nir Ben Gal Company with whom he created two works and toured internationally. He started working as an independent choreographer in 1994.

During the following ten years, Gat has developed a unique and personal approach to choreography and dance making, through numerous projects, collaborations and creation processes, setting the foundations for his artistic vision and laying the groundwork for his future body of work.

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. His first pieces for the company were created that same year: “Winter Voyage” to the music of Franz Schubert and “The Rite of Spring”, his original take on Stravinski’s masterpiece, which received a Bessy Award for best choreography for their presentation at Lincoln Center Festival in New York in 2006. He then created “K626” (2006) and “3for2007” (2007), before choosing to settle in France.

“Silent Ballet” (2008) was the first piece created in France, followed by “Winter Variations” in 2009 and “Brilliant Corners” in 2011 for which Gat also composed the music score. By that time, Emanuel Gat Dance has gained international recognition for its unique voice and has toured regularly to the four corners of the world to great critical acclaim.

In 2013, Emanuel 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 and “SUNNY” in 2016, a collaboration with musician Awir Leon.

In 2017, Gat developed a unique collaboration with the Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon for the creation of “TENWORKS”, a program of ten short pieces mixing dancers from both companies; and “DUOS”, a series of site specific duets presented in several Museums and at different public locations. In 2018, Gat was named associated artist to the National Theater of Chaillot in Paris, and during that same year he collaborated with the prestigious Ensemble Modern from Frankfurt and created "Story Water" at the Cour d'Honneur at the Palais des Papes, one of the most iconic stages in the world during the Festival d’Avignon, gathering 12 dancers and 13 musicians, with music by Pierre Boulez, Rebecca Saunders and Gat himself.

Gat’s work was presented in most of the leading venues and festivals for dance 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 recent years, Gat developed a photographic practice and has presented elaborate photographic installations alongside his stage work, through a series of photographs, dedicated to and inspired by specific pieces from his repertoire.

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Gat created “LOVETRAIN2020”, a work for 14 dancers to the music of Tears For Fears. The work has seen its premiere between two lockdowns early October, and received overwhelming response from audiences and critics alike. 

Gat was  associated artist to l’Arsenal - Cité Musicale, Metz from 2019 to 2023  where he created a work to Puccini’s opera “Tosca”: “Act II &III or The Unexpected Return of Heaven and Earth”.

The next creation, “Traüme”, was premiered at the Salzburg Easter Festival in april 2023. 

His last work, “Freedom Sonata”, to Kanye West’s album “The life of Pablo” and the second movement of the last L.V. Beethoven’s piano sonata n°32, was created during he Festival de Marseille in June 2024.

Gat is regularly invited by companies and dance institutions for which he creates or transmits pieces: in France, he has collaborated with Paris Opera Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet de Lorraine and Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon. He is also guest choreographer of prestigious international companies: Sydney Dance Company, Tanztheater Bremen, Candoco Dance Company, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Los Angeles Dance Project, Czech National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Polish National Ballet, Cedar Lake (NY), Vancouver Ballet British Columbia, Scottish Dance Theater, Staatsballett Berlin, the Landestheater Linz…

During his entire career, Gat 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, and in parallel, offers through Emanuel Gat Dance regular options for young dancers and makers to immerse themselves in his practice, through internships, workshops and master classes.

Music: Tears for Fears 

The two founding members were both born in 1961. They met in Bath, England when they were 13 years old. They also shared a similar experience of tormented single-parent family life that marked their childhood and adolescence. This social precision is important, as it is the source of the group’s name and most of Tears For Fears’ texts. 

The personal trajectory of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith creates a penchant for the field of psychology and therapy very early on, especially that proposed by Arthur Janov. The latter became known by the technique of Primal Scream or Rebirth, consisting of treating behavioral disorders by going back to the source of his discomfort and putting tears on his fears (“tears as replacement for fears”). Shout, Tears For Fears’ best-known success, is a call to this release cry. Their first album is entitled “The Hurting”, with songs like “Suffer The Children” or “Mad World”. This record, which largely reflects the teens’ malaise under the Thatcher era, has a huge impact in the UK and sounds like an extension of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Everything is said in the pocket that represents a prostrate child. 

Tears For Fears stands out from many groups of that time, thanks to their uncompromising texts. From a musical point of view, the group made its first steps in two successive formations called Neon and Graduate, very influenced by post-punk. But soon enough, their friend David Lord showed them the sound possibilities with a synthesizer and introduces them to Ian Stanley and Manny Elias (drummer) who were, respectively, the third and fourth members of Tears For Fears. The true creative pair is nonetheless made up of Orzabal and Stanley, both keyboardists and composers. Another characteristic in the division of roles within the group is to entrust the singing party either to Orzabal or to Smith. The identification of a single singer in the training was not a chosen option. The trend will be confirmed later with the integration of soul singer Oleta Adams at the time of the album The Seeds of Love (1989). 

The Hurting, their first album, was released in 1983. The sound and style reflected their influences in Neon and Graduate, plus synthesizer pads. “Mad World” was their first single success; right before “Change” and “Pale Shelter”. A stylistic turnaround took place with their next record. 

The album Big Chair (1985) is Tears For Fears’ musical emancipation: more sophisticated compositions, sounds combining acoustic instruments and state-of-the-art synthesizer technology, jazz-themed ambiances (“I Believe”), improvisation (“The Working Hour”), minimalism (“I Believe”), or concrete music (the end of “Mothers Talk”) and a conception in the sequence of the last tracks worthy of the 1970’s progressive rock’n’roll. 

This search for musicality does not fade in the following albums, namely The Seeds of Love, Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain. This is precisely what keeps Tears For Fears unclassified in the one category of its debut, the new wave. Their compositions relate them to groups where the qualities of musical invention as well as a certain instrumental technique are obligatory. 

Costumes: Thomas Bradley

Thomas Bradley was born in Australia in 1990. He is a multi-disciplinary artist working primarily as a dancer and costume designer. After studying at the NZ School of Dance, he joined Sydney Dance Company in 2012. He received a professional development fellowship from Tanja Liedtke Foundation and was nominated for Outstanding Male Dancer at the Australian Dance Awards in 2015. He started collaborating with Emanuel Gat in 2017. 

Bradley’s visual arts practice is the foundation of his conceptual designs. The designs draw on the notion of newfound bodies, faces and objects, all the result of a process initiated through sketches made with black ink and watercolors. Each sketch starts off with a serie of symbols, resisting the urge to imbue them with meaning or purpose, merely foreshadowing the final image. 

Drawing on his affection for oversized garments and dresses, Thomas’ costume design for LOVETRAIN2020 is an ode to elegance, volume and form. Each dancer will sport two formal silhouettes, as if they were meant to be somewhere important but got distracted from the main event. One series reflects the variety of female dress-wear at the Met Ball, all uniquely crafted with different fabrics, textiles and techniques. The other series is a functional devolution from the dress-wear, incorporating similar aspects, while adding rich patterns and details to further define each dancer individually. 

Since Story Water, Thomas Bradley was invited by the Scottish Dance Theater and the Staatsballett of Berlin to create the design costumes of their new pieces. He is still exploring his aesthetic between design composition and dance in Belgium, Japan and Australia, his origin country.

Credits LOVETRAIN2020 - A work by Emanuel Gat 

Music: Tears for Fears. 
Choreography and lights: Emanuel Gat
Dancers: Eglantine Bart, Tara Dalli, Noé Girard, Nikoline Due Iversen, Pepe Jaimes, Gilad Jerusalmy, Olympia Kotopoulos, Michael Loehr, Emma Mouton, Rindra Rasoaveloson, Abel Rojo Pupo, Sara Wilhelmsson
Costume design: Thomas Bradley
Costume construction: Thomas Bradley, Wim Muyllaert 
Created with and performed by the dancers of the company. 
Production: Emanuel Gat Dance. Marjorie Carré, Antonia Auday. 
Coproduction: Festival Montpellier Danse 2020, Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse, 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 DRAC Provence Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Région Sud - Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Conseil Départemental des Bouches-du- Rhône. 
LOVETRAIN2020 receives the support of Institut Français for its international tours in 2022. Created at Agora - cité internationale de la danse in Montpellier.

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