Vertigo Dance Company – MAKOM
Mimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square
Cleveland, Ohio
Presented by DANCECleveland & Playhouse Square
April 18, 2024

By Steve Sucato

Last in Cleveland in 2019, Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company returned this past Thursday to close out DANCECleveland’s 2023-2024 season with their 2022 evening-length contemporary dance work, MAKOM.

Makom means “place” in Hebrew, and Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre was the place to experience the production, a highlight of this dance season.

Choreographed by company artistic director Noa Wertheim and sister Rina Wertheim-Koren, MAKOM is said to explore the human perpetual pursuit of balance and unity in a world of polarities—where ‘place’ is anywhere and everywhere.

The uninterrupted 60-minute production opened on a darkened stage framed by three black stage curtains and dotted with piles of notched, branch-like wooden poles.  In silence, Vertigo’s barefoot dancers filtered onto the stage wearing solid earth-tone colored costumes that resembled a cross between a baggy workwear jumpsuit and a romper. They picked up the wooden poles and relocated them; some were placed around the body of a dancer lying supine on the stage.

As the wood-clacking sounds subsided, longtime company composer Ran Bagno’s atmospheric original score for the work kicked in with the recorded sounds of violinist Galia Hai and cellist Hila Epstein.

Nine dancers then eased into gestural unison choreography that moved back, forth, and out from centerstage only to return into place in patterned movement a la a martial arts kata. Dancers’ arms flew up and over their shoulders as their torsos twisted and swayed in the mesmerizing sequence that was punctuated by thunderclap noises injected into the otherwise serene soundtrack.

As the work progressed, dancers began to break off from the group to perform individualized movement phrases or were partner-lifted in the air by a fellow performer. At one point, dancer Ruth Ben David was picked up by her arms and legs and swung back and forth as if be readied to be tossed like a sack onto a pile. A clever movement sequence then followed in which several dancers used wooden poles to create a floating walkway in the air several feet off the ground. Dancer Eden Ben Shimol skillfully tightrope walked it before lying prone on the poles and being carried and undulated in the air, looking like a dolphin frolicking in the sea.

Creative and always captivating, Wertheim and Wertheim-Koren’s choreography for MAKOM felt like a waltz as the dancers turned and swayed rhythmically around the stage in various combinations, exploring the themes of the work.

Throughout MAKOM, the dancers continued to use the poles as props and construction material to hastily assemble ladders, arched bridges, and seating areas as temporary set pieces.  

In one memorable dance sequence, 13-year company veteran Sian Olles, arms behind her and wrapped around a pole, was lifted into the air by two fellow dancers, giving the impression of a crucifixion. She was then carried about the stage, peddling her legs and dirty-bottomed feet in the air while pulling off seemingly weightless and effortless Cirque du Soleil-style daring as she hung from the pole.

Toward MAKOM’s end, the unison group choreography took on the intensity of a workout class with aggressive side-to-side hopping movements and the dancers cocking their arms and mimicking throwing a ball repeatedly.

The delightful production ended rather simply but satisfyingly. The dancers held hands in a large circle and rapidly shuffled around the stage like an adult version of Ring Around the Rosie, conjuring a place of unity, joy, and balance.