Barak Marshall’s Dynamic Dance Mongering

Photo: Gadi Dagon, Courtesy Barak Marshall Company

By Benjamin Ivry July 6, 2010

Dance talent is not often inherited through the generations, as we have seen with the regularly slated reconstructions of works by ballet master Michel Fokine, when recreated by his French granddaughter Isabelle. One happy exception to this rule is Los Angeles-born choreographer Barak Marshall, son of the acclaimed Yemenite Israeli dancer, choreographer and musician Margalit Oved.

In 2008 Marshall, who has been based in Israel as well as LA since 1994, created the ballet “Monger,” which was praised last year in the Forward, and will have its much-anticipated U.S. premiere at the venerable Jacob’s Pillow Festival on July 7, with repeat performances through July 11.

According to Marshall, “Monger” expresses the predicament of a “group of servants, trapped in the basement of the house of an abusive mistress.” The dance narrative is diversely inspired by the writings of Bruno Schulz, Jean Genet’s play “The Maids,” and Robert Altman’s film “Gosford Park.” Set to music ranging from the Israeli group Balkan Beat Box to Handel to NPR’s “Yiddish Radio Project,” “Monger” was first performed at The Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre at Neve-Tzedek, Tel-Aviv, a lively spot directed by the performing arts powerhouse Yair Vardi.

A ballet for 10 dancers, “Monger” tries, according to Marshall, to explore the “dynamics of hierarchy, power, free will and the compromises one makes in order to survive.” Definitions are also helpfully provided by Marshall of its title, which is both a noun (“A dealer or trader of a commodity”) and a verb (“To sell yourself”). All told, “Monger’s” muscular athleticism and kinetic forthrightness look likely to duplicate the success of Marshall’s 1998 ballet “Emma Goldman’s Wedding,” which toured Europe to widespread acclaim.

An even newer ballet by Marshall for a dozen dancers, “Rooster,” was premiered at Tel Aviv’s Israeli Opera in November, 2009. Also a singer, Marshall performed in 2006 with Yo-Yo Ma’s touring world music extravaganza, “The Silk Road Project.” More recently, Marshall has sung with the Yuval Ron Ensemble, a group dedicated, as its website declares, to “creating musical bridges between people of various faiths and ethnic groups worldwide.” Taking into account Marshall’s multi-talented energy, if anyone can construct such bridges, he probably can.

Watch pieces from Barak Marshall’s ‘Monger’:

Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO