Cliches Mar Keshet Chaim’s ‘Jerusalem’

There must be a myriad wonderful dances that could be inspired by Jerusalem, a city you need only to step foot in to feel supercharged with unnameable energy and desire. And what could be more timely, in Israel’s 50th anniversary year, than to make the rich history of the Jews and that city the focus of a dance-theater work? So the Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble must have thought when they created “Jerusalem, a Mystical Journey,” which premiered at the New Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge on Saturday night. But their attempt fell short. Amateurish and fraught with cliches, it looked more like a high-school pageant based on a Cliff’s Notes version of Jewish history.

To be sure, the net was cast unconscionably wide--the story of the Jews from the cosmic boom to the present, told in 40 minutes? If it sounds like something Cecil B. DeMille would try, the execution did seem inspired by Hollywood--a programmatic score put together by Uri Ophir, chiffon as a costume design base, and one movement stereotype after another. As taped narration (by Frank Sinatra Jr.) intoned sacred or sacred-sounding texts, performers (only some of whom had sufficient stage skills) moved in a kind of painfully obvious choreographic shorthand, accredited to several dance-makers, chief among them artistic director Eytan Avisar. You know the drill--crouching means fear, stamps indicate anger, writhing is suffering and jazzy torsos and hips are reserved for wicked women. All in all, it’s hard to imagine a city, or a people, who don’t deserve better.

Israeli pop singer David De’or opened the program with an hourlong set of crowd-pleasing songs, most of which featured his soaring countertenor voice. Singing mostly in Hebrew--including two original songs he composed after recent tragedies in Israel--De’or also included a Pergolesi aria and “Summertime,” accompanied by musicians Arnon Friedman, Doron Raphaeli and Gil Liber. They reappeared twice in “Jerusalem, a Mystical Journey,” adding rousing live music to Avisar’s deadly dance-drama. Couldn’t hurt, as they say. But it also couldn’t help a piece that needed much more invention and skill to live up to its subject matter.