“I joined a company run by a straight man who loves women. Most dance companies are not like that. [Ohad Naharin] wanted strong, powerful women. He wanted thighs, ass, boobs, echoes of flesh moving. And he wants juice. He wants you to drip… ” — Bobbi Jene Smith, to Laura Dern, in the documentary BOBBI JENE

Iowan Bobbi Jene Smith left Juilliard at 21 to join the Batsheva Dance Company in Israel, and stayed for ten years as a dancer (and—in the beginning—lover of the artistic director Naharin, whose method, Gaga, is not only a great way to dance, but cured Bobbi’s eating disorder).

“There’s no time left.” — Bobbi Jene

At thirty, Bobbi was still bringing to the process the brilliant athleticism for which Batsheva is famous. But—working with young dancer/lover Or Meir Schraiber—she starts choreographing her own pieces and, soon enough, leaves Israel for a teaching position in the Bay Area that will give her the time and space to work.

In Elvira Lind’s documentary BOBBI JENE, the pleasure/pain nexus of dance underscores the story of a young woman unconstrained by shame, jumping at the chance to change her life before it’s too late.

 

BOBBI JENE, through October 12.

LAEMMLE ROYAL, 11523 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles.

laemmle.com/films/42876

Or Meir Schraiber and Bobbi Jene Smith.