Love Made Visible by Heather DeAtley
Photo by Natasha Shaknes
“He said, ‘And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow the seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all the things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit. Work is love made visible.'”- Khalil Gibran
Ori Lenkinski’s ‘A Dance Piece’ is nothing short of masterful. Revealing and revelatory in its’ autobiographical authenticity, vulnerability, and candidness, Ori charms and enthralls the intimate audience in the Menashe Dance House studio (the original sanctuary she began the journey of creating the piece) from the moment she walks in and begins an interaction reminiscent of the dynamic between friends. “I’m not sure what the work I am making is,” she says to the audience, as if we are her confidante. “I was trying to make a piece by someone else,” she goes on to reveal with refreshing honesty. “Dance is my first love,” she shares. “Falling in love with dance was like falling into water,” she reminisces. “Sometimes I was drowning.” With this initial monologue opening the piece, she captures the audience’s attention immediately–we are pulled into her world so intimately, so beautifully…offering a seamless and effortless transition from the busyness of our lives in a war-fractured country. We are further charmed when she comes to each of us and offers a program with a hard candy attached. I’m hooked. I’m committed to this artist. Drawn to her lack of pretentiousness, a graceful humility.
Rooted in improvisational play and inspired by Trisha Brown’s performing Accumulation and Watermotor while talking, ‘A dance piece’ explores themes of self-categorization, identity, what is dance in a postmodern world? And how does the journey of matrescence exist honestly within it rather than tucked away beneath and behind the scenes? First and foremost, this piece is an uncompromising love letter to Dance, in every possible way. And secondly, a living, breathing, dynamic testament to a life well lived in the Arts where longevity is not a given. A journey into the internal depth of self through movement. I think to myself: what a gift this piece is to her children, and to all of our children. Simultaneously a legacy work in so many ways, a guidebook for building a life in the arts, “a dance piece” invites us to consider how we share that which we love with our loved ones, with the world.
As she takes us on a journey into the “longest relationship I’ve had in my life,” Ori weaves tales from different chapters of her career/life experience. With a rather uncouth candor, the husband of a friend makes a comment after one of her shows, “I can’t believe Shahar (Ori’s husband) lets her do that,” she shares, laughing. Juxtapose this disbelief and lack of support with her motivation in creating: “Every piece is about love. Every act of creation is an act of love,” she offers us selflessly. “The whole process (of this piece) was an attempt to heal.” Amidst it all, she moves us through the literal A,B,Cs alphabetical journey of what she loves about dance, making it visceral, palpable. We can feel the love in our flesh by the end of the piece. It seeps through our pores and infuses our cells with a longing for that kind of love to be ours.
Go see this piece. Bring a child you love with you. Now more than ever, we need to provide frequent and nurtured examples of true labors of love. This is one.
Ori Lenkinski performed ‘a dance piece’ at Menashe Dance House on February 13, 2025.
Heather DeAtley
Born in the United States, Heather arrived to Israel in 2011 to dive into the rich movement and dance culture here. Suzanne Dellal became her sanctuary as she immersed herself in the rich worlds of Gaga and the Ilan Lev Method. As a former Division I collegiate gymnast and dancer, movement was always at the center of her life but everything shifted dramatically following a herniated disc that required surgery at the tender age of 19 her sophomore year at the University of Iowa. Her journey into the healing powers of movement had thus begun.
Heather pulls from her long history of movement practice to create synesthetic experiences through her words, event production, poetry, tipulim and intuitive movement journeys. Creatrix of Wombyn in the Water and Wombmynt, alongside Body Poetry (Ilan Lev Method tipulim), Heather blends her fascination with somatics, neuroscience, embodiment practices, pregnancy, birth, embryology, and so much more into all she does. A love of all things dance has always underscored these other passions.
Prior to becoming an ima nearly 6 years ago, Heather had helped in coordinating Suzanne Dellal’s International Exposure festival, graduating to positions of international development and promotion with individual choreographers: Galit Liss, Sally Anne Friedland, and Adva Yermiyahu. These experiences served as the inspiration behind creating/curating the Salon Series in which she hosts female choreographers in her living room of Sde Yitzhak (including fellow Creative Writing contributors Yulia Frydin and Ella Greenbaum!). Movement and poetry are at the core of all she does.
Heather looks forward to launching her body-sourced “Poetry of” workshops later this year.