About

Creative Writing

What is the connection between writing and dance? Can one support the other, harm the other, change the other? Are they separate entities or do they coexist? As choreographers, we are often asked to describe our works, be it in applications for funding, project proposals or program notes. How can we express an largely nonverbal art form in the written word? How can we wield the written word to further us as artists?

Creative Writing was established to challenge the conventions of writing about dance, on dance, in dance and around dance.

Our three basic functions are:

• Re:View, an online platform for response to performance, composed by audience members
• Writer’s Workshop, a meeting in which professionals can improve their writing practice
• Private Consultations with Ori J. Lenkinski including translation and editing.

Re:View

It’s around 10:30 PM, clusters of people linger outside a theater having just seen a performance. Everyone has something to say. Good, bad, boring, beautiful, amazing… So we exchange thoughts with our close friends, sometimes with the performers or the choreographer. Maybe a review comes out a couple of days later in the paper. And that’s it.

Creative Writing was established to provide a place for a wider and freer discourse surrounding dance that what is available in newspapers. In their Re:Views, Creative Writing contributors respond to performance and dance events in any way that they like.

Writer’s Workshop

Writer’s Workshop is a symposium in which choreographers can explore different styles of program notes, workshop literature about their pieces and participate in a dialogue about the connection between writing and performance.

Ori J. Lenkinski

Photo by Avi Golran

was born in Canada, grew up in Philadelphia and attended McGill University in Montreal. From 2002 through 2011, Ori worked closely with site specific choreographer Noemie Lafrance, collaborating and performing in several of her works including the Bessie Award winning production Descent. After almost a decade in New York, Ori fell in love with Tel Aviv. In Israel, she has danced with Anat Katz and Erez Maayan, Ariel Cohen, Noa Shadur, the Israeli Opera and others. Shortly after arriving in Israel, Ori began to work with choreographer Rachel Erdos, with whom she has worked on a long list of projects in various roles from dancer to music advisor to dramaturg. In 2015, Ori created the duet The Painting with Michal Hersonski, which has been performed throughout Israel. In 2017, Ori created Portrait #2, a duet with Ruth Eshel inspired by Rachel Kafri’s 1977 creation Portrait of a Demagog. Since 2008, Ori has contributed regularly to The Jerusalem Post, specializing in dance, fashion and design. Ori’s writing has been featured in The Huffington Post, Reform Judaism Magazine, on www.danceusa.org, www.972mag.com and in Dance Magazine.  She is the author of the column Parental Choreography, published bi-monthly in Haaretz. She is a regular guest on Trending on i24 News, speaking about all things dance. In 2016, Ori established Creative Writing, as a means for dance practitioners to expand the possibilities of text in relation to dance. She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Israeli Union of Performing Artists for over ten years. In 2019, Ori co-hosted Spring Forward TV from Val de Marne, France, interviewing the twenty Aerowaves artists who presented work as part of the Spring Forward Festival. In June, 2019, Ori premiered The Suit as part of Tmuna Theater’s Intimadance Festival, which was inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy. The work has since been presented at theaters throughout Israel and is set to run in a few cities abroad in 2020-2021. In September, 2020, Ori premiered Meet Me in the Market, a new Jackie-based choreographic tour of Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda Market as part of the From Jaffa to Agripas Festival.  In 2021, Ori presented Birth Preparation Course as part of the Akko International Fringe Theater Festival. The work is currently part of the Tmuna Theater repertoire. Ori has created two dance films with Rachel Erdos: Carriage and Expecting, both of which present the moving female body while pregnant. She is mildly allergic to pineapples.