Heather DeAtley
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.
הת׳ר דה אטלי
הת׳ר דה אטלי היא מתעמלת ורקדנית לשעבר ויוצרת חוויות סינסתטיות דרך מילים, הפקת אירועים, שירה, טיפולים ותהליכי תנועה אינטואיטיביים. יוזמת פרויקטים כמו Wombyn in the Water ו-Wombmynt, לצד פואטיקה גופנית (שיטת אילן לב לטיפולים), הת׳ר משלבת את ההתלהבות שלה מסומטיקה, מדעי המוח, תרגולים של הגוף, אמבריולוגיה ועוד הרבה יותר בכל מה שהיא עושה. אהבתה לכל מה שקשור לריקוד תמיד הייתה הכוח המניע שמאחורי תשוקות אלו. היא מארחת כוריאוגרפיות מעוררות השראה בסלון שלה כחלק מהפקת סדרת הסלון. תנועה ושירה הם ליבה של כל מה שהיא עושה!
הת׳ר נולדה בארצות הברית, עלתה לישראל ב-2011 כדי להעמיק בתרבות התנועה והמחול העשירה כאן. סוזן דלל הפכה למקלט שלה כשהיא נטמעה בעולמות העשירים של גאגא ושיטת אילן לב. כמתעמלת ורקדנית לשעבר, תנועה תמיד הייתה במרכז חייה, אך הכל השתנה באופן דרמטי בעקבות פריצת דיסק שדרשה ניתוח בגיל 19, בשנתה השנייה באוניברסיטת איווה. מסע שלה לכוחות הריפוי של התנועה החל.
הת׳ר שואבת מניסיונה הרב בתרגול תנועה כדי ליצור חוויות סינסתטיות דרך מילים, הפקת אירועים, שירה, טיפולים ותהליכי תנועה אינטואיטיביים. יוצרת “Wombyn in the Water” ו-“Wombmynt”, לצד “Body Poetry” (טיפולי שיטת אילן לב). התשוקה שלה לסומטיקה,מדעי המוח, תרגולים של גוף, הריון, לידה, עוברות ועוד, נוכחים בכל מה שהיא עושה. אהבתה לכל מה שקשור במחול תמיד הדגישה את יתר התשוקות שלה.
לפני שהפכה לאמא כמעט 6 שנים, הת׳ר סייעה בהפקת פסטיבל “חשיפה בינלאומית” של סוזן דלל, והתפתחה לתפקידי פיתוח וקידום בינלאומיים עם כוריאוגרפים פרטניים: גלית ליס, סאלי אן פרידלנד, ועדה ירמיהו. חוויות אלו שימשו כהשראה ביצירת סדרת הסלון בה היא מארחת כוריאוגרפיות בסלון שלה בשדה יִצְחָק (כולל משתפות יצירה אחרות: יוליה פרידין ואלה גרינבאום!). תנועה ושירה הן בלב כל מה שהיא עושה.
הת׳ר מצפה להשיק את סדנאות “Body Poetry of” שלה בהמשך השנה.
Read Heather’s posts here:
Planting the Seeds of Art: Heather DeAtley’s Response to the Israeli Opera’s Dido and Aeneas
Everything about this production was thoughtfully designed and executed by Poda.
A true Renaissance man. Accompanied by my 6 year old daughter, I felt so fortunate that this was her introduction to the magic realm of opera. I was charmed by her questions throughout the piece, especially “Ima, when will they stop singing?!” Poda made this ancient world of Carthage, shipwrecks, Gods and witches so sumptuous, the aesthetics alone could hold the attention of a young art lover. Read more
Dear Mr. Dancemaker: Heather DeAtley’s Musings on 8th Day by Lior Tavori Dance Company
What if we created a similar tradition around dance and choreography, a gateway into bringing performance and creative process to life on entirely new levels of engagement following a show? An opportunity for the audience to meaningfully interact with the choreographer (perhaps the dancers as well?), as they metabolized a work? A “Dear Abby” for dance lovers to thoughtfully discourse with choreographers about their work, but life as well. The two are so intertwined in the arts.
I chose to create such an avenue of communication in response to experiencing Lior Tavori’s work 8th Day.Read more
Heather DeAtley’s Reflections on ‘Landscapes of Gold’ by Sharon Fridman
A gold piece of aluminum-plastic like material meanders playfully into the performance space. The kids in the audience, including my munchkins, are fully engaged with this mysterious entity as it makes its magical entrance. Hidden within the globule of gold are the wonderful dancers Noa Chen and Dikla Rejevsky. Noa emerges first with wondrous elasticity and fluid movements.Read more
Heather DeAtley’s Musings on ‘Home Work’ by Maya Brinner
Maya Brinner’s beautiful piece, ‘Home Work,’ embodies every sense of this learning curve while weaving motherhood into the tapestry seamlessly. We learn to dance by dancing. We learn to mother by mothering. We’re all in this delicious state of learning.Read more
Thoughts on Sally Anne Friedland’s ‘A-Peeling’ by Heather DeAtley
We go back to the Beginning. Back to peeling potatoes. Back to actions we thought we had evolved beyond. An invitation to step into more presence. A modern day Sisyphyean task that never ends. In her potent work, Sally Anne Friedland (along with Gucci Kohan) fearlessly explores our hunger for connection, our longing for meaning and purpose amidst the backdrop of war, conflict, and strife. The tension excavated in “A-Peeling” is viscerally uncomfortable and involves facing hard truths of the circumstances we find ourselves in: We are Sisyphus. Pushing the rock up the hill ad infinitum. But the rock has been replaced by potatoes–an endless supply to be peeled. Read more
Love Made Visible by Heather DeAtley
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.Read more
Reflections on Ohad Naharin’s Last Work by Heather DeAtley
Everything about this piece yields moments that are so stunning, gracefully emitting and embodying an effortless elegance that leaves you breathing more deeply. Subtle moments between dancers, solos that border on remarkable, ensemble segments that are revelatory–they all are weaving a tapestry through movement that resets the very scaffolding of our fascia and how we perceive our bodies in space and time. We go on an expansive proprioceptive journey while simply sitting in the chair! Neural networks and pathways yielding more activity than when we arrived to Suzanne Dellal. We are the weavers and the woven. Read more
The Rite of Spring by Yossi Berg and Oded Graf- A Look at Two Performances by Heather DeAtley
Suppressed feelings, stunted Intuition. This is the design: confusion and disorientation have their own violence to them. Every time Yossi began to FEEL something, moments of disbelief, confusion, something new, something strange, something real, his repetition of “Yo, yo, yo!” reinforced what was unfamiliar. He was simultaneously resisting and spell-casting with each “Yo”–a quiet opposition to Patriarchal Forces that had silenced, banished, and cursed the internal guidance systems responsible for questioning the absurdity of such force, manipulation, and control. The red fabric stuffed in the mouths of the 4 male dancers representative of this silencing by the Patriarchy.Read more