Lilach Orenstein
LILACH ORENSTEIN
I am a choreographer, performer and producer.
My mission, as an artist, is to engage with audiences by creating compelling performances with messages that will linger with them far after the show. I create to provoke thought and challenge the monotone and ordinary normalities of our everyday lives. I am exploring the intersection between activism and art and do believe that art is a form of practicing activism. The Choreography of Capitalism, Sexual Expressiveness and Queer Thought are some of the core concepts my projects engage with. My projects novel contributions come from empowering audiences with choices and challenging performance meta concepts such as linearity. Common unique characteristics of my project are combining diverse arts, using commonplace recorded sounds, themed movement language and featuring multi-sensory stimulations
Original Works
SHE WILL COME ON HER OWN - ENTERING THE VIRTUAL
Two women explore the creation of intimacy through embodying sex positions in a Church. Join the unfolding of the space through practicing viewpoints multiplicity. Embrace the unique experience of switching perspectives between various performance captions and curate your own virtual showing.
She Will Come on Her Own - Entering the Virtual was created in collaboration with Jhelan Gordon-Salaam, Sydney Donovan, Krista Smith, and Evan Anderson. Perspectives captions contributed by Meredith Glisson, Zachary Tomlinson, Iren Kamyshev, Gabriel Torres, Antonio C. Wright, and Ebony Webster.
SHE WILL COME ON HER OWN
My project is a performative installation designed to resist the Choreography of Capitalism and self-empower the audience by giving each individual the power of choice in real-time, introduce non-linear happenings simultaneously and give every participant the ability to change their perspective. The movement materials are inspired by deconstructed sex positions, which by taking them out of the bedroom examines our perception of what’s conservative.
MUS
mUs propose new ways to practice viewpoint multiplicity. The performative installation will be shared live, via zoom where three of my devices will caption my room from different angles in a way that fragments my body. The project takes you through a pre-recorded testimony while I am performing on my bed movement materials inspired by sex positions from the Kama Sutra manual. As sex is the ultimate goal of our primitives selves and we inherently look for it and see it everywhere, I decided to get audiences past their inhibitions and be truly focused on practicing perspectives multiplicity. From time to time the positions are interrupted by a pre-recorded voice, giving instructions of unrealistic expectations, similarly to how I feel often about the female body. The way the media and religion are promoting the female body are contradictory to one another and therefore create confusion.
DANCING FROM OTHERS
In life we don masks which reflect different parts of our identity to our surroundings. It is actually when our faces are exposed that we are complacent about what lies beneath the surface. It might in fact be that when we see someone in a mask, our curiosity is awakened, and we gain a deeper glimpse of the other's inner world. In her creations, Lilach engages with questions of identity as she delves into the dilemmas of the individual vs society – the effect of the external on the internal, as the inner self crystallizes. Her work is influenced by Frida Khalo's and Yona Wallach's struggles with the social realities of their lives. In our world, the accepted norms trample the individual voices and create an orchestra of borrowed voices which hatch from your mouth as though "someone else is speaking from your throat" (Yona Wallach - Bird)
REJECT - RECEIVE > REACT!
It was 2016. I was on the train when suddenly the train stopped. The police called everyone to evacuate. We were told there was an act of terror at the next stop. The terrorist already shot some people and run away - still uncaught. I was scared. An intense terror filled my heart of being unsafe and fragile. Out of the train I saw a woman crying and shouting. I wanted to help her but I was afraid
The piece is divided into 3 parts: Rejection of the performers, Receiving one another in acceptance and Reacting by taking off the masks.
TERRITORIUM
We fear, it is our nature. Anything that is different and unknown we alienate and repel. We have no control over our basic instincts - they were created for a reason. Yet some, the brave, can stay where other people chose not to take risks. If you look closely enough on the weird, you might learn on their miraculous inner world. Giving a chance - gives us a chance, not only to expose ourselves and enrich our world but also to improve thyself and open up to the unexpected.
WHITE ON WHITE
Cooperation between dance and animation, mixing the surreal images that could not exist in reality. a Performance of one dancer, with characters in animation that where created from body parts of the dancer in the stop motion Technique. All on one stage. Special thanks: Sharon Balaban and Roby Edelman.
Get in Touch
Interested in learning more about me, my work or how we can collaborate on an upcoming project? Feel free to reach out anytime, I would be more than happy to chat.