Choreography: Orly Portal
Dancers: Orly Portal, Ella Greenbaum, Keren Zohar, Roni Shachar, Ortal Atzbaha, Michal Inbar,
Yael Halfon
Music: A combination of Gnawa music, spoken-word poetry by Gil Scott-Heron, and contemporary
Moroccan and electronic music, including:
Alla by Nass Marrakech
La Ilah Il AIlah by Hamid El Kasri
On Coming from a Broken Home (1); Me and the Devil; I'm New Here; Ur Soul and Mine; Parents;
Where Did The Night Go; I Was Guided; New York Is Killing Me; Running; The Crutch; I've Been Me
(Interlude); On Coming from a Broken Home (2)
by Gil Scott-Heron
Music Production & Editing: Nadav Barnea
Video Animation: Yoav Brill Lighting Design: Nadav Barnea Costume Design: Anna Krushcheva
Orly Portal choreographer, dancer, dance teacher, movement and voice therapist,
and founder and director of the Orly Portal Dance Company is a dedicated explorer
of the human movement. With over 25 years of study of the natural movement of
the body she has developed a unique dance language incorporating contact
improvisation, Feldenkrais, and belly dancing. Further refined by the insights
she derives from folklore tribal dance her approach is respectful to the physical,
mental and emotional shape of the dancer.
Portal graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem and
continued her professional career as a principal dancer with the Kol Demama Dance
Company (integrating dancers with and without a hearing impairment) and the
Batsheva Dance Company. She co-founded the Improvisa Ensemble and toured
the world collaborating with many performance artists including vocalists and
musicians such as Timna Brauer, Omar Faruk Tekbilak, Shai Dayan and Ilanit Tadmor.
Expanding her understanding she studied authentic Arab music at the Bar Ilan University,
learned the dances of Berber and Gnawia tribes in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and
trained to become a therapist and teacher of the Feldenkrais method.
Alongside her professional stage career she has developed two unique practices –
the therapeutic belly dancing practice and ATM - Awareness Through Movement
practice - based on Feldenkrais and improvisation.
Portal works across very different dance realms in Israel and worldwide exploring
links that are yet to be further discovered.