When Jackie Kennedy conducted her iconic tour of the White House for the CBS television station on Valentine's Day in 1962, she changed the world's view on the First Lady and women in general. Now, more than sixty years later, Ori Lenkinski, a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and journalist based in Tel Aviv, summons Jackie's ‘energy’ once again to guide her audience on a tour of the present moment. Lenkinski's performance The Suit is a site-specific performance wherein the text is always adapted based on the city and theater where the work is presented. Consequently, no two performances of The Suit are the same. Viewing the contemporary world through the lens of Jackie Kennedy, Lenkinski explores current themes while dressed in her pink suit, albeit, in her case, regrettably not Chanel.
Pitching Project
The Suit is one of three productions selected for our nineteenth festival edition during the so-called Pitching Project, a new, unique collaboration between the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv and Holland Dance Festival. The project was created to support young Israeli and Palestinian choreographers in their development and provide them with a stage. The creators were allowed to pitch their performances (or ideas for them) to an international panel of artistic directors, the idea being that all directors would choose at least one idea. In the first edition of the Pitching Project, all proposals were honored. In addition to Lenkinski, Holland Dance Festival is collaborating with May Zarhy and Sahar Damoni for this festival edition, with the result that we are presenting three - totally different - premiere works by three promising female choreographers still (mostly) unknown in the Netherlands.
Word and movement
Canadian-born Ori Lenkinski worked as a dancer with choreographers in the United States, Europe and Israel. Since 2015 her own work has also been featured on stage. The author of her column Parental Choreography, she writes regularly for the Jerusalem Post and is also the founder and editor of an online platform for theater reviews. In her work, both on stage and online and on paper, she explores the connection between word and movement. Because of her years of journalistic experience, text is a crucial driving force in everything she presents. In doing so, she tries to get a grip on the life she leads, the place she lives and the people around her. Lenkinski consciously does not want to limit herself to one specific medium, but always chooses the form and discipline that best suits her subject. This often results in a mix of dance and theater, in which characters and stories are portrayed with humor, keeping the middle ground between fantasy and reality.
