Two Room Apartment, a show in which two Israeli artists, a dancer and an actor by training, reflect on their relationship as life partners and as creators, has its Canadian premiere during Toronto’s Spotlight on Israeli Culture showcase. Declared the best performance of the year for 2013 by the Israeli Dance Critics Circle, the show is a combination of dance, performance art and physical theatre.
Two Room Apartment is a reworking of a show of the same name that was originally created for a male and female couple and is considered a milestone in independent Israeli choreography.
Dancer Niv Sheinfeld and actor Oren Laor recreated the piece for two men. Sheinfeld, 42, and Laor, 43, who are based in Tel Aviv, have been life partners for almost 13 years ago and they’ve been working together for about 10 years.
“We always spoke about doing a duet and we did work together, but the two of us had never been on stage together,” Sheinfeld said via Skype from Nahariya in northern Israel.
Sheinfeld spent five years as part of a dance company run by Nir Ben-Gal and Liat Dror, the two choreographers who developed the original version of Two Room Apartment. Initially, Sheinfeld and Laor set out to perform the 1987 performance of Two Room Apartment, “exactly as it was then,” Sheinfeld said. “But it was not really reflecting us as a couple or as artists.”
Laor added, “We took the freedom to change stuff that did not reflect our relationship and was dated.”
They toned down the eroticism of the original piece, eliminating a sexually charged scene, and focused on the emotional side of their relationship instead.
“For us, it could not be sexual after so many years together,” Laor said. They personalized the piece further by adding a favourite song, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, and a cover version of the song by the Swedish rock band Vains of Jenna to the show’s original score by Ori Vikislavski. “Elton John is not afraid to be emotional,” Laor said. “It’s a comic-tragic song and something grabbed us there.”
Laor and Sheinfeld aim for a sense of immediacy in their performances of Two Room Apartment. Laor pointed out that theatre audiences may know a show is happening in the moment, but they don’t always feel it, an obstacle he and his partner try to overcome.
Sheinfeld said they try to convey the sense of “being here and now” and that they are sharing time with their audiences. They’ve been performing Two Room Apartment internationally, to glowing reviews, since the show debuted in Tel Aviv in 2012.
Inside Israel, dance is thriving. “The combination of range and quality of Israel’s dance scene is one of its most extraordinary aspects,” according to the Israel Ministry of Tourism website.
Almost every day you can find two or three different dance performances in Tel Aviv, Sheinfeld said.
Laor added that funding from the government has helped the dance scene there to flourish. Sheinfeld said that Israeli modern dance is characterized by its physicality. “The sense of power in movement is strong,” he said.
But he sees changes ahead, with an intellectual aspect merging with the “very raw” physicality.
Two Room Apartment will be performed on Feb. 26 and 28 at 8 p.m. and March 1 at 3 p.m. at the Dancemakers Centre for Creation, 9 Trinity St., Studio #313 (3rd floor), Toronto. Tickets are $25 (general) and $20 for students and seniors. A master class for dancers takes place on Feb. 27, 1 to 4 p.m. For tickets and information, visit dancemakers.org or phone 416-367-1800.
For information about the Spotlight on Israeli Culture showcase, visit spotlightonisraeliculture.ca