Choreography by Oren Laor and Niv Sheinfeld, based on the work by Liat Dror and Nir Ben Gal

Two Room Apartment allows Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor to express on stage a reflection in a duo on the unique and creative relationship that they enjoy.

This choreographic work, both personal and political, examines the question of limit through a variety of contexts, thus tackling those physical boundaries that delimit countries, regions or quite simply rooms in an apartment, but also intangible boundaries, like that separating a show from real life, or limits that an individual can impose on him/herself.

The statement made by Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor, using a simple choreographic language and a minimalist aesthetics, suggests a certain idea of life, seen here as the privileged setting for the expression of ordered and even compulsive habits and behaviours. 

This new work by Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor emerges as a novel and completely contemporary reinterpretation of the original show created twenty-six years ago in Tel-Aviv by Liat Dror and Nir Ben Gal. Two Room Apartment became the symptomatic example of a new choreographic trend, a trend that at that time was seeking to create a choreographic vocabulary that was both unprecedented and daring and thus to stand out from the language adopted by more famous companies with greater means (such as the Batsheva Dance Company, the Bat-Dor and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company).

When it premiered in Tel-Aviv in 1987, at the Shades of Dance Festival, the duo formed by Liat Dror and Nir Ben Gal marked the birth of a new reflection in terms of dance, aimed at increasing the scope of the spectacular experience, encouraging spectators and artists to abandon their preconceived opinions and, above all, disrupting the monotony of the world of dance in Israel.

This was the context in which a wave of independent choreographers was to emerge, eager to seek for new means of artistic expression that would allow the choreographic “process” rather than “product” to be put into perspective. 

Having thus marked a significant step in the development of the Israeli choreographic landscape, Two Room Apartment was acclaimed by all the international critics of the time, going on to win many awards, including first prize at the Concours chorégraphique international de Bagnolet (1988).

This new version of Two Room Apartment, into which Niv Sheifeld and Oren Laor have injected the richness of their personal and artistic experiences, emerges as a resolutely contemporary choreographic work, linking the past to the present while respecting the intentions of the original choreographers.

Niv Sheinfeld is one of the most prominent personalities of Israeli dance. Initially a dancer with the Liat Dror & Nir Ben Gal Dance Company, he now works as freelance choreographer. He has choreographed his own works since 1997, in particular for the Kibbutz Dance Company and the Batsheva Ensemble.

Niv Sheinfeld also teaches dance at the Jerusalem School of Visual Theater and at the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre in Tel-Aviv. He has been directing shows with Oren Laor since 2004.

In 2012 he presented a new and contemporary version of “Two Room Apartment” with Oren Laor, a piece originally created in 1987 by Liat Dror and Nir Ben Gal. This work was also shown at the International Exposure 2012, organised by the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel-Aviv.

Further information

Company website

Updated: May 2013

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).