A Double Bill: While we wait / Handmade

This double bill presents two works by Olivia Court Mesa that explore the ways we shape and are shaped by the world around us. Through collective movement, touch, and physical negotiation, the works examine how relationships, circumstances, and choices influence the realities we inhabit.

Moving between intimacy and collectivity, uncertainty and action, While we wait and Handmade offer two distinct perspectives on adaptation, connection, and transformation, inviting us to reflect on our capacity to respond, create, and evolve.

While We Wait

Waiting is the condition we have inhabited over the last few years. Through collective movement, eight dancers navigate uncertainty, searching for direction, playfulness, and connection. Between anticipation and action, they reveal that waiting is not passive—it is a space where relationships are formed and reality begins to take shape.

Choreography: Olivia Court Mesa

Performed by: Tair Werner, Amit Shmueli, Sefi Gloch, Ofir Shachar Cohen, Ilay Ozer, Aviv Metzer, Ido Olnik, Yael Idan

Photo: Zoran Varga

HandMade

Handmade explores how touch, control, and influence shape human relationships and reflect the mechanisms of society. Through intricate physical interactions, the performers reveal the delicate balance between leading and following, support and manipulation, asking how our actions leave their mark on ourselves and on the world we create together.

Choreography: Olivia Court Mesa

Dancers: Nitzan Uphaz, Shiraz Alon, Theo Birenboim, Yuval Finkelstein Sound Design: Roey Hason

Photo: Zoran Varga

Olivia Court Mesa

is a Chilean-Israeli dance artist whose unique voice is shaped by the triad of influences from the places she has lived—South American warmth, German precision, and Middle Eastern intensity. With the perspective of a foreigner, her works explore the interplay between vulnerability and resilience, positioning the human body as both a medium for connection and a site of transformation.

Her artistic language blends the poetic and the visceral, examining identity, memory, and the limits of human potential. Combining athletic physicality with conceptual depth, her works challenge gender roles and expand the possibilities of physical and emotional expression. She has received numerous awards, including the Israel Ministry of Culture Award for Best Solo Performer (2017) and Best Performance (2022) for I carry, you hold. At the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition (RIDCC), she received four awards in 2022, including the XL Production Award and the Audience Award.

As co-founder of The common body, Olivia collaborates with artists and dancers internationally, developing movement practices rooted in partnering, real-time communication, playfulness, and risk-taking.

Her works have been presented at festivals including Tanec Praha, Fuori Programma, Gdansk Dance Festival, Dance Waves, Tanec Valmez, Šibenik Dance Festival, Santiago OFF, and Le Danzatrici en Plein Air Festival. She has also created commissioned works for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and MiR Dance Company (Germany).

Olivia is the mother of three daughters, continually exploring how art, dance, and family can coexist.

Olivia Court Mesa