Homesick seeks to bring to the stage the prospect of coexistence with the other around and within us. Through movement and theatrical means, we examine the boundaries of personal and communal space in search of repair.
In the space between the familiar and the unfamiliar, people search for a place in their bodies and surroundings where they can feel ‘at home’. Their encounters redefine the intimate and public spheres as interwoven arenas of action, and raise questions about the necessary and inevitable existence of the Other within us. The concept of Home breaks down into meanings ranging from the private to the political. It reveals the fragility of the place we live in.
Homesick by Iris Erez premiered in 2010 at Suzanne Dellal Centre’s Curtain Up Festival and was restaged with its original cast in February 2026 as a studio version as part of the Friday at Ora series, which revives dance works created between 1990 and 2015 as intimate, exposed performances.
Sixteen years later, in a reality turned upside down around us, we look back at the work with a clear-eyed gaze that still carries a longing for something else. The notion of a home that has been shaken and destabilized over recent years encounters once again bodies that have lived through these upheavals, seeking to enter into dialogue with the almost prophetic act of then and the emerging present of today, and perhaps, within it, to create an alternative reality.
“Homesick is a work that deals with the concepts of home and otherness in various ways. Ideas that were relevant fifteen years ago have become explosive and controversial over the past two years. The home that was breached, both literally and metaphorically, has affected many communities living here. Returning to this work is like paying the previous perspective a visit and examining its relevance to our lives now, in the context of rupture, rebuilding, and shared existence.” Iris Erez
Iris Erez (1971) is an independent choreographer and dancer. Through her works, Iris seeks to touch the political and public spheres through the private, vibrating body and to research the reciprocal influences Between them. She creates site-specific and videodance works, shown worldwide; among them: Temporary, Homesick, First Body Many, I’ll Be Right Back, Local/Not Easy, Public Intimacy, and Missing Faces.. Erez has worked with choreographers including Yasmeen Godder, Inbal Pinto, and Arkadi Zaides.
She curated the 2010 Galilee Mountains Dance and the 2015 edition of the Machol Shalem festival in Jerusalem. Between 2012 and 2015, Iris chaired the dance repertoire committee at Sal Tarbut (national educational culture programming). These days, she is the curator and artistic director of the Daylight Works dance series in collaboration with Ruth Valensi, and teaches at the School of Visual Theater. In spring 2017, Erez served as Visiting Artist Professor at the Dance Department of Reed College, as part of the Schusterman Foundation and Israel Institute Visiting Israeli Artists Program.
Her dance performance earned her the 2011 and 2018 Ministry of Culture and Sports Awards, and, more recently, the 2024 Landau Award.
Erez holds a BA in psychology and arts and a diploma in dance therapy. She is a mother of 2 sons.
Credits:
Choreography by Iris Erez
Dancers Co-creators: Asaf Aharonson, Ofir Yudilevitch, Tami Leibovits
Sound Design: Reckless Feet
Music: Mount Eerie, Silver Mt.Zion, Reckless Feet
Costume Design: Inbal Lieblich and Tamar Levit
Costume redesign: Rosie Cnaan
Stage Design: Hilla Ben-Ari
Photo: Itay Marom, Liron Weissman, Asia Skorik
Light Design: Tamar Orr
The piece was premiered at the 2010 Curtain Up festival under Tamar Borer’s artistic direction of
