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Tali Zavilevich
Gluya Ensemble
Tali Zavilevich & Dana Hirsch Laiser | 2009–2019
Gluya Ensemble is a long-standing artistic collaboration between Tali Zavilevich and Dana Hirsch Laiser.
The ensemble explores improvisation as a performative art that integrates dance, theater, voice, and space.
Their work is deeply rooted in site-specific creation and interdisciplinary research. Over the course of a decade, Gluya Ensemble created works that were performed in festivals, galleries, museums, alternative venues, and public spaces across Israel.
Their choreographic language evolves from real-time composition, embodied listening, and spatial investigation, bringing together the poetic and the everyday
Stagelevator // 2012
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An intimate dance performance inside the elevators of Tel Aviv City Hall.
For one evening, the municipal elevators were transformed into a stage, where passengers became part audience, part participants in a live performance. The collective experience of gathering in the confined space of an elevator sparked reflections on the tension between discomfort and intimacy, power dynamics, gender, and the relationship between the individual and society.
The encounter also offered a new kind of interaction between citizens and the municipal system.
The performance was held nine times as part of the festival and garnered significant interest. Presented as part of Taluy Bamakom Festival, curated by Natalie Zuckerman
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Slug // 2009
Site-specific improvisation in movement, voice, speech, and text
Presented at Nisui Kelim 7 Festival curated by Gil Alon
Performed 6 times during the festival
Set on the staircase of a dance education center, Khasoofit explores transitions—between public and private, movement and stillness, presence and absence. The space remained active throughout the process, used daily by students, posing a challenge: how to create intimacy in a space of constant passage.
Through physical interaction with the site’s materials, sounds, and rhythms, a new movement language emerged. Each performance was unique, shaped by spontaneous encounters with people and the ever-changing environment.
The five-month rehearsal process began in the studio and continued on the stairs, requiring deep attention and adaptability in a noisy, shared space.
Duration: 15–20 minutes
Created and performed by Tali Zavilevich and Dana Hirsch-Lizer
Costume design: Liat Ezra
Location: Staircase at Bikurey Ha’Itim Center
Duration: 15–20 minutes
Performed 6 times during the festival
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It Was So Easy to Run While Holding a Kite // 2010
Site-specific improvisation in movement, voice, and text
Presented at the Akko Festival for Alternative Israeli Theatre
This performance explored interpersonal communication through role dynamics and stimulus-response, within a highly charged public space in Old Acre. Set in the neglected Posta courtyard, the work unfolded amid dirt, stone, and the echoes of history. Rehearsals and performances were shaped by real-life encounters with tourists, locals, and unexpected interruptions.
Themes of freedom, restraint, and hope were woven into movement, sound, and interaction. Each performance was unique, responding to the moment, the audience, and the surrounding environment. The muezzin’s call became part of the soundscape. White costumes turned dark with time, and handwritten wishes were placed into the cracks of an ancient wall.
A live, physical, and poetic dialogue between body, place, and the human need for meaning.
Created and performed by Tali Zavilevich and Dana Hirsch-Lizer
Live music and sound: Eran Cohen
Costume design: Efrat Kanfi
Duration: 40 minutes
Location: The Posta Courtyard, Acre | 7 performances
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Visible / Invisible // 2010–2014
A series of site-responsive improvisation performances in Beit Tami, Hasimta Theater, the Tel Aviv Artist’s House, Horace Richter Gallery, Namal Habait, and Ticho House.
This performance explored interpersonal communication through role dynamics and stimulus-response, within a highly charged public space in Old Acre. Set in the neglected Posta courtyard, the work unfolded amid dirt, stone, and the echoes of history. Rehearsals and performances were shaped by real-life encounters with tourists, locals, and unexpected interruptions.
Themes of freedom, restraint, and hope were woven into movement, sound, and interaction. Each performance was unique, responding to the moment, the audience, and the surrounding environment. The muezzin’s call became part of the soundscape. White costumes turned dark with time, and handwritten wishes were placed into the cracks of an ancient wall.
A live, physical, and poetic dialogue between body, place, and the human need for meaning.
Richter gallery
Namal Habait
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impulse festival- kiriat anavim
passive
stage
Braid // 2019
Braid” is a collaborative creation by Tali Zavilevich and Dana Hirsch Leiser — Gluya Ensemble — in collaboration with Nevo Ben Knaan, a dancer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist.
The work unfolded across various spaces within the Old Jaffa Museum as part of Site — a multidisciplinary artist residency program curated by Lia Ziegler during the summer months of July–September 2019. The piece was also performed at The Store Theater.
Throughout the residency, we initiated “Sketch Nights” — performance evenings open to the community.
Premiere Date: September 13, 2019
Premiere Venue: Old Jaffa Museum
Number of Performers: 3
Duration: 75 minutes
under the
Under the Bridge // 2017
Site-specific, based on architectural resonance and emotional memory.
A site-specific performance by the Gluya Ensemble in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Nevo Ben Knaan.
The work took place at Shlush Bridge — a location that, at the time, was known as “The Pit,” and today forms part of Tel Aviv’s light rail system.
This urban space evoked essential questions around social disparity, offering a rich visual landscape of street art, layered histories, and shifting narratives, all perceived differently depending on one's vantage point.
Presented as part of the “Janes Walk” Festival and in a series of independent performances.
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