Mor Mendel is a performance artist, choreographer, dance improviser and educator.  Mendel always danced but never defined technique or form as part of her dance calling. Instead, she is invested in movement that is part of who we are in our everyday life, movement that has a play with imagination, intuition and personal stories. Dance as the playground of
poetry, memories and the ones we love, music and our shared existence. Mendel’s teaching focuses on dance as an individual pathway to freedom inside ones’ body, creativity and joy. Mendel earned her BA in Dance
Theater in Tel Aviv as well as her Improvisation mastery with dancer Ilanit Tadmor. In 2012 Mendel moved to NY to complete her master’s in dance from Sarah Lawrence College. Over the years she has participated in numerous workshops and courses around dance, improvisation and other somatic fields as well as university courses in psychology and creative
therapies. Mendel has been working with Parkinson patients, and her teaching focuses on dance as an individual pathway to freedom inside ones’ body, creativity and joy. Her work was performed at Tel Aviv galleries, Acco of Alternative Israeli Theater, Gowanus Arts center, the 14Y, Fridman Gallery, Brooklyn Studios
For Dance, BAAD!,  BAX, Movement Research Judson Church, Pioneer Works, Collezione Maramotti (Italy), BigParadise, MOtiVE, Center for Performance Research and in collaboration with artist Miriam Simun at The
New Museum (NY). She is grateful to have worked with artists such as ruby onyinyechi amanze, Hadar Ahuvia, Patricia Hoffbauer, Tamar Ettun,Rebeca Medina, Stephanie Nelson, Mariangela Lopez, Nikima Jagudajev,
Miriam Simun, Faye Driscoll and many others. Mendel is a 2022 Movement Research Parent Artist in Residency and Fall Family residency at Groundworks NY. She is currently creatively engaged with the Lilach Orenstein and Marion Spencer dance projects. Mendel is a mother of two curly boys.

During my residency at UDC I will be diving deeper into my recent work, The book of Love to be premiered as a full-length performance on December 12 th , 2024, in Brooklyn NY. My work on this dance began after
the events of October 7 th and the sad beginning of this current war. In the dance I am researching the subject of love and everything that is apposite
to it, or helps it grow. I dance to music that touches my soul and offers me a path into my heart’s
beat, childhood landscapes and dreams of peace. I follow my sadness as well as my joy and I move with all the groove that my body knows. It is my intention to enhance an essence that can move from my very personal
experiences to the personal stories and life of the people sharing the space with me. I use text and poetry to convey my thoughts. This residency will be the accumulation of my research, and it is my hope
to bring all that I worked on so far to the studio for further developing and reimagining. Just me, the dance and the light coming into the studio. This will allow me deep listening and receiving with clarity. Its all I can ask for and I am so grateful.
Thank you so much Kate and Rebe for this this opportunity!

IMPROVISATION, EXPLORATION, IMAGINATION WORKSHOPS

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

- a place to explore possibilities, get super creative, no right or wrong just
expanding in our own playground and moving in between horizons.
Classes are composed of an ongoing guided and intuitive flow of energy,
momentum, physicality and curiosity. This process is dedicated to
accessing our own movement and arriving at a place of body awareness
and creative state of mind. Classes evolve into a playground of
improvisational scores and composition tasks. This class is for you to
move, experiment, play, imagine, sense, notice, practice, make choices,
change your mind, find and lose, all while dancing and listening.