Oryan is a multidisciplinary artist in movement, improvisation, voice, text, painting, sculpture and design.

 

Born in Jerusalem in 1985, Oryan Yohanan is a dancer and multi-disciplinary artist practicing movement, acting, vocals, writing, painting, sculpting and design; An acclaimed performer and creator, and a member of Clipa Theater and the Israeli Choreographer's Association.

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Yohanan has been dancing since childhood. She graduated from the Academy for Music and Dance high school in Jerusalem in 2003, and started her professional career in the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (KCDC), where she danced between 2006-2010. While in the KCDC, Yohanan created her debut piece – Missis – which was inspired by a poem by Yohanan that was published that year on Helicon periodical magazine for poetry.

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In 2010, Yohanan launched her career as an independent performer and creator, when she joined the Israeli Opera's freelancer's company The Project. As part of The Project, she performed leading roles in pieces by William Forsyth, Emanuel Gat, Giacoppo Godani, Marco Goecke, Idan Sharabi and Yoram Carmi. 

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Throughout the years, Yohanan collaborated as a performer and participant-creator with Idit Herman and Clipa Theatre, Gili Navot, Sahar Azimi, Yoni Soutchy, Maya Yogel, Noa Shiloh, Michal Herman, Elad Shechter, Dafi Altbeb, Oded Tsadok and Eitan Gusto Blue, Shlomi Bitton, Sharon Vaisvaser Javier de Frutos, Inbal Oshman and others.

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In 2017, Yohanan reached the finals of the reality TV dance competition Move it Israel (Keshet).

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Yohanan has received many prizes and professional awards: in her teens, she won the Mia Arbatova Ballet Competition of 2002 and received 3 scholarship grants from the Cultural Foundation Israel-America; In 2007 she received the Minister of Culture and Sports Award as part of her work with Kibbutz Dance Company; in 2014 she won the Minister of Culture and Sports Award for best individual performing dancer. The award's committee stated that: "[Oryan is] a virtuosic dancer, with a wide range of movement qualities, moving in the candidness and devotion of her performance". In 2020 she won the prestigious Israel Institute grant for visiting artists and taught as a visiting tutor in CalArts University, CA. 

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In 2019, Yohanan has played the leading role in the posthumously published play of the poet Yona Wollach A Monument of Leprosy directed by Ishay Ben Moshe for the Tel Aviv festival of poetry. 

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Yohanan teaches ballet, contemporary dance, floor work, improvisation, repertoire and choreography in multiple institutions in Israel and abroad. 

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Yohanan's works are operating in a wide variety of artistic mediums, oscillating between performance, acting, vocal work, site-specific work, visuals, video and more. Her works are performed and supported by festivals and venues such as Curtain Up; International Exposure Suzanne Dellal, International Exposure Machol Shalem Jerusalem, MASH Berlin, Zirat Machol, Intimadance, Borderlands (Germany), Trialogfam (Spain), From Jaffa to Agripas, Shades in Dance, Mia Arbatova Gala, Yemey Tarbut and more.

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Yohanan is often motivated by an activist agenda, and in her pieces, she deals with questions of gender, feminism, identity and more. Among her works are: I- Dare-U (2016), Shoot Me (2017), Planning a Vacation from Myself, Checking Costs, (2018), Home(?) (2019), My Life Are Reserved in an Empty Plot (2020), Turning the Tables (2021), These 2 Shall Pass (2021) and Solo of the Lost and Found (2021- 2022)