I-Dare-U
A solo for female body and recycled paper

The piece was chosen by the critic Ora Brafan as The Best Solo Creation of 2018:
"At the international dance week held in Jerusalem in December this year, Oryan Yohanan's new work stood out, one of the most impressive dancers in the Israeli contemporary dance scene, and in my opinion, her work is the most interesting out of the ones I have seen. ​
The work reflects a wise creator with a body that behaves elegantly in the context of its artistic expression. Oryan is one of those who understand that less can be more. She uses sheets of lightweight recycled paper, a container of black paint, and a pair of thick paint brushes to mark and define her identity differently in an environment of decomposable matter. ​
There is something that vibrates with tension between her strong, bold physical presence on stage and the material choices that make up the aesthetic space within which she moves, all of which is white paper, pure, fragile and crisp. The internal war surrounds her all the way through, exposing and covering, revealing and hiding. This is evident at the very beginning when she stands with her back to the audience, with her body exposed, her head dropped forward, so that the dark hair covers her face, which she does not reveal too often. The knees are soft but the body is hard. The hands twist, contort, as if seeking to share with the viewer a diagram of feelings, without sharing facial expressions, as a sign of weakness, of a more specific expression that might allow the gaze to penetrate the hard, brittle shell. It is a calculated and intelligent work in which all the performative choices were made with impressive and touching sophistication." Ora Brafman, DanceTalk
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"Oryan Yohanan is known as a beautiful dancer with great technical abilities, and is also known for her hunger to experiment in innovative works. When you look at her, it is hard to imagine that there is a discrepancy between her beauty and the perfection she radiates and the torn and tormented world inside her. This tension is the theme of her impressive dance recital, which was created after a long process of research and discovery. It radiates credibility and captures the viewers with its power... Oryan Yohanan conveys her compressed internal charges which are bursting out, her body is an amazing instrument for performance, and she has the courage to expose herself and also dive deep into serious work, without shortcuts. The result speaks for itself. It's a show in which even after the lights go out, the intensity of the experience continues to go with you." Ruth Eshel, Ha'aretz
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"I-Dare-U by Oryan Yohanan is a great dance piece; original, calculated, emotional (not to mention tormented) without a drop of self-pity or sentimental fat."  Marit Ben Israel, City of Happiness

"Oryan Yohanan's personal and moving piece presents an intimate portrait of a multi-faceted female being. In it, Yohanan reveals herself not only as an excellent performer with an endless range of physical and expressive qualities, but also as a fascinating creator who controls with impressive skill both the movement composition and the plastic material, and through them brings to the stage surprising and beautiful images of femininity and masculinity, the private and the social, and the space in between them" Idit Suslik, Achbar Hair, Best Dance Works of 2016