Simona Orinska
Simona Orinska is a dance movement therapist and Butoh performance artist.
Early life and education
Orinska grew up in Ērgļi, Latvia until she was about 6 or 7 years old when her family moved to the small village of Misa, Latvia. When she was 17, she moved to Riga and started her study at the Riga Applied College. From 1997 to 2000, she studied in the Environmental Design Department, specializing in Object Design. From 2000 to 2005, she completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in arts at the Latvian Academy of Culture. She completed her second master's degree in Health Service and Art Therapist Professional Qualification with a specialization in Dance Movement Therapy at the Riga Stradiņš University from 2006 to 2009.Butoh career
Orinska had her first exposure to butoh inside a workshop with Sophie Cournede from the Schloss Brölin Art Center, Germany in 2002, and she became active in butoh in 2005.- 2005 Anita Saij Butoh method
- 2006 SU-EN Butoh Method
- 2007 Masterclass with Ken Mai
- 2007 Butoh dance masterclasses with Ken Mai, Yukio Waguri and Tsuruyama ZULU Kinya
- 2007 workshop and participating in the international performance project "The Chicken Project—Romeo and Juliet”
- 2007 Kitt Johnson workshop "Expressive Anatomy”
- 2010 Swee Keong, Lai Chee
- 2010 Joao Roberto de Souza
- 2010 Toshiharu Kasai , in a workshop
In 2010, she performed "The Sacred Dances of the Night" at the Happy Art Museum in Riga, Latvia on October 30, November 6, and November 27 with Modris Tenisons, Artis Gulbis, Gita Straustina, Skaidra Jančaite, Ken Mai, Ērika Māldere and her companion Aigars Lenkēvičs from Lamp Design Workshop.
Other dance performances
Apart from butoh performances, she was involved in a processional art performance, "Somebody who leads", ad a performance in a photo exhibition, "On Haiku". She also participated in an international video dance project. The premiere was held on August 17, 2007, in the frameworks of the International Video Art Festival “Waterpieces 07”.Dance Movement Therapy
Simona is a private dance therapy or dance movement therapy practitioner under the supervision of the Medicine Association "ARS". She provides individual and group Dance Movement Therapy to children and adults. Simona complements the individual dance movement therapy with the Champi massage, which is a type of Ayurvedic massage.She had two Dance Movement Therapy internships in Bristol, United Kingdom in 2008: one in a dance movement therapy center called "Dance Voice" and one in a special school for autistic children called "St. Christopher’s School”.
As of 20 April 2009, she was employed as an art therapy specialist in a children's hospital, "Gailezers", and is working with children with psychiatric problems.
She was also one of the founding members of the Latvian Dance Movement, Therapy Association, of which she was a member of the board of directors.