Simona Orinska is the only butoh artist in Latvia and a multidisciplinary artist - contemporary dancer, poet, director and choreographer of many art projects. She is also a Dance Therapy or Dance Movement Therapy practitioner.
Background
Simona grew up in Ērgļi until she was about 6–7 years old, then her family moved to small village called Misa. When she was 17 years old she moved to Riga and started her study in Riga Applied College. She studied in the Environmental Design Department specializing in Object Design from 1997 to 2000. Then from 2000 to 2005 she completed both her bachelor's and master's degrees in arts in Latvian Academy of Culture. Her passion in arts motivated her to complete her second master's degree in Health Service and Art TherapistProfessional Qualification with specialization in Dance Movement Therapy in the Riga Stradina University from 2006 to 2009.
Butoh career
Simona had her first exposure on butoh in a workshop with Sophie Cournede from Schloss Brölin Art Center, Germany way back in 2002. But she started actively engaging butoh only since 2005:
2005 Anita Saij butoh method
2006 SU-EN Butoh Method
2007 Masterclasse with Ken Mai
2007 Butoh dance masterclasses with Ken Mai, Yukio Waguri, Tsuruyama ZULU Kinya
2007 SU-EN Butoh Company 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 2008, she was involved in the International Arts Synergy Festival in Riga. She also made a multimedia performance butoh performance titled "Eyes Fluttering in My Knees." In 2010, she will make a new performance titled "The Sacred Dances of the Night" at Happy Art Museum in Riga, Latvia on October 30, November 6 & 27 together with Modris Tenisons, Artis Gulbis, Gita Straustina, Skaidra Jančaite, Ken Mai, Ērika Māldere and her companion Aigars Lenkēvičs from Lamp Design Worshop.
Other Dance Performances
Apart from butoh performances, she also involved in a processional art performance - "Somebody who leads" and a performance in a photo exhibition - "On Haiku". She also participated in an international video dance project. Premiere was held in 2007, August 17 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 Medicine Association "ARS". She provides both individual and group Dance Movement Therapy. Her clients consist of both children and adults. She uses movement to improve her clients' physical, emotional, cognitive and social capabilities. She uses this therapy to help her clients to ease emotional and physical stress, solve psychosomatic difficulties, garner life energy, obtain deep relaxation, develop creativity and feel the joy of body movement. Simona complements the individual Dance Movement Therapy with the Champi massage, which is a type of Ayurvedic massages rooted in India. The Champi massage is based on the natural health care system of Ayurveda, which incorporates massage, yoga, meditation and herbal remedies. Instead of traditional using ways of yoga and meditation, she uses the Dance Movement Therapy to give her clients a feeling of dynamic motion and inner peace, and uses the Champi massage to give her clients a feeling of full relaxation and external tranquility. She believes that the integration of these two therapies can have more wholesome therapeutic effect on her clients. During the Champi massage, her clients will usually be asked to sit down. Then she will first massage her clients' shoulders, than their hands, necks and head zones. These step-by-step movements of massage will pressure her client’s energetic lines and points and are strictly regimented. She also uses the aromatic essential oils of great value and finds every client specific oils matching her or his type. Since April 20, 2009, she is employed as an art therapy specialist in a children hospital "Gailezers" and works with children with psychiatric problems. She had two Dance Movement Therapy internships in Bristol, the United Kingdom in 2008, namely in a dance movement therapy center called "Dance Voice" and in a special school for autistic children called "St.Cristopher’s School” (client groups: Individual clients with autistic spectrum disorders. She was also one of the founding members of Latvian Dance Movement Therapy Association. She is now one of the members in the Board of Directors of the Association.
