Amy Leona Havin is a poet, choreographer, and director born in Rehovot, Israel from San Diego, California. She is the Language Arts columnist for Oregon ArtsWatch and is based in Portland, Oregon, San Diego, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Havin's work is inspired by the coastal deserts of her childhood and constant travels through the canyons and prairies of the American West. With process rooted in the duality of her heritage, she weaves together a collectively introspective body of work, honoring the natural world.
Havin began her dance movement training at a young age in Tel Aviv, Israel with Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company’s Gaga Movement Language. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, and is the Founder and Artistic Director of performance-based dance company The Holding Project. Her most recent full-length live performance works have been called "empowering, egalitarian, and sensual", while her films have been showcased both on the west coast and internationally in Israel, Greece, Mexico, Austria, and France, receiving awards from Mexico City Videodance International, Portland Dance Film Fest, Thessaloniki Cinedance International, and others.
Havin’s writings and poetry have been described as “ethereal, subtly violent, and not for the faint of heart”, receiving showcases in publications such as San Diego Poetry Annual, The Dust Magazine, Unchaste Anthology, and Humana Obscura. She is currently in the creation process for her upcoming literary works Holy Roads, Crown for Yael, The Liberation of Sister Geraldine, and debut memoir, The Sun Sets on the Pacific Ocean. Havin has recently been shortlisted for the 2021 Bridport International Creative Writing Prize in poetry and is a 2021/2022 Art/Lab Residency Cohort member.
When not at her writing desk or traveling, Havin spends her days taking photographs of the desert and the sea on 35mm film with a 1976 CanonAE-1 camera and shooting Polaroid keepsakes.
Her work is available for sale and by commission.
For inquiries and gallery shows, please contact via email.