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Abstract
This article investigates the impact of dance on the development of Tel Aviv during the British Mandate of Palestine. It shows how theatrical, salon, and folk dance forms shaped the culture as well as the physical space of the burgeoning city, and how national ideas were encoded into this nexus. The city served as both stage and subject of dancing and choreographic activity.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Central Zionist Archives, the Dance Library of Israel, the Israeli Government Press Office, the Lavon Institute, the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, and the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archive, for use of their materials. I would also like to thank Batia Carmiel, Ayalah Goren-Kadman, Yaakov Gross, Victoria Khodorkovsky, Yaron Meishar, and Nellie Varzarevsky for their invaluable help.
Notes
1. For further discussion of the development of Hebrew culture in the Mandate era, see Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture. For an additional discussion on the role of a variety of physical activities on the construction of Tel Aviv, see Spiegel, ‘Constructing the City of Tel Aviv’.
2. Many visitors to Tel Aviv at the time commented on the ease with which Jews conducted themselves in the streets and contrasted this comfort with Jewish life in Europe. See Helman, Young Tel Aviv; Helman, Or ve-yam Hikifuha; Mann, A Place in History.
3. The city regularly prided itself on its freshness, celebrating its lack of an ancient history, in contrast to Jerusalem or Jaffa. Mann, A Place in History.
4. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 126; Shavit and Sitton, Staging and Stagers in Modern Jewish Palestine, 86; Troen, Imagining Zion, 102–3.
5. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 157.
6. In her section on entertainment and leisure in Tel Aviv, Anat Helman briefly addresses some dance activities in the city. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 108–9.
7. Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, 18.
8. Eshel, Lirkod Im Ha-halom, 11–19. For a further discussion of the Palestine Opera and Tel Aviv's emergence as a cultural center, see Eshel, Mahol Pores Kenafayim, 254.
9. Eshel, ‘Concert Dance in Israel’; Eshel, Lirkod Im Ha-halom; Helman, Young Tel Aviv.
10. For a more detailed discussion of the National Dance Competition in 1937, see Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
11. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 109.
12. Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, 18.
13. See Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, and Spiegel, ‘New Israeli Rituals: Inventing a Folk Dance Tradition’.
14. Friedhaber, ‘The First Folk Dance Festival at Dalia in 1944’, 29–33; Friedhaber, ‘From Ben Shemen to the First Dance Festival in Kibbutz Dalia in 1944’, 12–15; Ingber, ed., Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance; Ayalah Goren-Kadman, interviewed by author, New York, 1 August 2005.
15. See Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, and Spiegel, ‘New Israeli Rituals’. For a further discussion of the symbolic role of the hora in the Yishuv in these years, see Spiegel, ‘Sporting a Nation’.
16. For a further discussion of the beach in Tel Aviv life, see Helman, Young Tel Aviv, and Spiegel, ‘Constructing the City of Tel Aviv’. In the latter, note the discussion on the film Tel Aviv in Colors, which featured a segment with children dancing on the beach.
17. J. Sachs, ‘Towards a National Dance’, 4. Issued by the Hadassah Organization of Montreal, 1938. Central Zionist Archives, 6651 G.
18. He also took photos of dancer Naomi Aleskovsky at the beach. See Igal Presler Collection, Tel Aviv.
19. Aldor, ‘The Borders of Contemporary Israeli Dance’, 83.
20. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 122. See also Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe shel Tel Aviv.
21. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 129. Shachar Pinsker explores conceptions of gender and masculinity at urban cafes in Tel Aviv. As he notes, ‘Ironically, the “new men” with “solid stomachs and hard muscles” whom Herzl and Nordau imagined as transformed by Zionism remained attracted to the bourgeoining café culture even after they immigrated to Palestine’. See Pinsker, ‘The Urban Café as a Space of Modern Jewish Masculinity’, 10.
22. These evening galas were the most popular on Wednesday and Saturday nights. They were important at cafes in locations such as Allenby and Ben Yehuda streets as well as those by the sea. Dance galas also took place for holiday celebrations on Purim and Hanukkah. The noise garnered from dancing galas was a source of complaints from residents who lived nearby. Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe, 119, 121, 171, 179, 182.
23. Examples of such occasions include the following: the Fire Brigade Ball at the Tarshish Café on the seashore in June 1931 in which the proceeds were for ‘sending a group of men to Egypt to study a course of Fire Fighting’; a dance gala at the San Remo on 10 October 1931, in which the proceeds were going to help patients in the country; a ball at the Casino Café to benefit the ‘Relief society for workers suffering from chronic diseases and for convalescents, Tel Aviv’ in August 1932; and one for the same organisation in July 1933 at the Riz Hotel. Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe, 178–80.
24. Ibid., 121.
25. Ibid., 119–20, 173.
26. Ibid., 175.
27. The dance took place on 1 November 1930. The poster is printed in Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe, 175.
28. Leman, Juda, director, The Land of Promise, film (1935), Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive; Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe, 175. According to Hillel Tryster, this film was among the five most important sound films produced in Palestine in the 1930s. Tryster, ‘“The Land of Promise” (1935)’, 214–17.
29. Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe, 186–7.
30. Ibid., 171.
31. W. Goldmann, ‘The Dance in Palestine’, undated, WIZO Instruction and Information Center, p. 5, Lavon Institute, Tel Aviv. While Goldman does not specifically refer to Tel Aviv, it is most likely she is referring to the city as that is where she lived and where the most vibrant café culture existed.
32. Aronis, ‘The Balconies of Tel Aviv: Cultural History and Urban Politics’. This also appears in M. Azaryahu and S. Ilan Troen, eds., Tel Aviv: The First Century: Visions, Designs, Actualities. Also, see my discussion in Spiegel, 'Constructing the City of Tel Aviv,' 510.
33. ‘Gurit Kadman’s Parents’ Visit to her Home in Israel in 1936’, Dance Library of Israel, H-317; author interview with Ayalah Goren-Kadman, Jerusalem, Israel, 13 July 1998. See also the advertisement for classes at Gert Kaufmann’s [Gurit Kadman’s] home on Schalag Street No. 5, Dance Library of Israel. See also Spiegel, ‘Constructing the City of Tel Aviv’.
34. Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, 106. See Alfons Himmelreich’s photographs, Igal Presler Collection (Tel Aviv, Israel). In addition, there is a photograph of dancers at Margalit Ornstein’s studio engaged in exercises on the roof that appeared in Kol-noa in 1931, Dance Library of Israel (Tel Aviv, Israel), Margalit Ornstein 121.1.
35. Carmiel, Bate ha-kafe.
36. Municipal Announcement Number 86, 27 August 1925, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipal Archives (Tel Aviv, Israel), 3–121B.
37. The performance took place on 20 June 1923. See Eshel, Lirkod Im Ha-halom, 15.
38. Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, VT DA1014 1,2.
39. Davar, 1 April 1932, 5. For a further discussion of the Maccabiah Games in 1932, see Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
40. Ha’aretz, 14 January 1927, 4. An advertisement announced the upcoming performance on Saturday night, 15 January 1927, at a gala with concert dance from Ornstein’s studio. Dance Library of Israel Archives, Margalit Ornstein.
41. Eshel ‘Concert Dance in Israel’, 63 and 78; Helman, Young Tel Aviv.
42. Carmiel, Korbman, 146.
43. For further information on the National Dance Competition, see Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
44. Azaryahu, Tel Aviv: Mythography of a City, 101.
45. Carmiel, Korbman, 145. There is a photograph featured of children from Margalit Ornstein’s dancing school dancing at Beit Ha’am on 11 May 1926.
46. Carmiel, Korbman, 142 and 145.
47. Ibid., 145.
48. Eshel, ‘Concert Dance in Israel’, 63.
49. Ibid., 68.
50. An advertisement for a school for salon dancing included an image of a couple ballroom dancing and announced dance galas four times a week. The studio was located on Rehov Peretz 37 on the third floor and was run by Joseph Moore. These galas became the source of complaints to the city from other residents in the building who were awakened by the noise. Brochure, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 4-3642B; Letter of complaint, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 13 June 1937, 4-3642B; Letter of complaint, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 21 July 1937, 4-3642B.
51. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 109.
52. Letter of complaint about late night dancing, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 28 February 1937, 4-3642B; Letter of complaint about the noise at night from a dance school, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 21 July 1937, 4-3642B; Letter of complaint about Joseph Moore’s school for salon dancing, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 13 June 1937, 4-3642B; Letter of complaint about the noise on Rothschild Boulevard from late night dancing, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 21 April 1939, 4-3642; Letter of complaint regarding late night dancing, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality Archives, 28 May 1939, 4-3642D.
53. Helman, Young Tel Aviv, 109.
54. Israeli Government Press Office. Photographer: Zoltan Kluger, 1 February 1934. For photo and discussion, see Spiegel, ‘Constructing the City of Tel Aviv’.
55. Spiegel, ‘Constructing the City of Tel Aviv’. See also Troen, Imagining Zion, 154.
56. Letter from the Jewish National Fund to the Tel Aviv Municipality, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipal Archives, 9 February 1929, 4-3217A. For a further discussion of the twentieth-anniversary celebrations in Tel Aviv, see Maoz Azaryahu, ‘Tel-Aviv’s Birthdays: Anniversary Celebrations of the First Hebrew City 1929–1959’, Israel Studies 14 (2009): 1–20. This also appears in Azaryahu and Troen, eds., Tel Aviv: The First Century.
57. Letter of Mayor Dizengoff to Margalit Ornstein, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipal Archives, 6 May 1929, 4-3217G.
58. Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
59. ibid. At first, there were only galas organised by Baruch Agadati often with the support of the Jewish National Fund. Later, there were galas organised by other organisations as well, such as the theatre companies. For a more detailed discussion of these various galas, see Carmiel, Tel Aviv be-tahposet ve-kheter, 156–73.
60. The horas took place both in the streets and at the galas, primarily at the popular galas. In 1933, two new horas were introduced at the Ohel-Agadati galas: ‘Kan’ (‘Here’), which was created by Agadati, and ‘Ha-goren’ (The Barn Floor), which was created by Rivka Sturman. Other folk dances included the debka, tcherkessia, krakoviak, the Polish mazurka, the polka, and the rondo. Carmiel, Tel Aviv, 95.
61. See, for instance, Ha'aretz, 27 March 1929; Ha'aretz, 5 March 1931.
62. Cohen, ‘Tel Aviv - The City of Purim’, in The Purim Anthology, 76.
63. Lotta Levensohn, ‘In Carnival Mood’, CZA KKL5 2452.
64. Helman, ‘Was There Anything Particularly Jewish about “The First Hebrew City”?’, 116–27. Helman discusses ways in which residents of Tel Aviv appreciated an urban space that was primarily made up of Jewish residents and felt a sense of control over the space, in contrast to Jewish urban life in other locations.
65. Tryster, Agadati: Screen of an Artist. Videotape. Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, 1997.
66. Halachmi, director, Vayehi bimei. Film (Palestine, 1932). Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive. Hora dancing in the streets during the adloyada can also be seen in the 1935 Hebrew film Zot Hi Ha’aretz.
67. According to Hizky Shoham, ‘documentary footage composed only 18 percent of the film’. Shoham further discusses the relationship between image and reality in the film. Shoham, ‘Of Other Cinematic Spaces’, 113.
68. Tryster, Israel Before Israel,155.
69. Shoham, 114.
70. In Shoham’s estimation, these various groups, including the ‘American bourgeois’ and Orthodox couple, demonstrate the ‘inclusion of all these groups in the national space’. Shoham, 114.
71. The dance galas took place over three days and nights. Hacohen, Be-khol zot yesh bah mashehu, 106–7. As Hacohen further states, ‘the song was recorded in London and the record circulated among fans of Hebrew salon dancing’.
72. See Hacohen, 108–9 and https://www.woodstockx.com/2014/07/06/a-good-life-centenarian/.
73. Hacohen, 108–9. Hacohen states that Natan Axelrod recorded the song, but it is unclear where it can be found and whether the dance was recorded.
74. Hacohen, 108–9.
75. Ibid., 92.
76. Hacohen, 122–3. Hacohen’s book features a photograph of dancers performing to this song, but does not include a date or a reference for the source of the photograph.
77. See Do’ar ha-Yom, 25 January 1929, 4.
78. The words to the song of Gamelet were also printed on this poster. Agadati created a second dance for 1929 called Gamelet that was introduced to the public on Purim. The words to this song were also written by A.Z. Ben Yishai. See Carmiel, Tel Aviv, 94–5.
79. Hacohen, 54–5. For further discussion of the development of the different versions of Tel Avivia, as well as of the lyrics of a parody written of the song, see Hacohen, 54–5.
80. There does not appear to be a visual record of the original Tel Avivia dance. I am conducting further research to determine the relationship between the original ‘Tel Avivia’ dance and the later dance ‘Yemina, Yemina’. Friedhaber places the title ‘Yemina, Yemina’ in parentheses next to ‘Tel Avivia’ to indicate that it is the same dance. He also notes that the dance ‘Tel Avivia’ was included and published in Gurit Kadman’s pamphlet Rikudei Am that she published in 1943, incorporating 22 dances of the time. See Friedhaber, ‘From Ben Shemen’, 13; Friedhaber, Hava netze b’meholot, 32.
81. Do’ar ha-Yom, 25 January 1929, 4.
82. Ibid.
83. This is parallel to the use of Yom Kippur terminology in conjunction with the proclamation over the reign of the selected Queen Esther for the Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv. See Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, 28–9.
84. Carmiel, Tel Aviv, 94–5.
85. Do’ar ha-Yom, 25 January 1929, 4.