Dance in Israel as a historical discourse about change (1920‒2010)

Abstract

This article discusses the evolution of concert dance in Israel from the 1920s to the current blossoming of the 2010s. The way dance in Israel has evolved reflects the many changes in Israeli society, including ideological, social and political changes, as well as influences of dance genres from abroad, globalisation and post-modernism. The article argues that the engines that have driven dance in Israel along the timeline are change and choices.

Keywords:

• Zionism
• concert dance
• dance
• Israel
• globalisation

Notes

1. Ornstein, Ktuvim.

2. Manor, Baruch Agadati.

3. Elron, “Dancing Hebrew.”

4. Rachel Nadav in an interview by Ruth Eshel, Tel Aviv, December 1987.

5. The first film record of dance in the Yishuv is just a few moments from Massada by Dania Levin. It is kept in the Israel Dance Library at Beit Ariella in Tel Aviv. Massada was the last bastion of the ancient Jewish independent state, which fell to the Romans in 73/74 CE and it became a symbol of national revival with the slogan ‘Massada shall not fall again’.

6. Eshel, Dancing with the Dream, 23.

7. Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture, 97‒132.

8. Eshel, “Hips Swirl like a Mobile.”

9. The conductor of the Folk Opera was the composer Mark Lavry. Kraus included dances as part of the opera repertoire but there were also three dance evenings between 1943 and 1946.

10. Rina Nikova established a ballet studio in Tel Aviv for young girls but it was closed in 1927 when she went to the United States.

11. Sharet, A Queen Without Palace.

12. Rationing policies were introduced by the government in the 1950s in order to create a stable exchange rate, thus saving foreign currency. The policy included limiting investments, and purchase of food and consumer goods.

13. Toledano, A Story of a Company.

14. Rottenberg, “To Dance Inbalit,” in Sara-Levi Tanai, 281‒51.

15. Silberman, “A Recital for the Dance of Rena Gluck,” Al HaMishmar, May 19, 1957.

16. Rottenberg, “Anna Sokolow,” 36‒58.

17. The article by Yehudit Ornstein was taken from a news archive from 1963, found in the Yehudit Ornstein file in the Israel Dance Library.

18. Haim Gamzo, “A Dance Evening: Rina Schoenfeld and her troupe,” Haaretz, March 25, 1963.

19. Haim Gamzo, “A Dance Evening: Rena Gluck and her Dance Troupe,” Haaretz, May 13, 1963.

20. Eshel, “The Batsheva Dance Company,” 7‒23. http://www.israeldance-diaries.co.il/english/search/

21. J. Dudley in an interview with R. Eshel, Tel Aviv, August 5, 1991.

22. Gluck, Batsheva Dance Company.

23. Judy Brin-Ingber had a part in founding the Israeli Dance Annual Review in the first year and then returned to the US. Later Gila Toledano helped Manor. In 1993 the annual review became a quarterly review edited by Giora Manor and Ruth Eshel. In 2000 it was renamed Dance Today and edited by Ruth Eshel.

24. Perlshtein, “The Dance Library of Israel,” 442‒52.

25. The first line-up of the troupe (1984‒1988) included Rina Badash, Or Beggim and Ditti Thor.

26. In the Batsheva company, the company’s dancer Alice Dor Cohen and the rehearsal manager Siki Kol created a number of dances. In the Bat-Dor company, Domi Reiter Sofer, Yigal Perry Yehuda Maor and others also choreographed works.

27. Manor, “Hues in Dance, 1995,” 22‒5.

28. Portal, “Contemporary Belly Dancing,” 10.

29. Eshel, “A Creative Process,” 352‒87.

30. Yair Vardi in an interview with R. Eshel, Haifa, September 2013.