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Abstract
Yardena Cohen (1910–2012), a dancer, choreographer and teacher, is considered one of the founding mothers of Hebrew dance. After studying in Austria and Germany, Cohen began developing her dance career in the early 1930s in Mandatory Palestine by creating and performing solo dances, and later on by creating festivities for the kibbutzim and teaching dance. This article investigates Cohen’s unique action and contribution to the development of Hebrew culture within the context of shaping and formulating a nation-state and a national culture for the new Jewish Yishuv. By way of doing so, it will explore Cohen’s employment of ancient materials stretching back to biblical times combined with formal frameworks inspired by German dance expressionism in an attempt to determine whether and to what extent she conformed to the Yishuv’s ideology or found a way to express her unique, and sometimes non-conformist, voice.
Notes
1. Spiegel, “Cultural Production in Tel Aviv”; Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
2. ‘Ha’mahol ha’mahlim otanu’, in Hebrew, can be considered dance therapy in Israel in its infancy.
3. Author’s translation. All further translations from Hebrew are made by the author.
4. Pinsker, “Auto-Emancipation.”
5. Gluzman, The Zionist Body, on Hebrew literature; and Shapira, New Jews Old Jews, on issues such as Holocaust, revival, collective memory and its reflection on the discourse of Israeli cultural historiography.
6. For the Orensteins see Aldor, And How Does a Camel Dance; and for Kadman see Friedhaber, Gurit Kadman – Mother and Bride.
7. Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History.”
8. Foucault, The History of Sexuality.
9. Gluzman, The Zionist Body, 12.
10. Foucault, The History of Sexuality.
11. Anderson, Imagined Communities.
12. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780.
13. Ibid. Arising from that discourse were issues such as how nationalism was perceived by different social classes, how it was translated into political behaviour, or what the main stages of its development were.
14. Shapira, New Jews Old Jews.
15. Kamir, “Zionism, Masculinity and Feminism.”
16. Ibid.
17. Some examples are the Queen Esther beauty competitions of Purim; the first Maccabiah games in 1932; the National Dance Competition for theatrical dance in 1937; or the two Dalia Folk Dance festivals at Kibbutz Dalia, in 1944 and 1947. See Spiegel, Embodying Hebrew Culture.
18. Adair, Women and Dance, 23.
19. Kamir, “Zionism, Masculinity and Feminism.” She claims further that Zionist ideology referred to equal rights for women from a differential essentialist concept between individuals, in the context of group affiliation and its implications in Zionist mentality.
20. Aldor, “Naming It Jewish,” 380.
21. Kadman, Gurit. Box 123.5.6, Archives of the Dance Library of Israel (hereafter DLI) [in Hebrew].
22. Ibid., Box 123.5.6A, DLI [in Hebrew].
23. Bing Heidecker, “Mothers of Hebrew Dance.”
24. Shavit, “Introduction.”
25. Shavit argues that during the fifth Zionist conference (1901) there were discussions about the importance of art’s contribution in creating a whole person, and that art enabled a path to become acquainted with oneself as a people, because in the past it was part of the religious rituals of the Jewish people.
26. Shavit, “Introduction.”
27. Segev, Palestine under the British, 11–12.
28. Eshel, “Concert Dance in Israel.”
29. Miriam’s brother was Nahum Nir-Rafalkes (1884–1968), an Israeli politician, a socialist Zionist leader in Eastern Europe and in Israel, and the second chairman of the Knesset.
30. Her father was an agronomist, educator and science teacher, who founded a number of important institutions of education and culture in Haifa.
31. HaMoshava HaGermanit (the German colony) was founded in 1868 by German Templers.
32. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 20. The Lohland school, established in 1912, was an example of a dance-as-life culture. The school integrated gymnastic dance into a craft-centred, ritualistic lifestyle.
33. Ibid., 11.
34. Shapira, New Jews Old Jews.
35. The Palmah was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the British Mandate.
36. Shapira in New Jews Old Jews argues that there was a connection between the ideal image of the ‘Sabra’ and the ethos of the labour movement, which determined the values, the moral system and the meaning of existential experience in Eretz Yisrael.
37. Considered the first pioneering youth movement in Eretz Yisrael, it evolved out of informal unionising among high school students, beginning in 1926. From 1931 onward, Mahanot Ha'olim was affiliated with the faction of the kibbutz movement known as HaKibbutz HaMeuhad with its political branch – that of the MAPAI labour party.
38. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 24.
39. Jeschke and Vettermann, “Germany between Institutions and Aesthetics.”
40. Vernon, “Bodenwieser’s Lasting Influence.”
41. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 32.
42. Ibid.
43. Howe, Individuality and Expression, 137.
44. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 32.
45. Ibid., 31.
46. Ibid., 33.
47. Polhemus, “Dance, Gender and Culture.”
48. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 44.
49. Vernon, “Bodenwieser’s Lasting Influence,” 113. Vernon, a dancer and choreographer, is referring to Palucca, her dance teacher.
50. Cohen. Box 121.10.5.1.4, DLI [in Hebrew].
51. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 64.
52. In 1944, fearing the music would be lost with the ageing musicians, Cohen asked Boskovich to notate and arrange the melodies for piano. This encounter became the inspiration for the Semitic Suite (1945) with its piano version designed for Cohen. In 1947, the piece was played by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and won critical acclaim. In 1958, Boskovich reworked the piano version for two pianos.
53. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 76.
54. See Brin Ingber, “The Priestesses.”
55. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 73.
56. Ibid., 15.
57. Spiegel, “Cultural Production in Tel Aviv.”
58. LOG [Goldberg, Leah]. “Yardena Cohen (Dance Recital),” Davar, 1937, Box Yardena Cohen: Criticism, 121.10.2.6, Archives of the DLI [in Hebrew].
59. LOG [Goldberg, Leah]. Cohen’s Dances. Davar, November 17, 1941, Box Yardena Cohen: Criticism, 121.10.2.6, Archives of the DLI [in Hebrew].
60. Sh. Shriah, “Artists and Boards,” HaBoker, 11.11.1941, Box Yardena Cohen – Reviews, 121.10.2.6, Archives of the Dance Library of Israel [in Hebrew]. Spiegel writes in Embodying Hebrew Culture, 214 (note 70) that Sh. Shriah's full name was Shriah Shapiro. Shriah was a close friend of Cohen and wrote in Palestine Bulletin.
61. Cohen, The Drum and the Sea, 71–4.
62. Manor, “The Development of Dance,” 570.
63. Bahat-Ratzon, People Dancing, 201.
64. Manor, “The Development of Dance.”
65. Kew, “From Weimar Movement Choir.” Laban’s ideas on the culture of festivities were affected by the interpretation of Nietzsche’s nationality, which emphasised the unity with the internal mystic reality which exists beyond the external world of the phenomena.
66. Counsell, “Dancing to Utopia.”
67. Ibid., 155.
68. Eshel, Dancing with the Dream.
69. Goren, Fields Dressed in Dance.
70. Eshel, Dancing with the Dream, 28. Some of these festivities are still celebrated today: for example, Bikurim Pageant in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel. See Zilberman, “The Uniqueness of the ‘Ornamentation Dance’.”
71. It further developed into recreational organisations. See Counsell, “Dancing to Utopia.”
72. Folk Festival and Dance, Box Yardena Cohen: Dance Thoughts, 121.10.5.1.2, DLI [in Hebrew].
73. Cohen, The Drum and Dance, 97.
74. Rotman, “Yardena Cohen Generates Wonders,” 21. Eventually, Cohen allowed for some of her dances to be danced in the festival, one of them was Obadiah Dance.
75. Cohen, The Drum and Dance, 101.
76. Yardeni, P. C. “10th Anniversary in Sha’ar HaAmakim.” Davar, Box Yardena Cohen: Critic, 121.10.2.6, DLI [in Hebrew].
77. Manor, “Still Walking Barefoot,” 49.
78. Amitai, A. “Deborah’s Song and Bees Song: The 10th Anniversary to Sha’ar HaAmakim.” Box Cohen Cohen: Critics, 121.10.2.6, DLI [in Hebrew].
79. Cohen, The Drum and Dance, 103.