If there is a near-miraculous development of an art form in Israel, it is dance not just folk dance at regional and seasonal celebrations, but the growth of professional companies reflecting all the forms of the performing art and its counterparts in dance worldwide.
Even ballet, the most elaborate of dance styles requiring longer training, research of traditional techniques, preservation and reconstruction of sources has taken root in Israel. In modern dance, not only Martha Graham methods but also those of other great innovators have their soundings and echoes here, and feelers towards choreographic originality, belonging specifically to Israel and the Middle East, have burgeoned and flourished.
The history of dance in Israel goes back only some 70 years, or at most a century or so, with the beginnings of modern Jewish immigration to Eretz-Israel. Of course, the ancient Hebrews always danced, as the Bible amply indicates. Today, as many as 300,000 Israelis go to folk dance classes and social dance gatherings on a regular basis.
Yet the beginnings of western performing dance in Israel is a 20th-century story, and although there were individual Jewish visitors from abroad and some resident artists who gave performances at the turn of the century, the development of the art here dates from the 1920s. Pioneers such as Baruch Agadati, who came to dance and stayed to produce films, left some influence, but it was Rina Nikova, a ballerina from Moscow, in the mid 1920s, who spurred the initial development and today there is a Rina Nikova House in Jerusalem to confirm it.
Nikova formed a "Yemenite Singing Ballet" which even toured Europe in the late 1930s, and she created "Biblical Ballet" for special occasions, but what was really important was that she created an image of ethnic-modern Israeli dance.
Following in Nikovas footsteps but with her own initiative and strength, Sara Levi-Tanai, Jerusalem-born of a Yemenite family, created Inbal in the 1940s, choreographing the authentic steps of the Yemenite Jews who had brought their own dances with them. With her gifts of organization and creativity, Inbal became a special manifestation of Israeli dance that attracted the attention of world figures such as Jerome Robbins and Anna Sokolow who came here to teach technique. So notable had the Inbal Dance Company become, that when the Suzanne Dellal complex was planned, a small theatre for Inbal was included which was to be its home base. A former Inbal star, Margalit Oved, who had married an American and settled in California, came back to Israel and it seemed that with her as director, Inbal would take on a new lease of life. It did not work out quite like that, however, and Oved and her son Barak Marshall, set out on series of tours in Israel and abroad. The company has now been renamed the "Inbal Ethnic Dance Centre" and performances of various kinds, including some revivals and videos of the works of Sara Levi-Tanai, as well as works choreographed by others are now being shown at this venue.
It was in the 1950s and 1960s that Israel made the great leap into dance as it is known today. It came about in two unrelated ways: the arrival of Baroness Batsheva (Bethsabée) de Rothschild and the return from abroad of a young Israeli couple, Berta Yampolsky and her husband Hillel Markman, who had been dancing with various companies.
Batsheva de Rothschild, a close friend of Martha Graham, had sponsored and accompanied the Graham company on an international tour which included Israel. She decided to settle here, which she did in 1958. The results were the Batsheva Dance Company, initially based on Graham methods, in 1964, and the Bat-Dor Dance Company, also modern, but with a strong emphasis on ballet training, in 1968.
Today, the Batsheva company, independent of Rothschild support and after a succession of artistic directors, is a vigorous, professional company headed by Ohad Naharin, a brilliant Israeli dancer-choreographer who had been working with the Béjart 20th Century Ballet and then with his own company in New York.
The Bat-Dor company is still directed by its founder-teacher, South African-born Jeannette Ordman, who until a few years ago was also its principal dancer. She came from London as a star of a visiting company and had opened a dance studio here before being asked to take on the formation of a second company by Batsheva de Rothschild.
Despite a disastrous fire which severely damaged its theatre and studios in Tel Aviv, the Bat-Dor company is flourishing. It has absorbed several immigrant dancers who have adapted remarkably to its style. Guest choreographers from abroad have contributed to its repertoire that includes more than a score of works by the Israeli Domy Reiter-Soffer and many others, and has toured China.
Another leading company that took form about the same time as the two Rothschild companies, sprang from the kibbutzim through the efforts of another pioneer, Yehudit Arnon, a Holocaust survivor and a founding member of Kibbutz Gaaton in the Galilee. From the moment of her arrival, she set about teaching dance and aimed at forming her own company. Her persistence led to the establishment of a dance school, and today the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company is one of the finest groups in Israel. The dancers are members of kibbutzim, and guest dancers frequently join the company. Among choreographers who have contributed to its repertoire are Jiri Kylian (Netherlands Dance Theatre) and Mats Ek (Cullberg Ballet, Sweden), but the Gaaton studios have also bred their own outstanding choreographer, Rami Beer, born on Kibbutz Gaaton. He is now the companys innovative and creative artistic director, following the retirement of Yehudit Arnon.
Unique of its kind is the Kol Demama Company, created by Moshe Efrati, a former member of the Batsheva company and a Graham student who began training deaf dancers and devised a method for teaching them to dance together with hearing dancers. His choreography shows no signs of any limitations. Among its frequent visits abroad, Kol Demama participated in the 1992 events in Spain marking the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from that country.
One group, the Jerusalem Tamar Company, made up mostly of Israeli dancers who had studied abroad, did not, unfortunately, survive through lack of funding but small groups continue to be active both in the capital and elsewhere. An increasing number of schools, largely through the efforts of the late Shalom Hermon, include dance in their curriculum. To date, there are nearly 50 high schools that give the option of dance in their final examinations. Most members of the small groups teach either in their own studios or in regional establishments such as the Rubin Academy High School and the Tamara Mielnik School in Jerusalem, the Talma Yellin School in Givatayim, the Menashe Regional School, the School of Arts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ashkelon and others.
Some groups get assistance from time to time from various organizations public like Omanut LAm and the Arts Council or commercial and industrial foundations.
A forum that encourages dance is the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Theatre and Dance in Tel Aviv, founded by the Dellal family in memory of a cherished daughter and directed by Yair Vardi, an Israeli who danced with the Ballet Rambert in Britain and then directed a company in northern England before returning to Israel. The Centre is a cluster of studios and theatres where the Batsheva and Inbal companies have their base. Besides the main theatre, there is the Yaron Yerushalmi theatre (in memory of a dancer who fell in the 1967 Six-Day War) and the Inbal Theatre. The complex has celebrated its eighth anniversary and can claim credit for holding the first modern dance competitions in which a score of companies from abroad took part and for housing seasonal competitions like "Curtains Up" to give young choreographers a first exposure. Some prominent young dancer-choreographers, like Nir Ben Gal and Liat Dror, started there, as did Noa Wertheim and her partner Adi Shaal, who appeared at the 1994 Israel Festival in Jerusalem with the British company, Ricochet.
In Jerusalem, the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance offers courses leading to a degree given by the Hebrew University. It has a modern dance group entitled Springboard, directed by Hassia Levy-Agron, and a ballet workshop associated with the Academy High School and directed by former Bolshoi prima ballerina Nina Timofeyeva. Also in Jerusalem is a modern dance company and studio run by Yaron Margolin.
Meanwhile, the Israel Ballet remains the only professional classical ballet company with Yampolsky and Markman still at its head. It has absorbed new immigrant dancers from the former Soviet Union, and Yampolsky has developed into a formidable choreographic talent her latest work is set to Arnold Schoenbergs Gurrelieder. The Israel Ballet was the first dance company to appear in the new Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre even before the first guest company, the Frankfurt Ballet, followed by the Stuttgart Ballet.
In Haifa, former pupils of the late Valentina Archipova are active, and Adam and Elena Pasternak run a classical studio and give performances in which an exceptional prima ballerina from the Armenian Ballet, Gayana Shakarian, is the star.
Of many aspiring soloists, there is as yet none to compare with the outstanding Rina Schenfeld, who was a member of the early Batsheva company and branched out as a choreographer-dancer in her own right. Influenced by Bauhaus theory, she has used various objects and materials in her fascinating programmes.
Movement and improvisation are among the latest developments in contemporary Israeli dance. Developing from Noa Eshkols system of rhythms, it is now a technique in itself. The Eshkol-Wachmann notion of movement is basic to the form of dance practised by an Eshkol disciple, Amos Hetz, who heads the movement notation department at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy. Eshkol herself has been head of movement research at Tel Aviv University and has staged demonstrations of dances built on her notation system.
And what of the future? Everything points to progress. The companies are firmly rooted. The dance organizations continue to grow. Audiences are on the increase. A major new venue like the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre will focus added attention on dance, whether visiting or resident.
Yet in such a volatile profession, there are problems and questions. Though the current directors are dynamic and, indeed, at their peak, they are not getting any younger. Granting that they can count on another score or more of active years through their determination and charisma, future sponsorship remains uncertain. Batsheva de Rothschild halved her financial support for the Bat-Dor company not long ago. Inbals future is still unclear. What will become of the Israel Ballet when Berta Yampolsky and Hillel Markman eventually retire? What will be the fate of Kol Demama without Moshe Efrati? Unthinkable as all this is, it still has to be considered. Other countries have trusts established in the name of great geniuses. Israeli companies are establishing societies of friends. Will that be enough?
The country as a whole is well aware of the immense value of dance in local cultural life. Four of the leading pioneers of dance in Israel have received the Israel Prize, the countrys highest award: Batsheva de Rothschild, Moshe Efrati, Hassia Levi-Agron and Yehudit Arnon.
So the hopeful answer is yes. One way or another, Israel has its miracles. Just when the Batsheva Company might have been petering out, along came Ohad Naharin who brought it new life. Who could have expected the Suzanne Dellal complex to become so important? Who could have imagined that a former Bolshoi prima ballerina would come and give ballet such a boost in Jerusalem, that might yet develop into another dance company? In Israel, greater miracles have happened.
Dora Sowden graduated from the University of Johannesburg and came to Israel in 1967. She was dance critic for The Jerusalem Post and several other publications in Israel and abroad. She has written a series of articles on dance for Ariel.