Commentary

 Israeli Folk Dancing: A View from Inside the Circle

 History of Israeli dancing  [Article 1]

 History of Israeli dancing [Article 2]

Why is this fun? By Howard Wachtel

More history...

Dance in the Bible is first mentioned in the book of Exodus, when Miriam the prophetess, took a timbrel in hand and danced with the women of Israel at the shores of the Red Sea, since that time, dance has always been a part of the Jewish soul . In traditional sources dance served as a means of celebration; military victories, festivals, harvests, joy or wedding ceremonials.

There were at least 11 different words used by ancient Jews to depict some kind of dance! Even our contemporary Hebrew words for dance like MACHOL and RIKUD come from ancient sources!

The first 'Israeli folk dance" was Hora Agadati, choreographed in 1920 by Baruch Agadati, a modern dancer, 28 years before the creation of the state of Israel. The next creation was Mayim Mayim, choreographed for the first Dalia Festival in 1944.

Israeli dance is an amalgam of the many cultures and peoples which settled in Palestine and then Israel and many of the current Israeli dance styles come from those cultures (Eastern Europe, Yemen and the Arab countries). Many of the original Israeli dances that were choreographed by the new immigrants have movements reflecting the work of settling the land of Israel (digging, building, irrigation and everyday work movements). The songs reflect this spirit as well.

The original sources were Eastern European styles, Arabic and Yemenite. More recently Greek, French, Turkish, Latin, and even American rock have influenced modern recreational Israeli dance.

As for origins, the hora (a closed circle dance) originated in Rumania, the Yemenite step (from Yemen of course) is reflective of the way one would move on hot sands; tcherkessia (from Russia) and the debka (Arabic). The other movements are those which are found in any kind of dance (Israeli, folk, ballet) - be it walk, run, jump,etc