Out of the Circle

Before it became firmly established as one of the most successful areas of the local performing arts, Israeli dance underwent a long process of self-discovery  and self-definition. Celebrating the Suzanne Dellal Center's 25th anniversary, the exhibition presents important milestones in the evolution of Israeli artistic dance through works from different periods and mediums, focusing on the motif of the circle and its rupture. This motif, rooted in the hora danced by the pioneers at the start of the 20th century, is charged with both structural and socio-historical significance. Reflecting changes in Israeli society along the years, it alternately crystalized and broke, illuminating the tensions between the individual and the group, ordinary movements and gestures of pathos, local and universal myths, and open and closed space.

Alfons Himmelreich, Dance Macabre, Gertrud Kraus Company, ca. 1938, Gelatin Silver print, Collection of the Presler private Museum, Tel-Aviv