Batsheva Dance Company

The Batsheva Dance Company was founded in 1964 as a repertoire company by the Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild, who appointed Martha Graham as its artistic consultant. The company was the first troupe in the world, aside from Graham’s own company of course, to perform the dances of the legendary choreographer.

In its early years, the company was identified with the dancers who formed the “founding generation” core of the company, among them Rena Gluck, Rina Schenfeld, Moshe Efrati, Ehud Ben-David, Galia Gat, Ruth Lerman, Yair Vardi, Ahuva Anbari, Moshe Romano, and Rahamim Ron. In the company’s first decades, it was led by artistic directors and rehearsal directors from abroad as well as from within the company – Jane Dudley, Norman Walker, Brian McDonald, William Louther, Caj Selling (who served as co-director with Linda Hodes for one year), Paul Sanasardo, Moshe Romano, David Dvir, and Shelley Sheer. Each director expanded the repertoire with works by renowned American and European choreographers, and staged new works by Israeli creators. Batsheva was also shaped by Robert Cohan, who served as artistic consultant during Romano’s tenure, and by rehearsal directors such as Ruth Harris, Romano, Hodes, Amira Amira Mayroz, Rena Gluck (who also briefly served as assistant director), Rahamim Ron, and Jean Geddis-Zetterberg.

Ohad Naharin was appointed artistic director in 1990, and continued to serve in this role until 2018. Naomi Bloch Fortis joined the company at the same time, first as assistant artistic director and later as the company’s CEO and co-artistic director. Adi Salant served as co-artistic director from 2012 to 2018. Gili Navot was the artistic director in 2018-2022. In July 2022, Dr. Lior Avizoor was appointed to the position of the company’s artistic director. Dina Aldor has been the company’s CEO since 2009. Batsheva Dance Company is the house company of Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv.