Jay Augen

Dancer and ballet teacher. Augen was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied at the School of American Ballet and at the Harkness Ballet Company. Later, he danced in the New York City Ballet under the artistic director George Balanchine.

In 1974 he immigrated to Israel and joined the Israeli Ballet Company under Berta Yampolsky and Hillel Markman, and two years later he joined the Bat-Dor Dance Company. Augen joined Batsheva in 1977 and danced there until 1980 in leading roles in the dance pieces: Dreams, Scenes from the Music of Charles Ives (1978); Lunch, Daughters of Shiloh, Metaphors (1979); Images, Cantigas, Hunter of Angels (1980).

In 1980, Augen left Batsheva to study in Canada’s National Ballet School. Upon his return to Israel, he served as a classical ballet teacher in Batsheva and other companies and schools worldwide. Augen resumed dancing in Batsheva for a short period in 1986, in the dance pieces Ve’esha Gam… and Formless, and continued serving as a teacher in the company until 1993. In 1993, he joined the Scapino Ballet Company in Rotterdam, where he served as ballet master for some ten years. Augen currently teaches classical ballet and at the Jerusalem Music and Dance Academy, as well as summer courses, art classes and workshops in leading schools in Israel and worldwide.