Naomi Aleskovski

Naomi Aleskovski  (1921-2013)

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, then in the Soviet Union, she immigrated to Israel in 1937. She began her training as a dancer as a child in Baku, and continued in Palestine with Gertrud Kraus. She danced in Kraus’s company in its Dance and Play performances. At the same time, she danced in solo evenings throughout the country.
In 1947 she was invited to take part as a dancer in the delegation to the First Democratic Youth Festival in Prague, after which she continued performing in refugee camps in Germany with part of the delegation. Aleskovski remained in Europe and toured in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland. Upon returning to Israel, she rejoined Kraus’s company and danced for one year, in 1950, in her Israeli Dance Theater. In 1952, Aleskovski left for a year of further training in the US, where she trained with José Limón, Sophie Maslow, Jane Dudley and Donald McKayle. In 1953, upon returning to Israel, she established the Chamber Dance Company which was active for 16 years. Her choreographies for the company included Jacob, Rachel and Leah, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Tzur and Jerusalem. She also cofounded Bimat Mahol (Dance Stage) with Rena Gluck and Rina Shaham, an ensemble which performed choreographies by all three.
In 1969, when her company disbanded, Aleskovski left for a seven-year stay in Belgium, where she taught dance in Maurice Béjart’s Brussels school, Mudra, in the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, and in the school of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. She choreographed for her students as well as for the National Theater in Brussels. In 1979, upon her return to Israel, she reopened her dance studio in Tel Aviv and choreographed for the Israeli Ballet Company, the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and Batsheva. She created two works for Batsheva: Like a Rolling Rock (1981), and Vigil in Jerusalem (1983).