Rina Shaham

Rina Shacham (1930-2004)

Born in New York, she began to study dance at age 16 with Hilda Hoppe in California. In the mid-1940s she moved to New York and began performing in Benjamin Zemach’s New York Theater. She received a scholarship to train with the Martha Graham Dance Company, where she studied dance with Graham and Merce Cunningham and choreography with Louis Horst.
In 1951, Shacham immigrated to Israel. After a short stay in Kibbutz Beit Alfa she moved to Tel Aviv, joined Talley Beattie’s company, danced in Gertrud Kraus’s Israel Ballet Theater, performed in Habima plays and in movies and staged two solo performances. In 1957, she visited the US and became acquainted with recent developments in the dance scene. Upon her returned to Israel, she cofounded Bimat Mahol (Dance Stage) with Rena Gluck and Naomi Aleskovski. In 1962, she joined Anna Sokolow’s Lyric Theater but left it soon afterwards. Shacham went on to teach dance and established a company of her own. Her students included Lea Levin, Ehud Ben-David and Tirtza Shpanoff.

In 1975, Shacham cofounded Batsheva 2 with Rena Gluck, aimed at enabling choreographic experimentation and training a reserve for the adult company. That year, she staged Metaphors with the new company. Shacham and Gluck were Batsheva 2’s co-artistic directors until 1980.
During the years, Shacham taught in her studio and continued to direct her company and choreograph for it and others. She taught drama in the Kibbutzim College of Education and the Tel Aviv University Department of Theater, and dance at Reut Art High School in Haifa, and in 1989-99 she directed the dance program at WIZO High School in Haifa.