Zvi Gotheiner

Zvi Gotheiner was born in 1952 in Kibbutz Mesilot.

Gotheiner was a violinist in the Bnei HaKibbutzim Orchestra and the Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra. He studied painting and sculpture. He received a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (AICF) and studied dance at the Bat-Dor Studio in Tel Aviv and with Gertrud Kraus.

At the end of his military service, in 1975, he joined Batsheva and performed in Trek, Games We Play and The Green Table. Thanks to another scholarship from AICF he left in 1976 for a year of further education in New York, and studied in Martha Graham’s, Alvin Ailey’s and Margaret (Maggie) Black’s schools. He also danced with the Garden State Ballet, Joyce Trisler Dance Company, and Eliot Feld Ballet.

In 1982, he returned to Israel and established the Cameri Dance Theater Company. The company premiered in 1982 in New York, and in 1983 in Israel by the name Ramla Dance Theater (Hebrew acronym: TAMAR), following the advice of Omanut Laam’s Director Yossi Frost. Frost went on to invite the company to make its home at the Ramla Culture Palace in order to promote cultural cooperation between Jews and Arabs. Gotheiner choreographed the following dances for the company: Songs without Words, White Time and Stigma. In 1987, after the company was disbanded, he established the Tamar school and company in Jerusalem. In 1992, Gotheiner moved back to New York and established the Zvidance Company, whose permanent home is in Broadway, and where he is still active today. Gotheiner is frequently invited to teach dance workshops in the US, Europe and Israel.