“Batsheva Dance Company was established with a telephone call from Batsheva de Rothschild who said: “I have a crazy idea to start a company, and we’ll call it Batsheva. You’ll go to New York again and Martha will teach you the roles she made for herself such as in Errand into the Maze, Herodiade etc. and if you’ll perform the dances to her approval, she’ll give us permission to perform with her repertory. I’m counting on you to assemble and raise the dancers’ quality in New York”. I actually traveled to New York, I and the other dancers who were there learned Graham’s repertory, and when we performed in her studio she came to me after the show and approved of my and Moshe Efrati’s performance. Words cannot describe the experience of working with Martha and Batsheva. Ecstasy, great vision, groundbreaking, just like the birth of the State, the birth of a baby. We started from zero and within three-four years grew into a great success, in all criteria, in Europe and the United States.”
Rina Schenfeld, Dancer, Teacher, and Choreographer, 1964-1978