“A Unique Luxury”

“It was the highest aspiration. The ultimate peak.It suddenly became known that Batsheva wanted to establish a company. And Martha Graham would come to Israel and there would be auditions. Everybody knew. Hadassaa Baduch, Judith Wahl, Ahuva Anbari and Rina Schenfeld were abroad when they started working with Graham’s dancers on Graham’s Greek Tragedy roles: Errandinto the Maze and Cave of the Heart. Moshe Efrati was also studying and rehearsing there, and then they came to Israel already knowing their parts.

“The dancers’ audition in Israel was in Arbatova’s studio, because it was the biggest. We had to do a classic lesson, Mia Pick and Mia Arbatova were the examiners and Rena Gluck taught modern dance [Graham Technique]. Francois Schapira, Graham and Batsheva, all sat observing the classes,selecting dancers for the Company. Afterwards Graham’s dancers came to Israel and taught us the repertory, and Martha would come and ‘fix’ it. They weren’t crazy about us. They had the feeling we were stealing from them, but knew that Martha would come later so they would demonstrate and correct until the dance was complete. They were performers with a personality, each and every one of them.

What happened at Batsheva was a unique luxury. A company with the monthly salary of 420 liras, we worked 8 hours a day and didn’t have to do shoddy work!

Graham’s works had a story. It wasn’t like today when you don’t need a story. It wasn’t like watching a Batsheva performance today that’s based on the physical experience that the company communicates. There was a lot of drama then. Look at the costumes, they’re the result of what she wanted to express.”