The Hebrew Dance Baruch Agadati
Baruch Agadati
1925
The Hebrew Dance Artist
The book was published in 1925 and focuses on Agadati’s work in the field of dance. It includes three essays by intellectuals: Asher Barash — The Dance and the Dancer (On the Artistic Face of B. Agadati); Yitzhak Katz — The Art of Baruch Agadati; Menashe Rabinovitz — Agadati’s Dances.
Also included are 32 mounted reproductions on paper — these consist of drawings by Agadati himself, as well as works by other artists such as Reuven Rubin and Pinchas Litvinovsky, photographs, and promotional posters, all related to the theme of dance.
The book is bound in an artistic cover made at the studio of Elhanan Hefez in Jerusalem, one of the pioneers of artistic bookbinding in the country. The cover is made of cloth, with the book's titles embossed in gold. At the center is an etching by Litvinovsky showing Agadati as a Hasidic dancer. The photo printing plates (kalishot) were prepared by the photographer Avraham Soskin.
The titles and essays are written in Stam script (traditional Hebrew used in sacred texts). The texts are printed in black ink, with initial letters or words at the beginning of sentences highlighted in red ink and in larger font. The book’s titles, introductions, and table of contents are printed in brown ink, echoing the color of the cover.
The book opens with a text on dance taken from Sefer Hasidim (a work on Jewish ethics, customs, and laws written by Rabbi Judah the Pious, dated to the late 12th to early 13th century). The choice of this text as a preface emphasizes the spirit of the time and the spiritual connection between local culture and the broader Jewish world.
The final line of the book also reflects tradition and notes the place and date of publication in a poetic form: Tel Aviv, Iyar, Five Thousand Six Hundred and Eighty-Five of Creation (1925 CE).
The book was published in a limited edition of 100 copies. The copy held by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Library is copy no. 57, with the number handwritten in red ink.
The book is part of the collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Library and was photographed with its assistance.
- Copies: 100
- Pages: 53
- Type of binding: Hard fabric
- Dimensions (cm): 35x25
- Type of printing: Photographs, letterpress
- Publication: Hedim
- Place of publication: Tel Aviv
Baruch Agadati (1895–1976) was a spiritual figure, bohemian, dancer — one of the pioneers of Hebrew dance — as well as a painter and filmmaker. Had he lived in our time, he would likely be considered a multimedia artist. His colorful, unconventional personality broke norms and stirred controversy.
Baruch Agadati was born in Bessarabia as Baruch Kaushansky. The name Agadati was given to him by the poet Yaakov Fichman, who first introduced him to Bialik as “Baruch the Legendary” (Baruch Ha-Agadati). In his childhood, he studied at a cheder (traditional Jewish school). At age 10, he moved with his parents to Odessa, where he discovered the world of dance and, despite his family’s opposition, began studying ballet. At 15, he immigrated alone to Eretz Israel and enrolled at Bezalel, so that he could draw sketches of dancers and choreography. To support himself, he taught ballroom dance in Jerusalem while also working in the orchards of Petah Tikva, where he was first exposed to Yemenite dance through Jewish immigrants from Yemen.
In 1916, while visiting his family in Russia, World War I broke out, preventing his return to Eretz Israel. While in Russia, he continued studying classical dance and won the Odessa Opera Ballet Competition. In 1919, he returned to Eretz Israel aboard the Ruslan — the immigrant ship that carried artists and intellectuals of the founding generation of local culture, as well as Jacob Pereman’s collection of modern art. Upon his return, he began performing as a creative dancer both in Israel and abroad.
In his dances, Agadati explored the essence of the Jewish Ashkenazi movement aimed at ecstasy and sensory intoxication. His choreography was influenced by modern and classical Western dance as well as by the cultural surroundings of the Land of Israel: Yemenite, Bukharan, and Mizrahi folklore.
Inspired by the Venetian Carnival of Masks, in the early 1920s, he initiated large Purim balls in Tel Aviv, which brought together intellectuals and Zionist leaders, and staged parades (Adloyada) in which an “Esther Queen” was crowned. In 1936, during the Arab Revolt, these carnivals and parades were discontinued.
As a painter, Agadati was active already during his studies at Bezalel. His early style was characterized by realistic drawings of figures and dancers. Later, influenced by Constructivist painting, he depicted figures with sharp, angular shapes, emphasizing shading. In the 1940s, he painted watercolor blotches as an abstract expression of his turbulent inner world.
Agadati was also among the founders of local cinema and, in 1936, produced his first film, This Is the Land (59 min), the first Israeli film with a soundtrack. The film depicted the beginnings of settlement in the Land of Israel, exposing the harsh living conditions of the pioneers and the founding of Tel Aviv as the cultural center it would become — a city he helped build.
Agadati dressed in fine suits and bow ties, kept his private life shrouded in secrecy, and spent most of his life living in a hut on Yitzhak Elhanan Street, near the seashore. He died in 1976 and was buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery.
