Suzanne Dellal’s silver jubilee

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
Suzanne Dellal Center 521 (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Suzanne Dellal Center 521
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Over 25 years ago, Yair Vardi took a trip to southern Tel Aviv to see a possible construction site for a groundbreaking arts center. Amid heaps of earth, charred debris and a lone standing wall, Vardi laid eyes on his future and the future of dance in Israel. Jack Dellal and Zehava Helmer, to commemorate the life of their daughter, Suzanne, and her passion for dance, built the Suzanne Dellal Center in the following months. Today, the center is a beacon for dance practitioners in Israel and abroad.
To celebrate the center’s silver jubilee, a number of special events have been set in motion. Over the coming months, Vardi and his team will step up their regular activities to include dance parties, film festivals, performances, exhibits and an unprecedented conference centered on discourse about the dance form.
During Passover, the I Photographed Suzanne Dellal exhibit will be held in the halls of the center. As any visitor to the Neve Tzedek neighborhood can attest, the quaint streets and treelined courtyard of SDC are quite the tourist attraction. Over the years, thousands of such tourists have snapped shots that will now be curated and presented.
Alongside this exhibit, celebrated photographer Gadi Dagon will reveal an exhibit of portraits of local choreographers.
Dagon has had a camera in hand at nearly every dance event in Tel Aviv for decades. His archive holds the faces of nearly every artist to have ever leapt or twirled in Israel.
Together with leading academic and dance practitioner Ran Brown, the center will host a conference called From The Creator.
During this event, active choreographers will read out their manifestos to their peers. Each artist will be free to share his or her approach, inspiration, methods, strategies and whatever else they think and feel about their practice.
In the spring, SDC will once again host the annual Tel Aviv Dance Festival. The program will include a wide range of local companies and independent choreographers. Also in the spring, the annual Docaviv Film Festival will present a special program dedicated to dance films.
For more information about the Suzanne Dellal Center, visit www.suzannedellal.org.il.