Leah Bergstein

Leah Bergstein (October 23, 1902 - 1989; לאה ברגשטיין) of Galician Jews origin was among the first choreographers in Mandatory Palestine who created festival dances at kibbutzim.

Bergstein is considered one of the "mothers" of early Israeli folk dance, inventing a new style of movement and laying the foundation of folk dance emerging as an Israeli cultural tradition.

She was the only professional dancer to work in the original folk dance movement at the time.

Bergstein was born in Bilshivtsi in Galicia (now in Ukraine).

She was the daughter of Moshe Bergstein and Liba (née Shor).

Bergstein's grandfather, Ya’akov Bergstein, was the Nagid of the Jewish community in his town.

She had six siblings: David, Isaac, Effie, Haya Dirnal, Hannah Broner, and Rivka.

At the start of World War I in 1914, the Bergstein family fled to Vienna, Austria.

Bergstein arrived in Mandatory Palestine in 1925 and joined Kibbutz Beit Alfa in the Jezreel Valley.

In the gendered hierarchy of the kibbutz, she started working in the laundry, which posed difficulties for Bergstein as a dancer and a woman.

Dancing was perceived as a secondary task to the "real" work: farming and construction for men, cooking and cleaning for women.

Bergstein initially tried to rehearse after working hours but soon found that she did not have sufficient time to choreograph or rehearse.

Despite the demanding and constricting responsibilities for their gender, women dance leaders' artistic contributions, including those of Bergstein, were seen as secondary in the Zionist movement.

The members of Kibbutz Beit Alfa began to learn about sheepherding and shearing from the surrounding Bedouin encampments and extended mutual invitations to festivals and other celebrations.

When attending the Arab village festivity, Bergstein noted the ways in which women participated in the dabke, a traditionally male-dominant dance, from the Sheikh's wife's Laban-like sword dance and a girl's delicate walk through a circle of men dancing.

She cited her observation of the Arab dances as an influence in creating folk dances in kibbutzim and moshavim.

She was inspired by the nomadic culture's rich traditions of ceremonies, songs, and dances that were deeply connected to the earth and nature.

In 1929, the kibbutz shepherds requested that Bergstein create a festive event to celebrate the end of sheep shearing.

Bergstein planned the festive event to accompany the shearing process, including songs and stories composed by the shepherds and performed for the kibbutz audience.

The festival initiated Bergstein's collaboration with Polish-born poet-composer Mattityahu Shelem and marked the first nature celebration of the labor settlement movement containing a choreographic element.

This celebration served as a landmark in the development of the kibbutz festival and Israeli folk-cultural life.

In 1933, the kibbutz pediatrician sent Bergstein to Vienna to study early childhood care through gymnastics.

During her trip, she was reunited with Gertrud Kraus and joined Kraus's dance company for performances in Vienna, including "The Town is Waiting".

Bergstein accompanied Kraus when the dancer emigrated to Palestine in 1936, staying with her to help her open a dance studio in Tel Aviv.

Bergstein's parents emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1938.

In Vienna, Bergstein studied modern dance with a colleague of Isadora Duncan.

Bergstein studied the foundations of movement derived from Greek culture and dance, choreographing short dances inspired by ancient Greek vase paintings.

Bergstein said of this training, "We learned Greek dances and I saw from this the road of re-creation for the dances of Israel. I learned how to return."

Bergstein also encountered Anthroposophy, a movement founded by Rudolf Steiner centering a mystical belief in life after death and reincarnation.

Building upon her foundation in Anthroposophy, Bergstein explored connections between word and movement in choreographing her first two dances, based on poems by Goethe.

Through Steiner's Theosophy, Bergstein encountered Indian dance, discovering her natural affinity for Indian classical movement.

After taking courses in pedagogy and gymnastics and studying to become a kindergarten teacher, Bergstein studied dance at the school of Margaret Schmidt, a student of Rudolf von Laban.

In the practices of Laban, Bergstein expanded her vocabulary of modern dance movement.

She was also impressed by Laban's efforts to reimagine folk festivals, in reaction to its seeming decline, to enable people without prior technical knowledge to perform dances as a way of celebrating and expressing joy.

Bergstein continued her dancing career in the company of Vera Skoronel, a student of Mary Wigman, who had also studied with Laban.

With the rise of anti-Semitism, however, Bergstein heard people comment on her Jewish surname and decided to give up her career as a professional dancer to emigrate to Palestine.

She began to feel more strongly that the Jewish people's return to its land must be accompanied by the building of its own culture.

In the 1940s, Bergstein returned to Kibbutz Beit Alfa.

After a split within the kibbutz, she and a group of friends, including Shelem, moved to Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan.

Continuing her collaboration with Shelem, Bergstein developed original festivals for holidays at Ramat Yohanan.