Israel’s highest honor, the Israel Prize, was awarded to the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre in a state ceremony on Independence Day, April 19, 2010. The prize selection committee was headed by Dr. Hadassah Shani, with Dr. Ziona Peled and Eran Baniel. This week, Suzanne Dellal celebrated at home, in Neve Tzedek where it all began with a dream and a vision, 25 years ago. Today, the center is not only home to the Batsheva Dance Company, Inbal Multicultural Ethnic Center, Inbal Pinto Avshalom Pollak Dance Company and the Orna Porat Theater for Children and Youth; it is a home for dance and creativity in all its many forms. Those who turned the dream into a reality gathered on Wednesday, April 21, in the courtyard of Suzanne Dellal, the arched doorways blooming with flowers as evening rolled in from the sea.
The recollections of those who were there in the beginning, when two former school buildings stood empty in a neglected part of the city, gave the listeners a sense of the vision, daring and enormous effort required to create such a center as Suzanne Dellal. Miki Yerushalmi, whose family established the Yaron Yerushalmi Hall in memory of his brother, a paratrooper killed in the War of Attrition, recalled the rainy day when he first came to see the area with his parents, and the first theatre performances that took place under the stars, before the renovation of the buildings. Among these were Yoram Kaniuk’s Adam Ben Kelev and Hanoch Levin’s The Patriot, directed by Oded Kotler, which Kotler decided to present despite a ban by the Council for Film and Drama Criticism.
Zeev Sokolovsky, representative of the Dellal family in Israel, recalled “we had five very difficult years establishing the center. It was a wonder that it succeeded.” Elisha Rubin, who with Ronit Rubin was the project and structure architect for the centre said that in planning the renovation they were guided by a vision of Suzanne Dellal as an urban cultural center that would be active day and night, attracting seekers of culture, neighborhood families and connecting the city to the sea. The original façade of the buildings was retained while building was enlarged and the interior transformed to accommodate its new purpose. New buildings, such as the Batsheva studios, were designed in harmony with the originals. This loving, attentive and precise vision extended to the courtyards designed by landscape architect Shlomo Aronson, creating the unique atmosphere of Suzanne Dellal, enjoyed daily by hundreds of visitors.
The Director of the centre since its inception, Yair Vardi spoke last, thanking all those who made the vision possible. Recalling a when the Suzanne Dellal Hall was just a lone wall, recalled that “things looked very bleak. Everyone prophesized doom, they called the project a white elephant and said it had no future. Who would have believed?” The man who never rests, giving his expert attention to every aspect of the center, always dedicated to excellence, closed the celebration by looking to the future, saying, “We must all continue to work and create for the dream.”
Photos of the event may be viewed on the Midnight East flickr page.
