Dance has always played an important role within Jewish communal traditions because of its capacity to heighten both the collective and individual joy. Dancing in Judaism can be traced to both written and oral traditions. The Bible contains many dance images (from Miriam dancing with the Israelite women in victory to King David) described with eleven different and specific Hebrew dance terms. In written The legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah and interpreted by rabbinic authorities, beginning with those of the Mishnah and Talmud.Halakhah there are rabbinic commentaries in the Lit. "teaching," "study," or "learning." A compilation of the commentary and discussions of the amora'im on the Mishnah. When not specified, "Talmud" refers to the Babylonian Talmud.Talmud and the Halakhic decisions written by rabbinic authories in response to questions posed to them.Responsa, not only how to dance at a wedding (Ketubot Tractate 17A), but also descriptions, for example, of the most joyous dance ever seen (at Sukkot). Different interpretations of how to execute dances in different communities over time account for the rich differences in Diasporic community dance at weddings, holidays, and even in prayer.

Jewish immigrants brought with them their ritual and celebratory Jewish dances, but these traditional forms of Jewish dance waned in the United States as youth were influenced to Americanize and assimilate. Settlement houses, social institutions, as well as political movements such as Socialism, Communism, and Zionism all affected the changes. In New York from the 1910s through the 1950s, these influences included Zionist and Yiddish groups such as He-Haluz ha-Za’ir, Camp Kinderland and Camp Boiberik, Henry Street Settlement House, the Neighborhood Playhouse, the 92nd Street Y, and the New Dance Group. Nonetheless, the bond between dance and Judaism remained strong, particularly as young women began to express themselves through the art of dance.

Jewish women were particularly attracted to the field of modern dance. The development of the American modern dance movement from the 1920s through the 1960s centered in New York City, which was also the site of America’s largest Jewish community. Working-class and poor Jewish immigrant parents on the Lower East Side sought out culture and education in the arts for their children, often as a vehicle for assimilation. Ironically, many of these same parents disapproved when dance became their children’s chosen profession.

Canonic dance personalities, companies, and institutions trained Jewish dancers including Isadora Duncan and her Isadorables; the Denishawn Company; the Martha Graham Dance Company; the Humphrey-Weidman Company; Henry Street under Alwin Nikolais; the New Dance Group, and later, the Dance Theater Workshop and the experimental Judson Dance Theater. In turn, Jewish women became modern dance performers, teachers, choreographers, company directors, costumers, lighting designers, as well as critics, writers, and researchers. The latter, almost a century later, created “Jewish Dance Studies" within academia.

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The iconic Denishawn, created by Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, was considered the foundation of American modern dance. Denishawn discriminated against Jews through their quota systems on both East and West coasts. Nonetheless, Klarna Pinska, raised in a Winnipeg Jewish family, moved to California to work for St. Denis as a maid in exchange for classes. Pinska became a St. Denis protégée, eventually teaching in the 1920s and 1930s in Denishawn schools in Los Angeles and New York. Years later, she restaged Denishawn works for new audiences in New York for the Joyce Trisler Dance Company.

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Like Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman began their careers at Denishawn and specifically decided to leave because of anti-Semitism. Their company, from 1928 through the 1940s, was welcoming to Jewish dancers. Gertrude Shurr, who went on to dance with both Graham and Humphrey, remarked: “The reason I went with Doris (Humphrey) and Charles (Weidman) when they left Denishawn was because they stuck up for us. Here we were, all of us New York City kids, all of us Jewish kids …and we thought we were going to be taken into the company. And only one tenth of the company could be first generation American. Everybody else had to be from the Mayflower. … I must say Doris and Charles left because of that issue. And we left with them. About fifty-eight people left the school just like that” (Graff 20). Humphrey’s later troupe also included many Jewish dancers: Beatrice Seckler, Eva (née Garnet) Desca, Saida Gerrard (1913- 2005), Joan Levy Bernstein, Marion Scott, and Eleanor Schiel.

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Gentile modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm, who came to New York from the German expressionist dance company of Mary Wigman, included several Jewish students and company performers: Rheba Koren, Rebecca Stein (who also taught at the New Dance Group), Geula Greenblatt Abrams, Peggy Berg, Nahami Abdell, Mimi Kagan Kim, who appeared in Holm’s work Trend, and Marva Spielman. When Holm dissociated herself from Wigman’s Nazi politics, Spielman returned to dance with Holm, and then made her career in New England.

Holm’s most illustrious Jewish performer was Eve Gentry, née Henrietta Greenwood (1909–1994), the daughter of a Polish Jewish family. She first studied in Los Angeles at the Pavley-Okrainsky Ballet School and studied modern dance with Ann Mundstok in San Francisco and with Harald Kreutzberg. In 1936 she moved to New York, where she danced in Holm’s company for six years, appearing in Holm’s Bennington performances, originating roles in all Holm’s major works of that period: Trend, A Cry Rises from the Land, Salvation, Two Primitive Rhythms, and Dance of Work and Play. Gentry choreographed her own works at the New Dance Group, such as Tenant of the Street (1938). From 1944 to 1968 she had her own company in New York City while teaching at the High School for Performing Arts and the New Dance Group. She was also one of the founding members of the Dance Notation Bureau, served on the dance faculty of New York University, and worked with Joseph H. Pilates for over twenty years. In 1968 she opened her own dance and Pilates center in Santa Fe, co-founding The Institute for Pilates Method. In 1979 she received the Pioneer of Modern Dance Award from Bennington College.

In 1948, Alwin Nikolais, recommended by Hanya Holm, became director of the Playhouse classes at Henry Street and later the Playhouse Dance Co. which featured several Jewish dancers. He had trained with Truda Kaschmann besides Holm. From the beginning his classes at Henry Street included choreography; his students were Phyllis Lamhut (b. 1933) and Gladys Bailin (b.1930), both later featured in Nikolais’s company works, Lamhut for twenty years. She had her own company earning sixteen choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts plus a Guggenheim Fellowship. Lamhut has become a valued composition teacher, especially at the Tisch School for the Arts at New York University. After dancing with Nikolais, Bailin also danced with Murray Louis and has directed the Ohio University School of Dance. Shown at the Henry Street Playhouse were many young choreographers including Ellida Geyra before she moved to Israel.

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Leah Harpaz (d. 2008) studied with Dvora Lapson and Alwin Nikolais at Henry Street and performed with Benjamin Zemach’s New York group and with Eve Gentry and Helen Tamiris. As a mature dancer, she specialized in teaching the elderly and conducted a highly acclaimed class at the 92nd Street Y, specializing in dance for stroke victims and sufferers from Parkinson’s Disease and other physical disorders. She was active in the Israel Dance Library Association.

Eva Desca Garnet Rosen (1914-2015) studied and performed with the Denishawn Company, Humphrey-Weidman Company, the New Dance Group, and at the 92nd Street Y. In addition, she performed on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies and with Sophie Maslow and Marjorie Mazia, accompanied by Woody Guthrie. She later collaborated with the Dance Department at UC Irvine, including with Donald McKayle, who remembered Desca as his first dance teacher and choreographed a role for her in Generations. Eva returned to college at the age of 50 and received a Masters in Gerontology from the University of Southern California, pioneering exercise for seniors.

Judy Dunn (née Goldsmith; 1933–1983) danced with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1959 to 1963. In 1960 she assisted her then-husband, Robert Ellis Dunn, with a series of dance composition classes that helped lead to the dance movement called “post-modern.” She was one of the founding members and the stage manager at Judson Dance Theatre’s historic first production on July 6, 1962, continuing in that position for several concerts. Among her dances presented there were Index, The Other Side, and Natural History. Dunn later collaborated with jazz composer Bill Dixon; they also taught together at Sarah Lawrence College. She then moved to Bennington College, where she taught until her death.

Aileen Passloff (b. 1931), who began choreographing in the 1950s, joined Robert Dunn’s workshop, which evolved into the Judson Dance Theatre, performing her works, which included Boa Constrictor, April and December, and Tea at the Palaz of Hoon. She became a dance teacher at Bard College.

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