“All her work is characterized by organic integration of music, costume and décor, with the dance being the outcome of an approach to the composer-designer-scenarist-choreographer composite perceived as one fertile, creative team. Another feature of her work is the decidedly vibrant Israeli quality shining through a tissue of otherwise contemporary influences.” (“New Directions in Dance,” Ariel, 1976)

Mirali Sharon, whose work has been performed in Israel and at prestigious festivals abroad, is one of Israel’s major choreographers of the 1970s and 1980s. She belongs to the first generation of native Israeli choreographers who sought to create contemporary dance with an Israeli character, collaborating with contemporary Israeli artists in music, literature, architecture, and the plastic arts.

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Soon after leaving Ein-Harod, Sharon opened her own dance studio and directed movement for performances by the Ohel Theater (1954), for Lorca’s Yerma at the Cameri Theatre (1957), and for the Theater Quartet, Nissim Nativ’s Actors’ Studio, army groups, and festivals on agricultural settlements.

In 1958 Sharon traveled to the United States. Unlike most Israeli women dancers, who went there to study with Martha Graham or at Juilliard, Sharon searched for tools to create her own language of movement and therefore studied with Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, and Merce Cunningham. The Israeli Consulate in New York sent her solo performance on tour throughout the United States and Canada. She returned to Israel in 1960 and in 1963 she again went to the United States, where she appeared in the dance companies of Nikolais and Murray Louis. In 1967, she founded her own company, receiving excellent reviews.

Sharon returned to Israel in 1970, bringing with her the new ideas of avant-garde post-modern dance, but she discovered that Israel’s leading companies had no appropriate framework for her experimental work. Neither the Batsheva nor the Bat-Dor companies found her daringly anti-establishment ideas acceptable and Israel had no “fringe” dance until 1977. Ultimately, however, the Batsheva and Bat-Dor companies, which normally doubted the capabilities of Israeli choreographers who had not been members, allowed Sharon to work with them because of the favorable reviews she had earned abroad. For Batsheva, she choreographed Transitions (1971), a duet with an arch that served as a bridge around which a human conflict and union occurs, and Lyric Episodes (1972), to music commissioned from Zvi Avni, using Uzi Sharon’s set consisting of four colorful panels, opening like the pages of a book. Following the Yom Kippur War Sharon made Taltala (“Shaking,” 1973), about the blow to the Israeli self-confidence, and Monodrama (1975), a monologue by a woman in various emotional states.

In 1978, Paul Sanasardo was named artistic director of Batsheva. He canceled the company’s previous contracts and did not agree to renew rehearsals on a piece Sharon was in the midst of choreographing. With Batsheva now closed to her, Sharon began to choreograph for Bat-Dor. For Bat-Dor, she choreographed Prisme (1976), He and She (1976), Leda (1978), Hymn to Jerusalem (1978), The Dreamer (1979), and Opus 5 (1981), known for their contemporary look. Prism (1976) was an ensemble dance to music by Marc Kopytman, an immigrant from the then USSR, and with a set by David Sharir. The dance was in seven segments dealing with human conditions passing through various prisms, each evoking memories. Sharon’s Anthem for Jerusalem was created in 1980 for Bat-Dor. The music was from Mordecai Seter’s Jerusalem Symphony, set and costumes by Sharir. The dance dealt with both the keening over the destruction of Jerusalem and the joy at its redemption.

In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Jerusalem and in 1979 a peace treaty was signed between Israel and Egypt. In that same optimistic year, an international convention on the subject of dance in the bible took place. The brainchild of Giora Manor, the week-long convention was part of the Israel Festival. To honor the event, Bat-Dor mounted the world premiere of Sharon’s Master of Dreams, based on the story of Joseph and his brothers that fit perfectly with the renewal of relationships with Egypt.

Jeanette Ordman, the Artistic Director of Bat-Dor, was the inspiration for He and She (1976) to music by Zvi Avni and set by Sharir. It was based on Coppelia, the 1870 ballet by Saint Léon. Ordman danced the mechanical doll and Yehuda Maor the clockmaker. This is a dance with a mad humor about a kind of clockmaker-wizard who animates the doll – until the doll turns on her maker. The dance was a hit, and one of Ordman’s favorites.

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