Inbal Dance Theater is a dance group

Concert dance

Concert dance is dance performed for an audience. It is frequently performed in a theatre setting, though this is not a requirement, and it is usually choreographed and performed to set music.By contrast, social dance and participation dance may be performed without an audience and, typically, these...

 operating in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. The subject matter and materials the group deals with derive from Jewish tradition and heritage, and from the folklore of the various ethnic groups in Israel – Jewish and non Jewish – such as the Yemenite

Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...

, Moroccan, Persian and Kurdish

Kurdish Jews

Kurdish Jews or Kurdistani Jews are the ancient Eastern Jewish communities, inhabiting the region known as Kurdistan in northern Mesopotamia, roughly covering parts of Iran, northern Iraq, Syria and eastern Turkey. Their clothing and culture is similar to neighbouring Kurdish Muslims and Christian...

 folklore, the Chasidic community and Arab society. The group is known for incorporating biblical themes and an ancient dance language into modern dance moves.

The group was founded in 1949 by Sara Levi-Tanai

Sara Levi-Tanai

Sara Levi-Tanai was an Israeli choreographer and song writer. She was the founder and artistic director of the Inbal Dance Theater and recipient of the Israel Prize in dance.- Prizes and awards :...

, Jerusalem-born of a Yemenite family, in order to continue the rich traditions of Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...

. Levi-Tanai started working with a group of Yemenite youths at the "Carmel" school. From this original group came the first generation of seven Inbal dancers.

The group started working regularly in 1950, and was called "Sara Levi's Oriental Dance Group". They performed at moshav

Moshav

Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...

im, kibbutz

Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

im and other settlements, organized by the Histadrut

Histadrut

HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...

. In 1954, the group received funding from the Norman Foundation (later the America-Israel Culture Foundation), which allowed them to create in better conditions and even raise the number of dancers to 12.

Levi-Tanai's work received a mixed reception. Many looked down on her work and considered it "oriental folklore". Yet, the group was chosen to represent Israel around the world. In the years 1957-1959 they toured North America and Europe.

The Inbal Dance Theater under the artistic direction of Levi-Tanai was very successful both in Israel and abroad for over 40 years.

The group operates at the Inbal Ethnic Center for Arts at The Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in Neve Tzedek

Neve Tzedek

Neve Tzedek is a neighborhood located in southwestern Tel Aviv, Israel. It was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa. For years, the neighborhood prospered as Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, grew up around it...

, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

.

Creations

• “Megilat Ruth” dance for which Sara Levi-Tanai was awarded the title of “Bast Choreographer during the theater Halls Festival held in Paris in 1962.
• “Yemenite Wedding”
• “Deborah Poem”
• “Hymn for David”
• “Willd Rose”
• “Desert”
• “Song of Song”