30/12/2015
An update about one of the new street art pieces at the Mahane Yehuda market
“One of the finest artistic gifts to come out of Israel is Hadassah Spira Epstein
Born in Jerusalem on December 30, 1909, Hadassah’s deeply-rooted spiritual beliefs found expression in her art. Hadassah was recognized as a major dance artist of the twentieth century, a performer of Jewish, Hindu and other ethnic dance forms, and a leading force in presenting the dance of other cultures to the American public. She was a pioneer in bringing Jewish dance to the United States
Her signature piece, Shuvi Nafshi (1947), was based on a verse from Psalm 116, “Return O My Soul.” Of the psalm she said, “My interpretation? Man is not alone when he is ecstatically aware that his soul, albeit an infinitesimal spark, is part and parcel of the Universal Flame.” The work was the expression of her religious belief that the dance was a means to attain this ecstatic awareness and thereby to connect with her Source. “Shuvi Nafshi, a dance of Biblical power in its projection of ecstatic reverence for the divine...powerful and beautiful, is not only of interest because of its emotional communications but also because of its absorbing fusion of modern dance’s expressional qualities with oriental movement idioms” (Walter Terry, New York Herald Tribune).
Hadassah’s defiance of the rules of her Hasidic background by dancing in public caused her great emotional turmoil. A major moment in Hadassah’s life occurred one night after dancing Shuvi Nafshi. Her parents appeared backstage with tears in their eyes, having recognized their daughter’s intent to present her beliefs in the dance. She had won their approval with the beauty and spirituality of her work.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hadassah-spira-epstein