Hadassah (dancer)
Hadassah Spira Epstein (December 30, 1909November 18, 1992), professional name Hadassah, was a Jerusalem-born American dancer, choreographer, and instructor specializing in Indian, Javanese, Balinese, and Jewish dance. Credited as a pioneer of Indian and Israeli dance in the United States, her choreography reflected both aspects and styles of ethnic and folk culture and her own deeply-held spiritual beliefs. Her signature dance, "Shuvi Nafshi" ("Return O My Soul") (1947) was based on a verse in Psalm 116. Hadassah began performing in New York City in 1938 and made her professional debut as a solo artist in 1945. She performed through the mid-1970s. She was widely praised for her choreography and performance; an obituary in The New York Times described her as "a performer of special eloquence". She opened her own dance company in 1950. Later she taught many students in the United States, and was a faculty member, board member, and chairperson of the Ethnic Division of the New Dance Group, the largest school of dance in New York. Early life Hadassah Spira was born in Jerusalem, Ottoman Palestine, on December 30, 1909. She was the eldest of five children of Rabbi Isaac Spira and Menucha Landau Spira. She had three brothers and a sister. Her ancestors on both sides were rabbis. Her maternal grandfather co-founded the School of Mysticism in Jerusalem, and she herself was "trained in the mysticism of Hasidic Judaism". From an early age, Spira was interested in chants and dances. She was first exposed to Hebrew chants and cantillation, as well as Hebrew dance, in the context of her family's religious practice; she recalled watching her grandfather dancing with the Torah scroll. She was also exposed to Hindu chants and dances through contact with Indian soldiers in service of the British Mandate. Both she and her father, a hazzan (cantor), were struck by the similarities between Hebrew and Hindu chants. Spira later said: "I came to the conclusion that if the chants of the Hindus and the Hasidic are similar, and if the music is the handmaiden of the dance, Indian dance must be similar to ancient Hebrew dance". Spira's family was forced to leave Jerusalem due to a misstatement by one of their relatives working in the diplomatic service. The family lived in Vienna and Constantinople during their two-year sojourn, finally reaching the United States in 1924. According to Long, Spira viewed at least one performance of the Denishawn Dancers at Lewisohn Stadium before 1931, and was particularly impressed with Ted Shawn, who was known for his Whirling Dervish. After her marriage in 1933, Spira's husband, Milton Epstein, encouraged her to familiarize herself with New York's theatre and dance culture. Spira Epstein began studying dance under Ruth St. Denis and Jack Cole, who both incorporated eastern ideas in their works. She also studied with La Meri, founder of the Ethnologic Dance Center of New York, and Nala Najan, the leading Hindu dance scholar in the United States. During the 1939 New York World's Fair, she studied