With an exhibition and live dance performances in the Israel Museum's exhibition halls, "Out of the Circle" celebrates 50 years of dance and choreography in Israel. The art of staged dance in Israel has undergone a long journey to become one of the country's most successful performing arts disciplines. Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel, explores Israeli dance and choreography since the 1920s and honors two of Israel's most prominent dance institutions on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Batsheva Dance Company and the 25th anniversary of the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum will host a series of dance performances, "Dance at the Museum", by some of today's foremost artists in the field. During the month of February there will be four dance performances by prominent dancers and choreographers, featuring iconic dances adapted to the exhibition and performed in an intimate setting. The series is presented in conjunction with Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel.

Through photographs, videos, posters, drawings, and other ephemera, Out of the Circle explores critical milestones in the development of contemporary dance in Israel through the central theme of the circle. The earliest form of collective Israeli dance can be traced back to the hora circle dance of the young pioneers who came to Israel at the start of the 20th century and established the first kibbutzim. The hora reinforced a sense of brotherhood and group unity, a feeling strengthened by the physical closeness of the dancers as they joined hands. As the circle dance grew to become a symbol of Israel, it contributed an important element to the creation of a cultural identity that was formed well before the establishment of the Israeli State.

Israel's early dance performers and choreographers emigrated from Europe to pre-state Israel in the 1920s and 30s, importing expressionist dance from Germany and Austria, which would have a formative impact on the nascent scene in Israel. It was during this time that Baruch Agadati, considered a pioneer of "the new dance in Israel," created and performed compositions featuring mosaic of popular characters found in the Israeli landscape, including Biblical personalities, pioneers, Yemenite Jews, and Jaffa Arabs, all wearing costumes that he designed. Three drawings of Agadati by such renowned Russian Constructivists as Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov are presented in the exhibition.

Arriving in 1936, dance visionary Gertrud Kraus continued the European mode of expressionistic dance. Kraus and her contemporaries modified and evolved the medium to incorporate features of their newly adopted country: light, open space, a search for commonality, and the excitement of being "at one with the homeland."

Many photographers who chronicled these dance pioneers also arrived from Central Europe. Among them was Alfons Himmelreich, who immigrated to pre-State Israel where he began photographing Tel Aviv's burgeoning modern dance scene. His artistic style, influenced by German art and photography of the time, incorporates contrasting light and shadow to illustrate the drama and emotion of the dancers.

The founding of the Batsheva Dance Company in 1964, and other prominent companies in the 1960s and 70s, reflects the growing professionalism and institutionalizing of the art of Israeli dance. This was followed by a growing shift in Israel from the collective "us" toward a more individual "me," and, as the circle fell apart, dancers began to search for their private voices and left the dance-troupe circle in favor of personal creativity in the work of such choreographers as Rina Schenfeld, Moshe Efrati, Liat Dror, and Nir Ben Gal.

Out of the Circle: The Art of Dance in Israel is on view until February 28, 2015.