*2nd Generation dance. A dance that developed and was disseminated in a non-traditional way. 2G dances are specific – have a fixed format designed to correspond with the arrangement of a particular recording., whereas 1G dances are generic – have a shorter sequence that works with live music – where many different songs are played and arrangements vary according to the tastes of musicians and dancers. For more on the differences between 1st & 2nd G dances click here.
1924 – First Israeli Dance – Hora Agadati
According to Ron Houston in the 1999 Folk Dance Problem Solver “Baruch Agadati came from Romania in 1910 to entertain the natives of Palestine with his solo ballet recitals, and stayed to become a leading movement artist of Tel Aviv….I believe he created Hora Agadati as a balletic character dance to represent the staccato and sturdy Dabke of the indigenous Arabs….But what did he create? I have no description of this dance written prior to 1951.” Gurit Kadman, “mother of Israeli dance”, modified Agadati’s choreography for the 1944 Dalia Festival. “1948 issues of Viltis [magazine] quote Kadman as boasting of rearranging it entirely……By the time Lapson presented it at the 1951 Stockton Folk Dance Camp. it had changed from a Dabke to just another enthusiastic chalutsim (pioneer) dance with “Romanian” influence.”
Folkdance Footnotes 