Click on the icon to listen to a 30-second audio clip of the song We are pleased to reproduce the original sheet music and the words, dance notes, performance photographs and dance position drawings to Hora Agadati.
Background:
Hora Agadati is one of the earliest Hebrew folk dances.
It was originally choreographed in 1924 to a Moldavian folk tune by Baruch Agadati.
Around 1944, in the framework of the first Dalia Festival, the composer Uriya Boskovitz saw the dance, but he was shocked because its melody was that of a Moldavian anti-Semitic song.
He told this to Gurit Kadman, and so Gurit asked him to write a new melody for the dance.
However Gurit had to nag Boskovitz for about six months before he finally did so.
It is also at that time that the lyrics were written by Ze’ev Havatselet.
These are the melody and lyrics to which we dance Hora Agadati today.
Gurit Kadman also introduced a change in Agadati's dance, and this clearly appears in the leaflet (see Dance Steps and Story.)
Just like the Moldavian tune, Agadati's dance had two parts, but these two parts were the same steps. Gurit changed the first part altogether, introducing the running steps and the debka jumps, and that first part is all hers.
This she did in order for the dance to be less monotonous and also less "static" (in place.) The second part is Agadati's original second part, which Gurit kept unchanged. This is the version of Hora Agadati we dance today.
Story told by Gurit Kadman to Elliot Cohen of France
To our knowledge this is the only place on the internet to view these historic documents. We are grateful to Howie Goldman of New York for sending them to us.