However, two years ago, we celebrated our own RAD linked anniversary, because 2017 marked fifty years since the first exams were held in Israel. The significance of that first exam tour in 1967 is quite remarkable, since it took place under the looming threat of war.  The RAD examiner, Ms Elizabeth Glass, arrived in the country when other foreigners were hastening to leave and she insisted on staying until the last student was examined, despite the increasingly urgent calls from the British Embassy for her to leave. She eventually left on the last flight out of the country, just before what became known as the Six Day War broke out. RAD headquarters broke their own rules the following year, when they allowed Ms Glass to come back and examine the second exam session, so that the teachers could give her the hero’s welcome that she deserved! 2017 was also a significant year for an additional reason, in that Rivkah Nathan became the very first Israeli teacher to qualify as anRAD examiner – an achievement of which we are all justifiably proud.

When I arrived in Israel in the late 1970s, I found a thriving classical ballet scene, which included the Israel Ballet Company, founded in 1967 by Berta Yampolsky and Hillel Markman, well-established RAD dance schools, dancewear shops and even professional open ballet classes, courtesy of Bat Dor Studios, Tel Aviv. I had no idea at the time how extraordinary that all was, coming as I did from London, where these things were taken for granted. It was only some 20 years later when I researched the history of RAD in Israel as part of my thesis for the RAD’s B.Phil. (Hons) degree, that I fully appreciated the tremendous achievements of the pioneering teachers of the Israel branch of the RAD.

Before the establishment of the state of Israel, classical ballet did not play a major role in the cultural life of the country. On the contrary, free style, impressionistic modern dance was the popular dance genre. However, there were two notable ballet teachers who did leave their mark – Mia Arbatova in Tel Aviv and Valentina Arkhipova in Haifa, both of whom had been professionally trained in Russia. They opened their respective studios in the early 1940s, but faced an uphill struggle as they had almost no external support in their efforts to develop classical ballet. No ballet companies visited the country until the 1950s and public television only began broadcasting in Israel in 1966, thus there was little to inspire the younger generation to learn ballet. In fact, shoemakers had to be taught how to make ballet slippers and pointe shoes; not very successfully it seems, as the pointe shoes were reportedly as unwieldy as wooden clogs!

Fortunately, neither ballet teacher conceded defeat. Arbatova’s studio became the main centre in Tel Aviv, creating generations of professional dancers and hosting the visiting dance companies from abroad. The Mia Arbatova Ballet Association was established in her honour in 1989 and resulted in a biennial Ballet Competition and Schools’ Gala, in which RAD schools have been well represented over the years. Nevertheless, as far as the RAD is concerned, the more significant teacher of the two was Arkhipova, because, in spite of her Russian background, she became interested in the RAD’s work to the extent that she began sending students to London to train and take exams there. She was convinced that Israel should have a branch of the RAD and corresponded regularly with RAD headquarters on the matter.

However, Arkhipova’s dream was only realised when two South African immigrants, Jeannette Ordman and Yvonne Narunsky, came into the picture. They, like Arkhipova, understood immediately that little could be achieved without the reinforcement of yearly exams under RAD supervision in Israel. Their main goal was to improve the general standard of classical ballet training in Israel and to encourage children to start systematic training at a younger age. In order to achieve this, it was obvious that more teachers needed to be recruited. For this aim, Ordman went to London to be examined in order to ensure that she could teach the syllabi correctly. Approval was granted and upon her return Ordman taught the syllabi to seventeen teachers, who would form the nucleus of RAD Israel branch, which was officially recognised in 1968, with Arkhipova as Chairwoman.