Ohad Naharin

Ohad Naharin was born in 1952 in kibbutz

Naharin was born in 1952 in Kibbutz Mizra. His father, Eliav, was an actor with Habima and later a psychologist, and his mother, Tzofia, was a dancer who taught movement. The family later moved to Kiryat Amal, today Kiryat Tivon.

He served in the Northern Command Band as a singer and dancer. He began dancing at 22 and joined Batsheva, where Martha Graham invited him to her company in New York. He then studied at Juilliard and the School of American Ballet, and later danced with Maurice Béjart's company in Brussels.

In 1978 he married dancer Mari Kajiwara, who died in 2001. He returned to Israel in 1982 and made works for Israeli companies. In 1990 he became artistic director of Batsheva, creating works such as Anafaza, Mamootot and Virus, and developing Gaga.

In 1998 a planned Batsheva performance at the Jubilee Bells event was canceled after religious public figures protested a section of Echad Mi Yodea. He received the Israel Prize in 2005 and stepped down as artistic director in 2018. He is married to dancer Eri Nakamura.