Rina Yerushalmi

Rina Yerushalmi was born in 1939 in Afula

Yerushalmi was born on March 1, 1939, in Afula and grew up in Haifa. Her father, Saul, was an engineer, and her mother, Haya, was a nurse. She began to study dance as a child.

After her army service she moved to London. There she studied movement with Kurt Jooss and stage management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Back in Israel she studied with Nola Chilton and Moshe Feldenkrais, and later earned an MFA in theater directing at Carnegie Mellon University.

In 1970 she began working at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York, where she was a resident director from 1972 to 1978. She also founded a Tel Aviv branch of La MaMa. In 1977 she created the choreography for the dance piece The Dybbuk for the Batsheva Dance Company.

In 1988 she directed Hamlet at the Acco Festival, and in 1989 she founded the Itim Ensemble with stage designer Moshe Sternfeld. The ensemble stages classical texts as contemporary theater, including the Bible Project and Mythos. She also directed at Habima, the Cameri Theatre and the Israeli Opera, and taught at Tel Aviv University.