Sara Levi-Tanai

Sara Levi-Tanai was born in 1910 in Jerusalem

Sara Levi-Tanai was born in Jerusalem in 1910 to parents of Yemenite origin. She grew up in Jaffa, but during World War I the Ottoman authorities expelled the Jews of Jaffa. She lost her mother, brother and father and was raised in an orphanage in Safed and later at the Shfeya children's institution.

She trained as a kindergarten teacher at the Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv and worked in a kindergarten there. She wrote and composed songs for children and studied acting, but the Habima and Ohel theaters did not accept her. In 1935 she married Israel Tanai.

In 1940 she moved to Kibbutz Ramat HaKovesh, where she wrote and directed ceremonies and pageants for kibbutzim and moshavim. Her works included The Book of Ruth in 1947 and Genesis in 1950. She also wrote songs such as El Ginat Egoz.

In 1949 she began working with a group of Yemenite youths, which became the Inbal Dance Theater. She served as its artistic director for many years and created dance works drawing on biblical, Jewish and Yemenite motifs. Inbal toured North America and Europe from 1957 to 1959.

She received the Israel Prize in dance in 1973 and later honors from Tel Aviv and the Histadrut. She died in 2005.