Suzanne Dellal Centre - 25 years of dance

The Suzanne Dellal Centre is a municipal, urban and demographic success story, considered the catalyst for the reinvigoration and transformation of the historic Neve Tzedek quarter in south Tel Aviv. Top restaurants, trendy boutiques, numerous cafes, and renovated residences attract Tel Aviv’s design-minded citizens and tourists to the charming, winding streets of the city’s first official neighborhood.

The sight of the current Suzanne Dellal Centre was the first education centre outside of the city walls of Jaffa, which lies just to the south of Tel Aviv on the coast. At the beginning of the 20th century, the land on which Suzanne Dellal sits served as the cultural and educational center of Neve Tzedek and the newly born city of Tel Aviv.

In 1892, the Alliance Society constructed both a boys and girls school in the area that would become Neve Tzedek. In 1904 arrivals from the second wave of Jewish immigration founded a Jewish community with a traditional religious character. Within a few years, the campus consisted of several buildings that housed the Alliance and Yechiely Schools with nearly five hundred students, and the original Lewinsky Teacher Seminary (from 1913-1939).

The new inhabitants, originating from various international communities, founded the “Lovers of Dramatic Art Society” which was the first Hebrew society for theatrical performances. Residents of the new district at this time also included some of Israel’s most famous pioneering writers such as Yosef Aharonowitz, Debora Baron and Nobel Prize winner S.Y. Agnon who together founded the first Hebrew newspaper “HaPoel Hatzair” in Neve Tzedek.

During the period of the British Mandate, Neve Tzedek suffered from tense and often violent relations with its neighbors, causing many of the inhabitants to relocate to newer and safer parts of Tel Aviv. The abandonment brought desolation and neglect to the city’s first quarter, which would last for nearly half a century.

The Suzanne Dellal Centre, in its current state, was inaugurated in 1989 after five years of reconstruction, launching a period or urban rejuvenation that has spread throughout the neighborhood.

The design for the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre seamlessly integrates the historic architecture of the neighborhood’s original buildings with the clean, contemporary lines that define the Tel Aviv Bauhaus style and the fresh, open spaces that capture the Mediterranean atmosphere. Tel Aviv-based architects Elisha and Ronit Rubin re-contextualized and renovated the buildings in accordance with the original design. The expansive outdoor plazas, dotted with citrus and palm trees and a system of miniature water canals, were designed and developed by Shlomo Aharonson of Jerusalem, who was awarded the prestigious Rechter Prize for his work.

The Suzanne Dellal Centre has been hailed as one of the most attractive and popular destinations in Tel Aviv.

The initiative for the project came from then-Mayor of Tel Aviv Yaffo Shlomo Lahat, whose aim was to decentralize the cultural life of Tel Aviv and to promote undeveloped areas in the city. The integration of communal gathering spaces, exciting cultural events, and the charming nostalgia of the district has re-energized the neighborhood and turned it once again into an inspiring and important component of the Tel Aviv’s – and Israel’s – cultural life.