This September, the world returns to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF) returns for its fifth edition, bringing four days of dance, music, culture and fine wine to Hansen House and the Greek Community House. From sunset into the night, audiences are invited to wander between open air performances, site specific works, live music, tastings and encounters, all set within the atmosphere of late summer in Jerusalem.
This year’s festival brings together around 40 artists from India, Taiwan, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Austria, the United States, Greece and Israel. Throughout the festival they present a rich spectrum of artistic voices, cultures and stories, ranging from contemporary dance to ancient movement traditions, from intimate solo creations to large scale performances that bring the festival’s artists together on one stage.
Each festival evening offers a different experience: an Opening Night celebrating encounters between Israeli and international artists; One Night in Taiwan, blending contemporary and traditional dance with the colors and flavors of Taiwan; a one time Gala Concert with Aya Korem and the festival’s artists; and The International Taverna, where artists and audiences come together at the Greek Community House.
At the heart of JISDF lies the power of a single body to tell an entire world of stories. Through deeply personal artistic voices, the festival creates a broader encounter between cultures, identities and perspectives. It is a multicultural experience that invites audiences into a close and meaningful dialogue with both the artists and one another.
Whether you arrive in a black dress and sneakers, jeans or a blazer, JISDF invites you to experience four days of international performance, cultural encounters and the vibrant spirit of Jerusalem.
Festival Program | JISDF 2026
Opening Night | 15 September 2026 | Hansen House
An international evening of dance and culture opening the fifth edition of the festival throughout the spaces of Hansen House.
The evening begins with courtyard performances and site specific works created especially for Hansen House, alongside India Up Close, an encounter with Indian dance and culture. Later, the festival’s main stage presents a curated programme of solo and duet performances by artists from Israel and around the world.
Moving freely between courtyards, gardens and performance spaces, audiences are invited to discover a variety of artistic voices while enjoying live music, wine and the atmosphere of a Jerusalem summer evening.
One Night in Taiwan | 16.9 | Hansen House
An evening dedicated to contemporary and traditional Taiwanese culture.
Five artists from Taipei present dance performances and new creations, including works developed during the festival’s international residency in Jerusalem. Alongside the performances, audiences can enjoy Taiwanese music, culinary tastings and an open workshop introducing the traditional art of Taiwanese umbrella painting.
An evening of movement, color, sound and flavor, offering a unique opportunity to experience the many faces of Taiwanese culture through the festival’s collaboration with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv and the Spotlight Taiwan project.
Closing Festival’s Night – Diamonds| 17.9 | Hansen House
This year, singer songwriter Aya Korem, choreographer Miriam Engel, the festival’s international artists and a live musical ensemble come together on one stage for an original Gala Concert created exclusively for JISDF.
Aya Korem’s songs are reimagined through new choreographic interpretations and live musical arrangements, forming a single theatrical work that weaves together storytelling, movement, voice and live performance. Festival artists perform dance works created especially for this evening, resulting in a vibrant large scale production.
Blending concert and dance performance, familiar songs and new artistic creations, and artists from diverse traditions, the evening presents an original production premiering at the festival.
Festival After – The International Taverna | 18.9 | Greek Community House
On Friday morning, the festival moves to the Greek Community House for a relaxed gathering inspired by the spirit of a traditional taverna.
Short performances unfold throughout the enchanting garden and historic house, where festival artists from Israel and around the world meet audiences alongside Greek music, wine and local cuisine. It is a Jerusalem Friday morning of dance, food and music, where artists and audiences gather around both the stage and the table to celebrate the closing moments of the festival together.
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Artistic Director’s Statement:
“The fifth edition of JISDF emerges within a reality that continues to shift, challenge and ask us to reconsider the meaning of encounter, belonging and human closeness. Especially now, we choose to continue inviting artists to Jerusalem, to create together, to listen to one another, and to hold a space where the body can express what words often cannot, where we can process what we have lived through and open a gentle possibility for healing.
This year, Jerusalem becomes, more than ever, a creative partner. Artists come here not only to perform, but to live in the city for a time, work in the studio, meet local artists and communities, and develop new creations shaped by their encounter with Jerusalem and with the Israeli reality.
The fact that artists from Taiwan, India, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and many other places choose to come here during such a complex time is far from self evident. Each of them brings a world of experience, culture and memory. Their meeting does not erase differences. Instead, it invites us to acknowledge them, move through them, and create something new together.
In this fifth edition, our ambition is not only to present art, but to create the conditions for it to be born here. We invite audiences to come close to the creative process, to meet the people behind the works, and to experience how one deeply personal movement can open a profoundly human and universal space.
The festival is not an escape from reality. It is a place that allows us to encounter reality through the body, the imagination and the heart, and to remember that even in times of distance and division, culture continues to create living connections between people.”
Miriam Engel
Artistic Director, JISDF
Founder & Artistic Director, JISDF
Miriam Engel is a Jerusalem based choreographer, dancer, artistic director and cultural entrepreneur. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF), Founder of Merhav Mahol (Dance Space), and Founder of Angela Dance Company Israel. For more than two decades, she has created, performed and led artistic projects across Israel, Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia. Her work brings together contemporary dance, theatre, live music, text, video and site specific performance, exploring questions of identity, belonging, human connection, and the ways in which the body tells both personal and collective stories.
Engel develops and leads collaborations with artists, companies, festivals, cultural institutions and universities around the world. Her work ranges from intimate solo performances to large scale international productions, while fostering meaningful connections between artists, communities and cultures through artistic creation, teaching and cultural diplomacy.
In 2006, she received the Sharett Scholarship from the America Israel Cultural Foundation. She serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Professional Choreographers and Dancers in Israel (IUPA), is a member of the Choreographers Association, previously served as Artistic Director of the Jerusalem Dance Theater, and has been invited over the years as both an artist and lecturer at academic institutions in Israel and internationally, including DePaul University in Chicago.
In 2022, she founded JISDF with the vision of establishing Jerusalem as an international platform for contemporary dance, bringing together artistic excellence, original creation, artist residencies and long term cultural exchange between Israel and the world.
Hansen House is Jerusalem’s Center for Design, Media and Technology, located within the historic former Hansen Hospital, a leprosy hospital established in the nineteenth century in the Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem. Owing to its architectural and historical significance, the site has been designated both a heritage landmark and a protected conservation complex. Following an extensive restoration of the abandoned building, which began in 2011, Hansen House reopened as a vibrant cultural center in the heart of Jerusalem.
Today, the complex is home to the Jerusalem Film and Television Fund, the graduate programs of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Erev Rav magazine, Mamuta Art and Research Center, and the Ofaimme Farm Café. Throughout the year, Hansen House presents major cultural events, a permanent historical exhibition and rotating exhibitions in its main gallery, all open to the public free of charge. It is also the producer of Jerusalem Design Week, the largest design event of its kind in Israel.
Since 2022, Hansen House has been the home of the Jerusalem International Solo Dance Festival (JISDF).
Photo: Hanay (Wikipedia)
The Greek Community House is located in the heart of Jerusalem’s Greek Colony, within a historic complex established in 1902 that has long served as the cultural and social center of the local Greek community. The site includes five single story stone buildings, a central hall, a stage, a spacious courtyard and a dance floor that once hosted the community’s orchestra.
Beyond its stone entrance gate, visitors discover a lush garden, a pathway lined with cypress trees, traditional stone buildings with red tiled roofs, and an elegant hall with a high ceiling and painted floor tiles. To this day, the venue continues to host community gatherings, cultural events, concerts and traditional Greek dancing, preserving the unique atmosphere and communal spirit of the neighborhood in which it was founded.
For the 2026 edition of JISDF, the Greek Community House hosts the festival’s final day. Its garden, courtyard and historic spaces become a shared setting for dance and music, where festival artists and audiences gather one last time before the arrival of the Sabbath and the closing of four days of artistic celebration.
JISDF was founded with a vision of establishing Jerusalem as an international center for contemporary dance and as an ongoing meeting place for artists, audiences and cultures from Israel and around the world.
At the heart of the festival is the art of the solo, where a single body, a single voice and a personal perspective have the power to reveal an entire world. The solo creates an intimate encounter between artist and audience while opening a space for broader reflections on identity, belonging, memory, culture and the society in which we live.
Dance is a language that needs no translation. Through movement and presence, it enables direct human communication beyond linguistic, political and cultural boundaries, creating a space for listening, empathy and shared experience.
JISDF brings together artistic excellence, choreographic research and ongoing cultural exchange. Alongside the performances, the festival presents artist residencies, world premieres, workshops, talks, professional gatherings and collaborations between local and international artists. The festival does not end when the curtain falls. It seeks to spark relationships and creative processes that continue to grow in Jerusalem and beyond.
From Jerusalem, a city where cultures, identities and stories exist side by side, the festival strives to cultivate a vibrant international artistic community and to affirm dance as a space for creation, dialogue and human connection.
Miriam Engel
Miriam Engel, Festival Director | Shira Vanunu, Content Production | Carmi Wortman, Hagai Hirschman, Production | Yarden Boytner, Production Coordination | Karin Lederman, Yasmin Gariv, Stage Management | Brief., Branding, Marketing & Advertising | Moran Paz, Public Relations | Schuster, Technical Production, Sound & Lighting | Dor Kedmi, Aviad Fox, Photography & Documentation | Haim Wombrandt,
Accounting | Karin Lederman, Dina Biton, Shira Vanunu, Ming Shen Ku, Özgür Adam İnanç, Artistic Advisors
Angela Dance Company Israel | Merhav Mahol
Hansen House | Greek Community House, Jerusalem
Israel Ministry of Culture and Sport | Jerusalem Municipality, Culture and Arts Department | The Jerusalem Foundation | The Jerusalem Development Authority | Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Jerusalem Wineries | Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv | Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan | Ministry of Culture, Taiwan | Goethe Institut Israel | Slovak Institute in Jerusalem | Indian Cultural Center, Embassy of India, Tel Aviv | Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv | Czech House Jerusalem | Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv | Greek Community of Jerusalem | Italian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv | A Little House in Rechavia | Gonenim Conservatory of Music and Dance
Smadar Tzuk, Hansen House | Anastas Damianos, Greek Community House, Jerusalem | Ambassador Ya Ping Abby Lee, Tina Lin, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv | Maayan Shelef, Goethe Institut Israel | Giora Engel | Anat Gini, Festivals Department, Israel Ministry of Culture and Sport | Hili Wortman, The Jerusalem Foundation | Anat Gilad, Yossi Balat, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Tamar Berliner, Eli Cohen, Jerusalem Municipality, Culture and Arts Department | Yonatan Strier, Kobi Sharvit, Ben Tchernichovsky, Tamar Lazaroff, Brief. | Niv Yehoshua Dreyfus Abudaram | Jan Štern, Czech House Jerusalem | Milan Vrbovský, Slovak Institute in Jerusalem | Sayali Narayan Mhetre, Indian Cultural Center, Embassy of India, Tel Aviv | Lara Stock, Maria Girlinger Landa, Austrian Cultural Forum Tel Aviv | Michael Dvořák, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv | Ruth Cummings, JCU | Michael Krasner, Bar Elul, Gonenim Conservatory of Music and Dance | Oded Niv, A Little House in Rechavia
