Giora Manor (1926–2005), born in Prague, was the only survivor of a large family and as a child was brought to Kibbutz Mishmar ha-Emek by his Zionist uncle, Gideon. He early on took an interest and participated in theater activities. While he continued to live and work at the kibbutz, he traveled frequently to Tel Aviv to cover performances for the Al Ha-Mishmar daily and to work at the Israel Dance Library. He also frequently went abroad to participate in international conferences. His books on dance artists in Israel dealt with the work of many once internationally acclaimed artists, whose work was increasingly forgotten by younger generations: Baruch Agadati, Gertrud Kraus and Sara Levi-Tanai. In 1975, together with Gila Toledano, he founded the Israel Dance Annual, the country’s first dance magazine. In the 1980s he directed and greatly expanded the Israel Dance Library. His books include an autobiography, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times (Hebrew, 1996), and one on the Bible in dance, which resulted from an international conference held in Jerusalem in 1979. Others are Inbal: Quest for a Movement Language (1975); The Life and Dance of Gertrud Kraus (1978); The Gospel According to Dance (1980), Agadati: The Pioneer of Modern Dance in Israel (1986); and a second book about Gertrud Kraus, mainly of drawings from her European years, called Gertrud Kraus (1988). His last book was the lavishly illustrated The Choreography of Sara Levi-Tanai, published in conjunction with the Inbal Dance Theatre and the Ethnic Multicultural Center in Tel Aviv (2001).
