Baruch Agadati

Baruch Agadati (Hebrew: ברוך אגדתי, also Baruch Kaushansky-Agadati; January 8, 1895 – January 18, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born Israeli classical ballet dancer, choreographer, painter, and film producer and director. Baruch Kaushansky (later Agadati) was born to a Jewish family in Bessarabia, and grew up in Odessa. He immigrated to the region of Palestine in the early 1900s. In Palestine, he was known for performing Jewish folk dances in an expressionist style, often in solo performances he called "concerts" in which he would portray different Shtetl characters. His bohemian stylings—one performance featured him openly urinating on the back wall of the stage—scandalized the middle class.

Agadati attended the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem from 1910 to 1914. When World War I started in 1914, he was in Russia visiting his parents and was unable to return to Palestine. He remained there and studied classical ballet, joining the dance troupe of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1919, he returned to Palestine. In 1920, he moved to the Neve Tzedek neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Until his death is 1976, he worked in theatre, painted, danced and choreographed Israeli folkdance, produced the famous Purim "Ad DeLo Yada" Carnival balls. He is buried in Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.