Naomi Polani, the singer, actress, director and choreographer, Israeli award winner, passed away this morning (Monday) at the age of 96.
Naomi Polani was born on August 4, 1927 in Tel Aviv. After finishing her studies at the Herzliya Gymnasium, she joined the Palmach and during the War of Liberation she was one of the stars of the Palmach band, the Chizbetron. Polani was married to singer and actor Lior Yeni. The two have two children.
After the war of liberation, Polani started acting in the Chamber Theater and studied music. In the fifties she became the director of the military bands. She worked with the Northern Command Band, the Armored Forces Band, and the Nahal Band. Her work with the military bands perpetuated a special style of performance: the body movements of the dancers expressed the meaning of the lyrics with the help of acting and pantomime
. The Rooster Band The band's repertoire consisted of IDF band songs, other familiar songs and new and original material. Polani divided the band's programs into different themes and chose songs based on those themes. The Roosters broke up in 1963.
After the disbandment of the Roosters, Polani founded in 1966 the group of Hammitzes which consisted of four members of the Roosters, but the band did not have much success. Polani later worked as a music lab at Kol Israel and was involved in learning music and directing various events in her area of residence in the Jordan Valley. In 1998, as part of the Israel Festival, she staged the show "The Roosters Return", which was a novelty of the songs of the Roosters performed by young singers.
In 2001 she received the Moshe Halevi Award for Performing Arts from the Municipality of Tel Aviv. In 2006 Polani played in Oded Davidoff's film, "Someone to Run With". A year later, she received the Acomm Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2009, when she was 82 years old, she acted in the play "Little Iolf" by Henrik Ibsen at the Theater. In 2019, she won the Israel Award in the field of performing arts: theater and dance.