Re: klezmer dancing

[Wholesale Klezmer Band <ganeydn...>]

We don't expect to teach any dances at a simkhe.  Except in the rare
instances that the hosts ask us to give dance lessons, people are there to
enjoy each other, not pay attention to us.  We facilitate dancing by one or
two of us getting out onto the dance floor and leading by example, and
quietly guiding.  It's not important that people learn complicated steps,
but that they feel that the music and dancing are an integral part of the
meaning of a wedding, bar/bas mitzve, etc.  If they only do simple steps,
that's fine.  If they invent their own movements, that's fine. Aside from
the fact that we play Yiddish rather than Israeli music, Israeli dances
must all be taught unless the guests are all Israeli dance enthusiasts. The
beauty of traditional Yiddish dancing is that the community building aspect
is more important than choreography.

Of course, we give workshops too, teaching about styling and the function
of traditional dance at simkhes.  But not at simkhes.  As Lori said below,
"there is limited amount of patience people have for learning."

Zayt gezunt (be healthy),

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn


At 10:04 AM -0400 7/23/99, MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
>Any great suggestions from the list on solving this problem?
>
>It quickly becomes obvious to k-bands who play simchas that the wonderful
>variety of dance styles and rhythms (e.g.: kolomeikes, zhok/horra, sherele,
>bulgar) are not going to get a party going when no one knows the steps.  We
>go out and teach some dances to the guests (such as the very accessible
>Shiffers Tanz/Sailor's Dance as we learned from M. Alpert), but there is a
>limited amount of patience people have for learning and we usually don't get
>more than four dances taught per simcha (two klezmer, two Israeli).  We also
>get a little weary of teaching the same "entry-level" dances all the time,
>but these easy ones seem to be the surest way to get Aunt Ethyl, the gentile
>business associate and the Bar Mitzvah Boy all dancing together for a little
>while.
>



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