Re: klezmer dance

[Lori Cahan-Simon <lsimon...>]

At the I. L. Peretz school of the Workmen's Circle in Cleveland, where I
teach, we teach Jewish culture through the arts and Yiddish.  One of the
parents teaches Israeli dancing about once a month.  Is there anyone in the
area who could teach us Yiddish dancing?  That would be exciting!

Lori


At 03:21 PM 7/23/99 PDT, you wrote:
>I?ve taught dancing in many venues, to different groups of people.  It can 
>be very difficult to get adults to participate in any type of folk dancing 
>at a public event(unless you have a few ringers in the crowd to keep things 
>going); I think many people are just unfamiliar with the dancing and the 
>music and do not want to be embarrassed.  I have had more success with 
>children.  That is why I believe exposure to Jewish music and dance must 
>begin in school well before the teenage years.  I have also found that many 
>teachers  feel as uncomfortable as all the other adults about teaching 
>dancing, and do not always have time to learn how to teach dance.    If 
>people are not exposed to traditional music and dance throughout their 
>lives, it is easy to see why many never become interested in it.
>
>The other thing I?ve noticed is that quite often dance is treated as 
>performance art rather than as something you can do for yourself.  If kids 
>never dance and then in a short period of time are taught 2 dances that they 
>are expected to do perfectly on a stage, they may actually dislike the whole 
>experience.
>
>Helen
>
>
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>
>
>
>
Lori Cahan-Simon

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+