Re: klezmer dancing

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

A couple of points:

Greek for "tikhl" is "mandili" (cf. Spanish "mantilla" or the Turkish song
"Salarsana Mandilini," or "Fluttering Handkerchief").

The leader of a Greek line-dance is the one who performs all the acrobatics
such as leaps, slaps and back-bends, but this leader stays connected to the
line.  The rest of the dancers do a basic step.  There is a tradition in Greek
village dance that has the back end of the line held by an anchor, who just
walks along, so that the dance forms not a circle, but a spiral.

Owen





Wholesale Klezmer Band wrote:

> Greek circle dancing has something similar to shining, though I don't know
> what they call it.  The person shining doesn't get into the center of the
> circle, though, but is at the beginning of the line, connected to the
> second in line with a tikhl (again, I don't know how to say kerchief in
> Greek).  He or she does turns, jumps, slapping the ground, ignoring the
> regular steps that the rest of the dancers are doing.  Then s/he drops off
> the front of the line and tags onto the end, leaving the next person to be
> the shiner.
>
> Maybe this is getting a little too off topic, but there are other
> similarities between Jewish and Greek music, so why not.
>
> 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 12:25 AM -0400 7/25/99, Joe Kurland & Peggy Davis wrote:
> >I'd guess that's how Serbs are supposed to look when they're dancing...but
> >I wonder how uniform Jewish dancing ever was. You know the saying about 3
> >Jews, 4 opinions. I've thought that that's why we have the custom of
> >"shining," so there is a formal place for individual interpretation and
> >exhibition within group dancing.
> >
>

--
Owen Davidson
Amherst  Mass
The Wholesale Klezmer Band

The Angel that presided o'er my birth
Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth
Go Love without the help of any King on Earth

Wm. Blake


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