re:origin of the Sher

[Joe Kurland <ganeydn...>]

At 11:03 AM -0400 9/15/99, Helen Winkler wrote:
>Lapson's hand position is partners facing with hands  on partner's
>shoulders.  Another book has hands on partner's upper arms.  I guess it
>varied depending on the shtetl.

At 9:01 AM -0400 9/15/99, Ari Davidow wrote:
>In the version that Judy Bresler taught at KlezKanada, one did,
>indeed, swing the opposite couple's partner of the opposite sex
>during part of the sher that we learned, similar to (conceptually,
>at least) a contradance square.

This is a folk dance and the folk process is obviously at work.  In
communities where there is no concern about whether it is permitted to
touch a person of the opposite sex to whom one is not married, the
variations would not prevent it.  And, of course, unless the dance leader
is trying to preserve a form as it was at a specific time and place, more
variations will occur.


Zayt gezunt (be healthy),

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


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