Re: sherele

[H. Kaufman <hkaufman...>]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2000, Helen Winkler wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> >From H. Kaufman
> 
> "Sher and Sherele are two different dances, but it is even more 
> complicatedthan that -- there are likely different versions of each -- 
> although all versions I have danced have the four couple formation in 
> common. This may be comparable to square dance formations having four 
> couples but being danced to different tunes with different choreographies."
> 
> 
> If they are 2 distinct dances, it would be interesting to find out what 
> features were used to determine what is a sher and what is a sherele. OR 
> were the names  just assigned to different arrangements of steps randomly at 
> different points in history/geography.
> Helen

Just had a brief discussion about this question with Ayalah Goren-Kadman
(we are busy preparing for her workshop tomorrow evening in New York). She
recalls that her mother collected the segments of the dance from older
immigrants from Eastern Europe and put them (or stitched them) together to
form the highly structured dance with the series of formations we know as
the "Sherele".  As I mentioned in an earlier posting, the Sher was brought
to Israel by a Russian choreographer (a different Sher was brought to the
US by Dvora Lapson).  Ayalah can tell you more about what happened in
Israel over 50 years ago and I am sending a bcc to her, so she can contact
you (and the list, if she so desires).  Those of you in the New York area
are welcome to meet her in person at our workshop on Sunday night (see my
previous posting for details). 

Haim Kaufman
Rikuday Dor Rishon

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