Re: trends in Israeli folk dance

[H. Kaufman <hkaufman...>]

Holding hands in circle and line dances was the norm in Israeli
folkdancing until about the 1970's, when the quality and quantity of
dances started to get out of control (until that time there was a
committee of veteran choreographers and dance leaders who approved of new
dances). Many of the new circle and even line dances (many of which had
been debkas) began to have turns in them, often very complex. Needless to
say, turns in a circle dance are not conducive to holding hands.  While a
few of the older classic circle dances had turns (Shibolet Basadeh and
later Haroah Haktanah--which originally was done holding hands except for
the turn), the overwhelmong majority did not. As a general rule, if an
Israeli circle dance has turns, it was very likely created after 1970.

However, the phenomenon goes beyond the issue of turns, since Israelis
began to drop hands when doing the older dances that did not require them
to do so.  While nobody has studied the matter, I have speculated that the
mode of dancing reflects what is happening in the society as a whole.
After the Six-Day War Israelis became much more materialistic and began to
focus more on the individual with the group becoming less important.
During that period Israeli dancing started to become more of an individual
activity as people stopped holding hands. I believe the two phenomena are
related.

In recent years there has been a resurgance of nostalgia sessions in
Israel where the old dances are done with holding hands.  There is even
one session where one of the organizers told me that one of the
requirements for people to participate is that they hold hands -- and they
all do so gladly.  At our Rikuday Dor Rishon weekly session in New York we
have always held hands since we started in the 1980's (that was one of the
reasons we were established). 

This could be a research project for a thesis, so I will stop here. 

Haim Kaufman
Rikuday Dor Rishon

On Tue, 18 Apr 2000, Joel Epstein wrote:

> While this business of not holding hands might be relatively new in America,
> it has been the standard in Israel for years.  In fact, I stopped folk
> dancing 25 years ago precisely for this reason.  I mean, if you can't cop a
> little feel now and then, what's the point?
> 
> Actually, handholding became passe in Israeli dancing long after it did in
> popular dance.  The twist (anybody here young enough to remember that?)
> heralded the end of touchee feelee dancing in America more than 35 years
> ago.
> 
> I always found the phenomenon of isolated dancing to be bizarre and slightly
> distasteful.  People - both Israeli folk and American rock dancers - dance
> like dervishes, totally alone though surrounded by people.  It transforms
> dancing from a social to an introverted activity.
> 
> I wonder if anyone has studied this matter?
> 
> yoel epstein
> yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
> To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> Sent: éåí ùìéùé 18 àôøéì 2000 22:00
> Subject: Re: trends in Israeli folk dance
> 
> 
> > I wonder if the tendency, if that's what it is, to not hold hands in
> Israeli
> > dances to some degree reflects the outsize cultivation of individualism
> (and
> > entrepreneurialism/wealth/etc.) chronicled in the Business section of this
> > past Sunday's times--noted as a sharp break w/ Israel's communal/socialist
> > past (and no doubt celebrated by many, but not by me) -- rlc
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 



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