Jewish serba

[Helen Winkler <winklerh...>]

Well, while we're on the dance topic, I thought I'd also mention the serba.  
In the batch of dance notes, there was a description of the Serba using a 
standard serba step and variations (step hop-step hop-run run step-hop). 
Friends of mine who've been to Romania tell me that non-Jewish Romanians use 
this basic step and I guess Jewish ones did/do too.  Interestingly, an 
article by Judith Brin Ingber based on field work in Poland in the 1990s 
with elderly informants(Lower Silesia) states that the Jewish serba in that 
region consisted of "Rhythmical walking, with no kicking or jumping."  It's 
interesting to see how the dances were done differently in different areas 
and at different times.  It's too bad that we may never really know all 
these details.
(This article is also abstracted on my web page)


Helen Winkler
Helen's Yiddish Dance Page
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/helenwinkler
winklerh (at) hotmail(dot)com

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