Yiddish Vokh - sher/sherele

[itzik <itzik...>]

I have just returned from Yiddish-vokh, which is sponsored by 
Yugntruf, youth for Yiddish. Though not a klezmer-festival, the 
Yiddish vokh, has a lot to offer those interested in Yiddish culture 
and song. I had to leave early, but there are some fine traditional 
singers, primarily Josh Waletzky, Beyle Gottesman, Paula Teitelbaum, 
and others. who come and stay up late singing, mostly songs that are 
rarely sung. The Yiddish Philharmonic Choir performed,conducted by Ben 
Schaechter, and the Wholesale Klezmer Band performed as well. The best 
thing about Yiddish-vokh is that it is entirely in Yiddish, everyone 
speaks yiddish, volley-ball, softball and boating are in yiddish etc. 
All the children speak yiddish as well. 
I met a man from Atlanta, Sam Wise, a Litvack from a small town, who 
turned out to be quite an entertainer and had us all laughing. I asked 
him about dance, and he mentioned some dances they did - a beygele, a 
dance performed in threes; a sherele - he claims in Lithuania the 
dance is called a sherele and in Poland, a sher; and most interesting 
a "gazlan-tants" - a dance/performance he did with his mother which 
reenacted a bandit taking the money and life of a victim. he sang a 
song which accompanied the dance. My first thought was that this was a 
purim-shpil, since the topic does appear among the collected pur

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