Re: my mikita tants

[Jacob and Nancy Bloom <bloom...>]

Lovely, Helen.  It reminds me that I once considered writing a fast turning
couple dance in honor of musician Alan Zemel.  It was to be called the Zemel
Dremel.

(Dremel, like Makita, is the name of a brand of power tools.  The tools
Dremel makes turn very fast.)

Jacob

P.S. Nancy is insisting that I rework the Mikita Tants to be a Morris dance.
Picture six Morris dancers in long underwear clashing hockey sticks to
klezmer music, while the Fool and the Betty throw chickens.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Helen Winkler" <winklerh (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 7:15 PM
Subject: my mikita tants


> Dear List,
> Here is something I came up with just today since we need some humour.  To
> fully appreciate this masterfully choreographed piece you need to know 3
> things:
> 1. That an Israeli choreographer once told me that he choreographs many
> dances while sitting at his kitchen table in his underwear.
> 2. Since I couldn't find any blue Japanese power tools(as described by
Wof),
> I have substituted blue hockey sticks
> 3. tinikling is a dance form in the Philipines where bamboo poles are
> clapped together and then on the ground while dancers jump around between
> the poles  trying not to get caught by the poles
> Mikita Tants
>
> History:  This dance originates in the Southwest portion of Calgary.  It
was
> choreographed today by me while sitting at the kitchen table in my long
> johns (it's colder in Calgary than in Israel).  The dance is designed as a
> fusion of the traditions of the broiges dance, Hockey night in Canada and
> the ritual of shlogn kapores.
>
> Costuming and props:  2 blue hockey sticks, a frozen Cornish game hen,
knee
> pads, elbow pads, shin pads and any other type of pad you can think of.
>
> Music:  Any 2/4 klezmer tune or the theme song from Hockey Night in Canada
>
> Formation and rules:  The male dancers begin in the face off position with
> the Cornish game hen in the middle.  The women stand behind the men.
There
> is no high sticking, cross checking or body checking allowed.  Also, it is
> not advisable to eat the game hen until the end of the dance.
>
> Figure 1
> Partners turn to face one another.  Women grab the end of the hockey
sticks
> and circle with partner 7 times (wards off the evil eye)
>
> Figure 2 (tinikling)
> Women let go of the sticks.  Men hold ends of both sticks and kneel to
floor
> and bang the sticks together.  Women jump in between the sticks like
> tinikling.  This is symbolic of man's inhumanity to man/women.
>
> Figure 3 (poultry toss)
> Men stand up and hold sticks aloft, parallel to ground.  Woman  1 picks up
> hen and tosses it over the sticks to woman 2.
>
> Figure 4 (barbecue and reconciliation)
> Woman 2 places hen in the barbecue (after unwrapping of course).  They all
> go away to watch hockey for a while.  Then they come back and eat the hen.
>
> The End
>
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