scene at a Sephardic wedding

[Judith R Cohen <judithc...>]

hi, the other day Tamar and I were at a Moroccan Sephardic wedding at
the large Sephardic Kehilla here in Toronto. Lots of food, typical light
middle-eastern pop band, conversation in mixtures of French, Spanish,
English, Hebrew, haketia (Moroccan Judeo_Spanish) all mixed together,
etc. - anyway, at one point between courses the bride (non-Sephardic)'s
friends announced they had a special present for her.
Turned out the special present consisted of two very scantily clad young
women who gyrated onto the floor belly-dancing.
No doubt the friends thought sincerely this would be the perfectly
appropriate gift for a Moroccan wedding - except, it's a very orthodox
synagogue (the one which last year refused to even put up a notice about
our concert in another synagogue because of k. i.) But then again, who
was going to mar the happiness of the sinkha?
The rabbi, the father of the groom (we're friends of the groom's
parents) and several other men left the room; in fact, knowing the
community more or less, it was quite interesting to see who left and who
stayed.... 
Of course, at any Moroccan wedding when people get up to dance, the DO a
sort of kosher version of what has come to be known as "belly dancing"-
no skin revealed that wasn't already showing, and the movements much
more restrained and subtle.
But this "present" , scantily clad, had other connotations. Anyway,aside
from questions of respect and appropriateness, Tamar said, "the worst
thing about this is, they're really lousy dancers!"
just thought I'd share the story.... cheers, Judith

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