Re: Dancing

[Lori Cahan-Simon <l_cahan...>]

I agree with you wholeheartedly.  If one is reading music from, say, the Kammen
books, one doesn't know really at what speed to play them.  They sound good at
many different tempi.  After having danced with Erik Bendix and discussed this
issue, it becomes clear what tempo a particular tune should be played at 
depending
on the dance being done to it.  Before that, I hadn't really thought about it 
and
I'm sure that many musicians unfamiliar with the concept of dance to klez music
don't either.  It was a revelation.
Lorele

Beverly Woods wrote:

> I know from conversations with Zev that he expects to be in New York for a
> period of time this fall, and that he's interested in teaching dance while
> he's there.
>
> At KlezKanada this past year Zev ended up teaching a dance to the tsimbl
> class one morning. We were discussing the proper rhythm for playing a sher,
> and it developed that the logical way for us to understand the rhythmic
> subtleties was to learn the dance. Zev soon had us dancing a sher around our
> tsimbls. It was one of the high points of my week.
>
> As a musician who plays often for dancing, I was going to say in response to
> earlier parts of this thread that lack of knowledge of the dances affects
> the music and the musicians, not just the dancers. For instance, I wouldn't
> know if I was playing the sher incorrectly if no one knew the dance. There's
> nothing like playing for dancers who are doing traditional dance, to really
> 'get' the music.
>
> Beverly
>
> ----------
> >From: Jenny Levison <jenny (at) tangomeydl(dot)com>
> >To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
> >Subject: Re: Dancing
> >Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2002, 7:34 PM
> >
>
> > I already sent the original request to Michael off list when this discussion
> > started, so he has it if he wants it.  Zev is most of the year in Israel,
> > but Michael is around and taking gigs.
> >
> > Jenny
> >
> >
>

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