RE: Dance troupes - was Lorele's article

[Leonard Koenick <lkoenick...>]

1.                While I may instinctively agree with your assessment of
the JCC’s, etc., I do have to say that at least here in DC, the JCC’s’ and
other venues do have dance but it is mostly all Israeli.  Quite frankly,
while I like the music and feel I SHOULD like the dances, I don’t.  They are
much too choreographed and numerous.  And I like dancing with someone too
much.
2.                I certainly understand the feelings and needs of those who
earn at least a part of their living from teaching or music and have been
actively involved in supporting local bands by organizing swing dances here
for over 15 years.
3.                But, most of the various dance troupes such as the various
ethnic dancers do it for the love of the dance and for a bit of – you should
pardon the expression – proselytizing for more participants.  Not all can be
the Tamboritizans (sp?).  I suspect that a community could find a small
group to begin with that would like to learn and dance to our amazing music
on a regular basis.  I’d be willing to bet that once a core got known, that
others would want to know more.
Leonard

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Willadance (at) 
aol(dot)com
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2002 11:33 AM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Dance troupes - was Lorele's article

In a message dated 2/8/02 10:24:49 AM Eastern Standard Time,
lkoenick (at) erols(dot)com writes:




Let me
suggest again that communities could form troupes such as those that do
Israeli dance that could perform and assist at various simchas.  I think
people would welcome them.


Hi Leonard,

>From your mouth to the JCC's ears.  The organizations that profess to
represent the Jewish communities and look out for our interests think we are
only interested in exercise equipment and boys basketball.  There's
supposedly money in this.
Jewish programming?  Supposedly no money in this.

Because of lack of interest on the part of the JCC's and synagogues and
Jewish Day schools to sponsor Israeli and Jewish recreational dance at their
facilities, there are few dancers around with which to form these troupes.
And nobody will pay the organizer, leader, choreographer.

It would be a great idea if there were funding.  Nobody wants to do this for
free anymore.

I'll be happy to dance with you sometime.

Best,

Willa
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Willa Horowitz

Leader and teacher of Israeli, Jewish and International folk dance

130 Mount Sanford Road
Hamden, CT 06518
203-248-0291