RE: Bottle Dance from Fiddler on the Roof

[Larry Goldfinger <lgoldfin...>]

I can't speak to the origins of the bottle dance, but when last I played
for a Fiddler performance, the dancers had a small strip of Velcro on
the bottom of the bottles, which stuck to the corresponding strip glued
to the tops of their hats.  You still need to balance carefully, but
that seemed to help hold on to the bottle enough to make moving around
much easier.
 
-Larry
 
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org] On Behalf Of Steve Weintraub
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 8:58 AM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Subject: Re: Bottle Dance from Fiddler on the Roof
 
I understand, from an oral source, that Jerome Robbins, when researching
Fiddler on the Roof, was invited by Dvorah Lapson ( a Jewish
choreographer active in NY) to visit a Chassidic wedding in Brooklyn.
There JR saw an especially  invited guest (because he was such a
well-known dancer) doing a very agile bottle dance.  Evidintly, JR was
much impressed, and decided to include it in his show, but decided to
slow down the tempo in order to make it look harder!
 
>From other dancers who had performed the bottle dance in Fiddler, I
learned it is best to use a champagne bottle, which is heavier and not
likely to break if dropped, and also that some prop departments put a
little wax and lead shot (like for a shotgun) in order to make the
bottle even more bottomheavy.
For young dancers, some liquours come in substantial looking plastic
bottles, which if weighted, are very easy to learn to balance.  When I
teach the bottle dance, I tell people it's like carrrying glasses on a
tray, you have to be careful of sudden changes of direction and stops. I
encourage them to finish each path with a little "settling down" of the
body, a slight knee bend or "plie". This helps steady the  bottle before
the next move. It's good to start practicing with a plastic soda bottle
with a few inches of water, and then graduate to glass.
 
By the way, the name Flashtanz comes up frequently in descriptions of
European Yiddish dancing, so it's certainly not an American invention.
 
Hope that's not too much information. 
 
"Have bottle, will travel"
-Steve
 
ps Joe is a wonderful bottle dancer and a great Khoisidel partner!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com 
To: World <mailto:jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>  music from a Jewish slant 
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: Bottle Dance from Fiddler on the Roof
 
I think that a small thread on this subject would be of interest to
all....I say, post replies to the group.
Lori