Re: Bottle Dance from Fiddler on the Roof

[Francesco Spagnolo <yuval.italia...>]

A few years ago, I was blessed by being able to spend Lag ba-'omer up 
on Mount Meron together with the amazing musician (and list member) 
Musa Berlin, who performed throught the night at an amazing venue, a 
little distanced from the big celebrations right on the "grave" of 
Shimon Bar-Yochai.

In the morning, though, I joined the large crowd at the larger venue, 
and saw some chassidim doing the "bottle" dance. As far as I can 
remember, they were not using any "device" to help the bottle stay in 
place. Most of these dancers were young -- very young.

Frankly, I do not know enough about this dance. I would not be 
surprised to learn that some chassidic groups have (re)learned the 
dance from... "Fiddler on the Roof"!

Francesco


>I received the following inquiry which, though I do a bottle dance, 
>I figured some people on the list could answer better than I.
>
>I don't know anything about the origins other than the tradition of 
>dancing to entertain the bride and groom.  As for how to do it, you 
>need to wear a hat that forms a cradle for the bottle (though I have 
>seen it done with a suede yarmulke that makes for a non-slip 
>surface), and you need to have enough liquid in the bottle to weight 
>the bottom.
>
>Please send answers both to the list and to the address below as the 
>inquiry comes from someone who is not a subscriber to this list.
>
>
>Zayt gezunt (be healthy),
>
>Yosl (Joe) Kurland


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