Re: Scarborough Fair tune/simkhe dissonance

[Susan Lerner <meydele...>]

Hoo-ha, does this ever play into some of the things I have been thinking since 
recently attending a bas mitsve where I actually stayed through the DJ's 
"performance" rather than escaping before the show really began.  This was a 
fairly modest version of the famous LA Westside/Valley bar/bat mitzvah 
extravaganza.  Meaning there was only 1 dj/dance leader accompanied by 2 
dancers.  I was struck by several things: 1) How much the audience, 
particularly the adults (mostly female, but a fair number of guys as well), the 
young kids and the adolescent girls wanted to dance. (The 13-14 year old boys - 
fugedaboudit.)  But they just didn't know how or what to do.  They were all 
eager to get in a circle and have a "Jewish experience", whatever the dj set 
that up to be. Just as eager for someone to give them permission to dance.

So, the dj, armed with a Madonna-style radio mike, led a mock kazatsky for 
pairs of men, a very pale echo of a handkerchief dance (for pairs of women!), 
the obligatory running around with the celebrant precariously perched on a 
chair, followed by that most simple of Israeli circle dances the name of which 
I forget but whose melody I can always sing(you know, 4 steps right, step & 
lean right clap, step & lean left clap, repeat, 4 steps into center, swaying 
arms above head, etc.).  That's it.  End of Jewish content.  Follow-up with 
YMCA, party games and dancing to contemporary rock.

When you actually learn klezmer/simkhe dancing, one thing that is immediately 
clear is that it is true folk and party dancing.  Most of the dances are not 
complicated.  They were developed to be danced by everyone, young and old, for 
hours at a time.  There are more virtuosic versions, there are easier versions. 
 Until you get to some of the more complex versions of the sher, it's all 
pretty straight forward. But that's just like most East European party dancing. 
It's our lack of familirity with the rhythm patterns that make Bulgarian 
wedding dancing a little confusing for the average American, not the 
intricacies of most of the steps. If anything, those seeking the choreographed 
complexity of Israeli folk dancing tend to be disappointed by the simplicity of 
the true folk forms.  

So I came away from the bas mitsve with the feeling that I had seen what is 
Jewish culture here in America for many, many people.   Remember, the Jewish 
Federation population surveys keep telling us that only 15-25% of American 
Jewish are affiliated with religious or community organizations.  Most people 
know they should be doing something Jewish at a celebration, but what they 
accept to fill that need is surprisingly thin. 

What can the musicians on this list do?  Well, they can offer a more authentic 
Jewish musical and dance experience as one of the options they offer, but it is 
really up to the celebrants to decide.  Remember the Yiddish song, Batzhe-mir 
oys a finif-un-tsvantsiker? It's about the old party guest who keeps requesting 
the same song to be played over and over and presumably gets his wish because 
he keeps giving money to the band.  How much we are willing to be educators and 
how much simply entertainers is something which I think each group establishes 
for itself.

Shira Lerner
Yiddishkayt LA


At 11:23 AM 7/16/02 -0400, you wrote:
>If so, I will say that many of the b'nai mitzvah parties I've attended don't 
>seem to be serious expressions of entry into adulthood, but rather more of a 
>kids' party, with games and prizes, etc.  It's fun, but hard to take that kind 
>of thing seriously, but musicians need to make a living and play what the 
>client asks for.  Perhaps that attitude transfers over to all events of this 
>ilk.
>
>Perhaps the parties are structured in this way because they don't know what 
>else to do at them, not to speak of peer pressure--the kids want a party just 
>like everyone else's party--which brings us back to the dance question.  I 
>have found that young people enjoy doing the traditional dances when they have 
>a leader who shows them how.  If they were taught to dance the Honga or Sher 
>instead of the Hip-Hop Cha-Cha (I'm sorry, I don't know the name of that 
>omnipresent recording), I'll bet they'd do it and like it.

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+