Re: MItzvah music and dance

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Thank you, Leonard.  This will enable me to tell a funny, if tangential, story.
In one of my other lives, I am active in work on behalf of the Hmong community,
who came to the United States as refugees from Southeast Asia, having fought on
the American side during the Indochinese war.  Traditional Hmong music, even if
instrumental, is so married to the Hmong language that Hmong people at one time
did not regard it as music at all, and credited American GI's with introducing
them to music, that is, '60s rock music.  I was performing any fundraiser for a
Hmong women's organization once in one of the other acts was a Hmong rock band.
While much of their repertoire was their own Indochinese brand of rock, they
also did American songs from the '60s which had become icons in their culture.
One of these was Chubby Checker's Limbo Rock, which they played for the
traditional Hmong dance!  At least they knew their own dance, even if the tune
had changed!  I didn't hear it that night, but I have been informed that Roy
Orbison has also become a Hmong cultural icon.  Think Pretty Woman in a language
with four tones.


Leonard Koenick wrote:

> A few comments that I hope are at least mildly related:
>
> It is not just our Jewish community that has lost the ability to do its
> social dances.  The general population has done the same.  I trace that back
> to Chubby Checkers and the Twist as the beginning of the inability of people
> to dance together.
>
> Don't be too quick to believe that other ethnic groups have maintained their
> own ability to dance to their historic cultures.  A few years ago I went to
> a nightclub in Philadelphia for what was called "Greek Night" with a minor
> apprehension that I was going to a fraternity party.  Busloads of Greeks had
> chartered the place.  The music was fine but the only dancing that was done
> was the same as current popular dancing. I.e. standing alone and bouncing up
> and down.  The only difference was a sop to tradition by holding their arms
> over their heads while dancing.  All the same regardless of the tune.
>
> Leonard Koenick
>

--
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American and Jewish Studies
Head, Division Of Composition and Music Theory
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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