Re: Mitzvah music and dance

[Joe Kurland & Peggy Davis <ganeydn...>]

I was part of an international dance performing troupe in Minneapolis 
and found it interesting how many of the people were not part of 
ethnic groups with active folk traditions. There were some who were 
Polish, Croatian, Serbian and came to the group because of their 
connection with these traditions. I think the others may have come to 
it because of the lack of tradition in their own communities. Jews 
did not make up a large proportion of the dancers and musicians, but 
I know in other large cities they do. During the time I was there, 
klezmer music was added to the musicians' repertoire.

Regarding Greeks--I heard Sophia Bilides perform at the Iron Horse a 
few years ago, and most of those present got up to dance. I noted a 
group of people about age 60-70 who dance in a traditional style. I 
think some of them were from Greece. I had this sharp pang of 
realization of the discontinuity in our tradition. We don't have 
people going back and forth to the "old country" and connecting to 
village life there. We don't have people of those ages in great 
numbers who grew up in Europe and can transmit those traditions. I 
don't think we musicians and dancers are creating a revised folk 
culture out of wholly new cloth, but we are recreating it from shreds 
and pieces.

I highly recommend a book I've been reading, "There Once was  a 
World: A 900-Year Chornicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok" by Yaffa 
Eliach. It is a very thorough description of life in this shtetl, 
covering many aspects of life and how it had changed throughout the 
centuries.




Peggy Davis

Peggy H. Davis Calligraphy & Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
624-3204
www.HebrewLettering.com
www.WholesaleKlezmer.com

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