Zev Feldman's workshop, 10/10-10/12

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

I'm still not fully coherent, so forgive me if this writeup isn't fully 
coherent. I wanted to enthuse about the amazing Jewish Dance workshop given by 
Zev Feldman this past weekend before too many memories fade.

First, Zev is an amazing teacher when it comes to breaking the dances and steps 
down, and continuing until the group has the pieces and is comfortable putting 
them together. Then, there was a wealth of information about context and style 
that make it all make sense. Finally, it was great fun watching the band learn 
to play klezmer for teaching. 

We covered basic Eastern European Jewish dances concentrating on the Honga and 
Sirba and Freilachs and Bulgars, including several variations on each. There 
was also some focus on ways in which men and women improvise during some of the 
dances, and ways in which each dance can be varied in a line. None of us will 
think "Bessarabian" vs. "Moldavian" quite the same, again. I think because few 
of us knew Jewish dance well, Zev stayed away from Shers and the considerable 
improvisation that make a Sher fun. In one discussion, he did note that Shers 
are like contradancing with one notable exception: in a Sher, the couples not 
in the center didn't stand still and clap--they were also busy improvising in 
place. Jews do not stand and quietly wait their turns!

I think that for the first time I have an actual Jewish dance vocabulary, 
which, given how new this is to me, feels like an important and comfortable 
achievement.

In the many conversations, Zev talked about growing up in a landsmenshaft 
community where dancing was still common into the Sixties. He also talked at 
one point about the differences in how, say, he and Andy Statman learned the 
music growing up, and then playing at simchas for many years, vs. groups like 
Kapelye where people came from more of a socialist background where Yiddish 
song, not Yiddish dance, had been the stronger community activity. He 
attributes on reason for the success of the klezmer revival to the fact that 
the antipathy between the landsmenshaft communities--organizations of people 
who emigrated from specific communities in Eastern Europe, and the socialists 
who tended to be more universalists, but also anti-traditional--had largely 
worn away, so that their children, searching for Jewish roots, searching for 
"Jewish" in many ways, could pull from both cultures. (He also noted that the 
dearth of scholarly work on klezmer is nothing compared to the lack of informati
on about Jewish folksong.)

Having the workshop at Neskaya was another bonus. Being in the beauty of a 
northern New Hampshire fall during the peak of the leaf-turning season is 
magnificent. And the place turned out to be a very comfortable place to dance 
and then talk, dance and then walk. There was also an interesting fusion 
between those of us who came from farther away specifically because of our 
interest in Jewish dancing, and those who are part of the local international 
dance scene, for whom this was an interesting variant.

I am also struck by the original inspiration for the event, which grew out of a 
conversation between Zev and Beverly during one of the Klezmer events 
(KlezKanada? KlezKamp?) in which Zev began teaching some dance steps to 
musicians so that they would better understand how the music had to fit 
together and be played. Struck by how important that sense was to the 
musicians, Beverly was the instigator behind last weekend's event. In that 
sense, this weekend highlighted something that I hear in an awful lot of 
recordings--music that has been changed to fit American modes and which doesn't 
sound like the music to which one would do Jewish dance as it was once done. In 
that sense, I wish even more klezmer musicians had been there.

Hanging out with the band and list members was another very special part of the 
weekend. In particular, it was a delight to finally meet Helen Winkler who came 
in from Calgary, thereby winning the "traveled most distance" award. I also 
note that during the late night conversation and jams, one list member 
discovered an affinity for tsimbl, aided and abetted by a prototype inexpensive 
student tsimbl that Beverly Woods brought and demonstrated. 

In short, it was a bit like KlezKamp light, over the course of just a weekend, 
and mostly for dance. I look forward to us doing it again.

If there is a mystery, it is why Jewish dance has been so slow to revive 
compared to the music. Given that everyone who can walk can dance (and a few 
who can't walk can still dance), but not everyone feels comfortable playing 
music, it feels as though the tail has long been wagging the dog.

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/

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