Yiddish Dance Workshop

[Helen Winkler <winklerh...>]

I just got off the plane and stepped in the door after that wonderful dance
weekend in Neskaya.  It was a workshop in every sense of the word.  I
especially enjoyed the way  Zev presented the styling of the
dances--something that one can't learn from written dance descriptions.  We
spent several hours just learning about typical hand movements and gestures,
and lots about improvisation.  It was a joy to dance beside people who I've
known online for years now, but had never met before, and an honour and
privilege to be taught by Zev.  And of course,  I have never before had the
opportunity to dance for two whole days and evenings to live music (although
out of habit, I kept waiting for the CD to skip every time we stomped in
unison--Seth and Beverly are working on recreating this, just so next time I
won't be homesick:) ).  Kudos to Jenny and the sacred circle dancers at
Neskaya for arranging all of this, feeding us all and arranging
transportation.  All in all a great dance event.  I plan to notate what was
taught for future reference.  Here is my listing of what went on:

Slow Hora (Jewish and Moldavian Variants)
Country Hora (uses 2/4 music)
Bucovina Hora
Freylekhs with improvisations
Bulgar and variations
Honga (group version and individual version)
Jewish Sirba (different than Romanian sirba)

(all taught in the dance style of  Jews from Moldova)

Looking forward to attending more events like this one!


Helen

Helen Winkler
Helen's Yiddish Dance Page
www.angelfire.com/ns/helenwinkler

Calgary Folkdance Fridays
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/winklerj/cff.html

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