Re: Yiddish folk dancing on campus

[cohenedmunds <cohenedmunds...>]

We're babies in the klez realm but since 1996, our shul has sponsored a
klezmer music and Yiddish dance project that is open and advertised to the
entire Albuquerque, New Mexico community. In addition to freylekhe holiday
dance and music events, we have a first Friday of the month Freylekhe
Shabbes that begins with a kabbalat service (at 6:30) including
prayers/songs that are danced: terkishe, khosidl, shiffers tanz and
sometimes freylekhes. This is followed by a potluck and an open klezmer jam
with Yiddish dancing (at 7:30). Mostly folks (Jewish and non) from the
30-member Community klezband attend and some from the 8-person community
dance troupe "Rikud."

The freylekhes also attract people from all over the community.
Unfortunately, it is only held once a month, which also makes it difficult
to compare to the weekly contradances, international folk dances, Israeli
dances, etc. It also begins with a religious service which may keep some of
the secular community away and some of the more conservative Jewish
community may not come because of different religious and political beliefs.
Keeping in mind that ABQ is pretty small (300,000), the local Israeli dance
group has about 6-12 participants, 20-50 couples at the contradances, 15-40
people at the 2 international groups, and we usually have at least a minyan
of dancers and a minyan of musicians at the freylekhs - more Jewish folks
than non.

We dance and play music for: Khosidl, Rumanian Hora, Freylekhs, Bulgar
(couple's and line), Shiffers tanz, Terkishe, kolomeike, sirba, honga. Once
in a while we'll play/dance Zemeratik and Mayim (request only), but that's
the closest we come to Israeli dancing or simcha dancing.

We have held several dance workshops with Yiddish dancer collector/teacher
Erik Bendix, and this year at Klezmerquerque we also included music
workshops and dance parties with Joshua Horowitz, Cookie Segelstein and
Stuart Brotman. The Friday night dance party was very well attended - over
200 people. We counted over 75 people in one of the big dance lines and many
other people were just seated and observing. The music classes had a higher
attendance than the dance classes. Saturday night's party only brought in a
little under 100 people - maybe 15 to 30 people in a dance line.

I also play Balkan music and host Balkan dance parties. Many of the advanced
folkdancers I know have told me that the non-choreographed line dances are
too boring for them - Balkan or Yiddish - even if its dancing to great live
music.  I've also found, like Helen, that most inexperienced dancers are too
shy and uncomfortable to just jump right in. It definitely helps to have
'ringers' out there to pull people in to the dances.

Beth Cohen
Cantorial soloist, violinist and music director
Congregation Nahalat Shalom
Albuquerque, NM
www.nahalatshalom.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ari Davidow" <ari (at) ivritype(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 9:20 AM
Subject: Yiddish folk dancing on campus


> There was recently a klezmer concert/dance here at Tufts, so I asked
Michael McLaughlin, the band teacher, what he saw. The results are posted on
the KlezmerShack (try http://www.klezmershack.com/archives/000150.html if
it's not visible on the main page).
>
> What I'm wondering, based on recent comments made to me in private, and to
the list, is whether there is noticable interest in Yiddish folk dancing,
compared to interest in Israeli dancing. Here in the Boston area, for
instance, you can do English Country Dance or Contradance, almost any night
of the week. You can dance to Balkan music almost as frequently. Israeli
folk dancing is held regularly at MIT and I believe, at least one other
location. Yiddish dancing? Not on most calendars. And it isn't clear to me
that when such an event is held, many Jews show up--it =does= seem like the
sort of thing that attracts some non-Jews who love any international folk
dance more than, say, Jews.
>
> 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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