with Walter Zev Feldman
at Neskaya
October 11-13, 2002

(Zev is the one in the white suit,
with Michael Alpert on the left.)
 
 

Dancing to klezmer music is a pleasure that becomes increasingly rare as fewer and fewer people remain who know East European Jewish dance. Walter Zev Feldman, one of the founders of the klezmer revival in the 1970s, grew up in an East European family who still danced Jewish dances, and is one of the few teachers of this dance form. East European Jewish dance is deeply expressive, characterized by subtle hand movements and precise weight shifts. Mirroring the history of the Jews in Europe it combines dance figures from 17th-18th century Western Europe (such as the sher), indigenous Jewish movements (in the freylakhs and khosidl) and certain Moldavian dances to which the Jews composed klezmer tunes (such as bulgar, honga, hora and volokhl).

See Helen Winkler's Page for more information about this type of dance.