Dancing For and With the Torah

With so many of us having been in isolation for so long, this presents a perfect opportunity to explore expressive individual Yiddish dancing. You’ll be able to use the skills you learn whether your Simkhes Toyre observance in September is at home or (gasp!) back in shul!

An individual’s dance can communicate high emotion and joy, and they can share that as a gift at any occasion. This is especially significant at Simkhes Toyre (Simkhat Torah) when we are meant to express our love and joy of Toyre (Torah) with dance. Through a series of dance etudes we’ll learn a vocabulary of movements and considerations (a grammar of sorts) for expressive dancing. Since dancers at Simkhes Toyre often dance holding torah scrolls, at home we will use a sidr (siddur), Tanakh, or other large book as a stand-in for the Torah to learn and practice some typical dance figures involving the Torah.

This workshop will enhance not only your Simkhes Toyre experience, but also your individual dancing anytime you wish to be expressive in a stylistically Jewish way to klezmer music; solo, with a partner, or in company.

The event begins at 11am Pacific Time (2pm Eastern, 7pm London, 8pm Paris, 9pm Tel Aviv).

Steve Weintraub is a teacher, choreographer, and performer of Jewish dance, particularly  Yiddish dance, the dance to klezmer music. Born on New York’s Governor’s Island, Bar Mitzvahed in the Bronx, and living now in Philadelphia, Steven Lee Weintraub received his dance training in Manhattan with Alvin Ailey and Erick Hawkins, among others. He is in international demand as a teacher of traditional Yiddish dance at festivals and workshops including Klezkamp, Klezkanada, and festivals in Krakow, Furth, Paris, and London. He delights in introducing people to the figures, steps and stylings of the dances that belong to klezmer music. He has often been called the “Pied Piper of Yiddish Dance”; his years of experience leading and researching Yiddish dance allow him to quickly weave dancers and music together in astonishing ways. Young and old, from all backgrounds, find it easy to share in the joy of Yiddish dancing.