Snippets and items of interest about various dances, sent in by readers. Contributions are welcome.
2. Avi Peretz' Od Nashuv is a new dance to Jim Horton's song from the sound track of a famous movie "North to Alaska."
The original singer is not Jewish nor the song is not about Israel or anything else, Daklon made it Jewish by keeping the tune and writing a new words about returning to the home land.
3. Victor Gabai's dance Ani Lo Me'Ohav was a song by Australian group Air Supply, translated recently to Hebrew and sung by an Israeli singer (Kochav Nolad).
4. Siman She'ata Tza'ir is a 1979 dance by Eliyahu Gamliel. It's a traditional Irish folk song about about highway robbery and romantic betrayal, called "Whiskey in the Jar". The Hebrew is a completely new version, not a translation.*
5. All our early song and dances from Gurit Kadmon and Rivkah Shturman in the 1940's were to Russian songs. Krakoviak, Mazurkah, Cherkessia kfulah, Troikah, Karaboushkah were all foreign songs.
In conclusion we see a pattern that indicates that we are one melting pot of Jewish culture, influenced in our culture by so much diversity of Jewish culture which the result is what we see now and called Israeli folk dances.
Thanks to Larry Denenberg of Boston for updated info and links
The tune of Rivka Sturman's "Kol Dodi" is used both in Catholic and Protestant (Lutheran) services, in Bavaria, Germany. IFD literature states that the tune was either composed by Sara Levy-Tanai or is marked as "traditional.".
Another guess I heard was the the tune itself must be something Jewish from the "Spanish period" until 1492.
