dancing in circles

Before I say anything, let me say two things:
1) I love that at the kosher market, there are Santa Clauses on the Coke bottles.
2) I hate that when I'm learning Yiddish I'm basically learning how to mutilate Hebrew.


So as I was snooping around on other blogs by Jews/Israelis/whatever, I stumbled across someone (unfortunatelyI forgot who now...) commenting on the fact that Miriam Makeba recently died. The author lamented the loss of a woman who provided the world with the song "Pata Pata," and recalled (fond?) memories of dancing to it in Hebrew School.

I thought to myself, "Wait, is this THE song?" There was one song that we danced to without fail, sometimes multiple times, at every Israeli dance class in Hebrew School--meaning that about a solid 50% of my Jewish education consisted of dancing to "Pata Pata." Years later I tried to locate the song out of nostalgic longing, but because I thought the song was called "Popcorn" I kept getting that electronic song that makes me feel like I'm playing Pong on my Atari.



I quickly leapt on this opportunity to track down this elusive song. And it turns out, the song of my childhood WAS INDEED "Pata Pata." This was the song of my childhood, and now I finally have it on my iTunes.

I mean, I thought it was weird that MY temple had us dancing to a song in a click language, but what struck me as bizarre was that this other blog I was reading said that her temple ALSO had them dancing to this song. Apparently there's some sort of "Pata Pata" epidemic among the Reform Movement, which raises the question: what is it with Reform Jews, mostly of Ashkenazic descent, and Miriam Mekaba? Isn't it kind of like ex-patriot Aboriginese Australians living in Canada adopting a Finnish folk song as their cultural dance?

And even forgetting the illegitimacy of using South African music as Israeli dance, why was such a large portion of religious school and hebrew school devoted to Israeli dance? Sure, I couldn't speak Hebrew, I barely knew prayers, and I didn't know the rules of kashrut, but holy cow could I dance in a circle. Occasionally we'd dance in partners or occasionally we'd dance in a "square" (like, you know, in rows), but mostly we were all about the circle dance, as a way to promote socialist/kibbutz values of equality, and the song would be some kibbutznik from decades ago singing away on some crappy tape recording.

Kind of like this:


הגבעטרון - ים השיבולים

Or maybe this:


הגבעטרון - בת 6

Or, come to think of it, kind of like pretty much anything else The Gevatron has ever sung.

I understand that they wanted to include the Israeli dancing as a sort of element of zionism....but it made it so that the only zionist fact I knew was that Haifa has a port. I couldn't tell you where in Israel Haifa was--when asked to point to it on a map, I'd be just as likely to point to Gaza city--but I knew it had a port. Also, I had picked up in a very vague sense that a lot of shit (and Palestinians) had blown up over the years in Israel, but I couldn't tell you when or where or how many times. But, DAMN, could I dance in a circle.

And how useful is dancing in a circle in modern Israel? Sure, I dont know how the government works, but I can dance in a circle. I dont know basic geography, but I can dance in a circle. I'd be completely lost at a bar mitzvah in Israel, but holy shit could I dance--in a circle--at the reception afterwards.

"Welcome to our kibbutz, SemenTAH. Do you have any relevant skills that you think our kibbutz could benefit from? Tell me before I permanently sentence you to the laundry room."
--"Well, I can dance in a circle."
"Um....."
--"What, I thought that's what y'all do on kibbutzes all day....?"

And yes, I'd call them 'kibbutzes.'


Perhaps my bitterness towards learning Israeli dances (mostly of the circle-variety) stems from the fact that in kindergarten I once became a sort of projectile missile during one of the dance sessions. We were learning the chicken dance in either kindergarten religious school or during pre-school (you gotta start Chicken Dance training early if you want to be ready in time for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah), and my partner was my bestie--who also happened to be the largest girl in our religious school class. And, at the time, I was basically the smallest. At regular school we had to line by grade and by height every year for the Christmas and the "American Appreciation Day" shows, and in kindergarten I was 3rd smallest out of 60. Just to give you an idea of how short I was.

So basically I, the shrimp, was paired with the largest land mammal this side of the Mississippi. We were having a lot of fun going really fast during the do-si-do parts.....until, towards the end, we were going so fast that my little feet actually left the ground and I was simply being swung around by my great moose of a partner.

And then, G-d help me, she let go to switch arms.

I've never flown quite like that before. I don't remember anymore exactly what I smashed into--maybe it was chairs, maybe it was another couple, maybe it was a bookshelf, I have no idea--but I do remember it being absolutely terrifying and absolutely painful.


Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to reflect on Israeli dance. As I've learned from my past Israel experiences, Israeli dancing hasn't proved to be too helpful when trying to make a life in Israel, but who knows--maybe it's different when you're an olah? Maybe citizens of Israel have secret underground circle dance sessions that tourist visa holders aren't invited to.

Too bad that Miriam Makeba died... :-( But at least she left me with fond(?) memories of Hebrew School.



Hers was one of the few songs we DIDN'T have to be in a circle for....


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