Theater Dance Performance Study

TDAPS Notes 092707 Next few weeks: variety of different dance practices associated with Jewish American experience Jewish American dance is too complex and various to single out certain dances Don’t care about conflict in Middle East, we will focus on dance, through the eyes of certain people  Religious, social, and theatrical dance that one way or another serve as a particular reflection of Jewish experience. Jewish Americans are not homogeneous; there’s no simple way to characterize Jewish identity unlike the Hopi Indians. Ways of characterizing Jews changes Definition of Jew that we will use o Narrow sense: Someone whose religion is Judaism  Leaves out a lot of people who consider themselves Jewish  However, even if they don’t practice Judaism, they can experience Anti-Semitism o Broader sense: any person belonging to a worldwide group that constitutes through descent or conversion a continuation of the ancient Jewish people who were themselves descendants of the Hebrews of the Old Testament  We will stick with this definition in the class  As a religion, Judaism has branches that anyone can convert to, so anyone can become a Jew Hebrews of the Old testament lived in what is now Israel Many people nowadays have a connection with that land in the Middle East though not everyone agrees with the government There are Jews who practice Judaism, others who practice other religions, and others who practice no religion History of Jews: History of Exile o Diaspora: physical dispersion of the Jews throughout the world 6th century BC o Under Persian Empire, Jews were allowed to return and rebuild temple Different Jews in different places have same texts but different cultures and rituals Worldwide, there are many branches of Judaism (back of reader) o Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Mizrahi o The word "Ashkenazic" is derived from the Hebrew word for Germany. The word "Sephardic" is derived from the Hebrew word for Spain. The word "Mizrachi" is derived from the Hebrew word for...