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Dancing in Early Modern Ashkenaz, with Andreas Schmitges
Lecture #32 in Joshua Horowitz’s series, The Promiscuous World of Jewish Music
Monday, January 25, 11am California/2pm New York/ 7pm UK/ 8pm most of Europe
Length: 1 – 2 hours
Donations to Josh Horowitz are accepted and appreciated, but not required.
Zoom Meeting ID: 967 8901 9038
Password: 156230
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Dance traditions among Ashkenazi Jews in Europe have not been a strong focus of musicological research between the 19th and 21st century. Given the importance that folk dance and modern dance have gained in modern-day Israel, it is very surprising that the by-now-outdated article in the Encyclopedia Judaica is still the only overview about Jewish dancing in the Early Modern period. This presentation aims at providing an overview of the currently available resources and aims to place vernacular dance within the context of social history. Furthermore, it will explore its religious connotations, its iconography and the relationship between Jewish and Non-Jewish traditions.
Andreas Schmitges is a musicologist and a musician. Currently, he is a research associate at the UNESCO Chair of Transcultural Music Studies at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar. His publications include articles on Ashkenazic vocal, instrumental and dance traditions since the late medieval period. His current fields of interest are Ashkenazic dance traditions as well as ethnographic and other sources of East European Jewish Dance.
Andreas is also the artistic (co-)director of several Jewish and Yiddish music and culture festivals and has taught Ashkenazi dance traditions and music at festivals in the US, Canada, and Europe. In recent years, he has produced theatre and music projects such as the Caravan Orchestra & Choir, the Yiddish Opera Bas-Sheve by Henech Kon and a range of new Yiddish music, theater, opera and cabaret projects for Yiddish Summer Weimar 2019.