Reading Assignments: General Information
There will be 5 reading assignments throughout the semester (plus 1 "sample" assignment). For each of the 5, there is an associated write-up that you must submit. The guidelines handout (distributed in class) is available here.
The Write-Ups
Write-ups are to be no more than 4 sentences. In general, one sentence will summarize the article, two sentences will make a point and support it with a piece of evidence, and one sentence will be a "personal connection." (Either relating the information in the article to class itself or your own personal experiences.)
Submission Guidelines and Grading
All assignments must be submitted by email to IsraeliDanceDeCal@gmail.com. No hard copies will be accepted. Late policy: You may submit one assignment late (up to 48 hours) without penalty. Subsequently late assignments will not receive any credit.
Assignments are graded out of 2 points. In general,
- 2 points— clearly read article and had insight into it
- 1 point— skimmed or didn't understand article
- 0 points— nothing submitted
Current Semester: Assignments for Spring 2011
Due Dates
The 5 assignments are listed below, and the following table gives the due dates. Additionally, a handout was provided in class. There will be no further notification as to due dates.
| Assignment # | Due Date |
| 0 (practice) | N/A |
| 1 | Mar. 1, 2011 |
| 2 | Mar. 15, 2011 |
| 3 | Mar. 29, 2011 |
| 4 | Apr. 5, 2011 |
| 5 | Apr. 12, 2011 |
Assignment 0: A Brief History of Israeli Folk Dance
- Read A Brief History of Israeli Folk Dancing, by Aaron Alpert (yes, he's one of the instructors).
- If you were going to do a write up, you would be asked: What is Israeli Folk Dance? How does it compare to other "folk" styles of dance?
- In this case, just read the sample write-up.
Assignment 1: What Is Israeli Dance?
- Read pages 97-98 of Is That Dance Israeli?, by Loui Tucker.
- Read CULTURE: Dance, by Israeli Foreign Ministry.
- How would you describe or categorize Israeli Folk Dance to someone who knows nothing about it? How is it different from or similar to Israeli concert dance? Other non-Israeli folk dance styles?
Assignment 2: Israeli Dance in the Hothouse
- Read Gurit Kadman, by Ayalah Goren-Kadman.
- Read How Israeli Culture Was Constructed: Memory, History and the Israeli Past, by Alex Weingrod. You must be logged in to the UCB library proxy to access this article.
- Israeli culture is often referred to as "hothouse" culture because it was cultivated in the 1930s and 40s, rather than developing "organically" over centuries. Gurit Kadman was a central figure in the early development of Israeli Dance, serving on a government-sponsored committee charged with creating Israeli Folk Dance. How does its hothouse nature affect Israeli Folk Dance today?
Assignment 3: Religion in Israeli Dance
- Read Do You Bow? Dancing to the Image of the Sabbath Queen, by Judith Neulander.
- Using Neulander's article, defend or reject the following thesis: Israeli Folk Dance is inherently spiritual (or religious).
Assignment 4: Israeli Dance in a Foreign Land
- Read In the Land of the Rising Sun, by Yaron Meishar. (The formatting is a little funky, so you may prefer to use this PDF copy of the article, which I've fixed.)
- Yaron Meishar identifies several ways in which Israeli Folk Dancing is done differently in Japan, and he attempts to explain why it's different based on assumptions or observations about Japanese culture. Pick one of these differences and accompanying explanations; do you agree or disagree with Meishar's explanation, and why? Give one way in which you think Israeli Dancing might differ between Israel and the United States. Why?
Assignment 5: Two Choreographers
- Read Bat Amanoot's interview with Moshe (Moshiko) Itzhik HaLevy.
- Read Bat Amanoot's interview with Dani Dassa.
- Dani and Moshiko have very similar dance backgrounds (ballet, modern training), and they are both choreographers of Israeli Folk Dance. Yet, they seem to have different motivations and methodology for creating Israeli Folk Dances. How would you reconcile the apparent contradiction, that Dani and Moshiko have such different styles, and yet both of their creations are considered Israeli Folk Dances?
Previous Semester: Assignments for Spring 2010
Due Dates
The 5 assignments are listed below, and the following table gives the due dates. Additionally, a handout was provided in class. There will be no further notification as to due dates.
| Assignment # | Due Date |
| 0 (practice) | N/A |
| 1 | 02/23/10 |
| 2 | 03/09/10 |
| 3 | 03/16/10 |
| 4 | 04/06/10 |
| 5 | 04/27/10 |
Assignment 0: A Brief History of Israeli Folk Dance
- Read A Brief History of Israeli Folk Dancing, by Aaron Alpert (yes, he's one of the instructors).
- If you were going to do a write up, you would be asked: What is Israeli Folk Dance? How does it compare to other "folk" styles of dance?
- In this case, just read the sample write-up.
Assignment 1: The Vitality of IFD
- Read In Israel, Still Dancing After All These Years, by Judith Brin Ingber.
- Read Shall We Dance?, by Ilene Bloch-Levy.
- Are there any differences in how Ingber and Bloch-Levy assess the vitality of Israeli Dance? Do you agree with their analysis? — Use an example from class to support your point.
Assignment 2: YelleB
For this assignment, you have a choice. Either,- Go see the performance by YelleB on Monday, March 8, (time TBA) in the Hillel Auditorium. If you do this, you don't need to write anything. (On bSpace, just submit "Went to the performance," so I know you went.)
- Do the following assignment:
OR
- Watch all the videos on YelleB's video page.
- Look at the images and read the information on YelleB's Pericardium pages, 1 and 2.
- Read about YelleB's conception of the trialogue between three different kinds of space.
- YelleB is an Israeli modern dance group. It is easy to find differences betweent he kind of dancing they do and what we do in Israeli Folk Dancing. However, I'd like you to find one similarity between YelleB's dancing and Israeli Folk Dancing. Identify it, and then state its significance. How does this similar feature relate to Israel?
Assignment 3: Yemenite Dancing
- Read "Yemenite Dances and Their Influence on the New Israeli Folk Dances," by Gurit Kadman. J. of the Int'l. Folk Music Council, Vol. 4. (1952), pp. 27-30.
- Read "The Yemenite Dance Materials of Sara Levi-Tannai," by Giora Manor. Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Rvw, Vol. 20 (Dance).
- Israel has consistently aided in the emmigration of Jews from Yemen to Israel. Yemenite Jews in turn brought a lot of their culture with them, and even today, there are Israeli dances being made with a distinct Yemenite style. Are these dances Israeli dances, Yemenite dances, or both? In other words, can a dance simultaneously be an Israeli Folk Dance and a Yemenite dance?
Assignment 4: Rivka Sturman, The Mother of Israeli Folk Dancing
- Read "Rivka Sturman," by Judith Brin Ingber. Shorashim: The Roots of Israeli Folk Dance. Dance Perspectives Magazine, vol. 59 (Autumn 1974).
- Read "Mayim, Mayim." IsraeliDances.com. Jewish Australia. Pay special attention to (1) the image of the article Else Dublon wrote to the Jerusalem post, and (2) the image of the original album cover (click the "Dance Steps" link).
- Rivka Sturman is sometimes called "the mother of Israeli Folk Dance." Mayim is considered by many to be the quintessential Israeli Dance. Do you agree with her comment to Dublon, that in order to be a true "folk dance," the choreographer must be anonymous? Why do you think she attempted to steal credit for this particular dance? What are the trends today in terms of crediting choreographers and stealing ideas, choreography, and/or music?
Assignment 5: Circles and Couples
- Read Connection in Circle Dancing, by Andrew Weitzen
- Read Too Many Couple Dances?, by Ken Avner.
- Read Recreational Israeli Dance as a Participatory Art Form (pages 95-99), which is Edith Greenblatt's masters thesis from UCLA.
- Today, there is an undeniable trend toward more and more partner dances. When Greenblatt wrote her thesis in 1987, approximately 1/3 of the dances were partner dances. That number is closer to 1/2 today. Speculate—what might be causing the shift? How does circle dancing vs. partner dancing affect the overall character of Israeli Folk Dance? What are the pros and cons of the recent shift toward more partner dances?
