Israeli choreographer draws large crowd for group dance

By POLINA OLSEN

article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

Portland’s Israeli dance instructor, Dudi Amir, hadn’t seen such a big crowd in years. But on Sept. 14, more than 75 enthusiasts jammed the Fulton Park Community Center on Southwest Miles Street to see and learn from an original master.

“I made this dance when Israel was 10 years old,” Yo’av Ashriel told the crowd in broken English that everyone understood. “Now Israel is 60.”

When the applause stopped, everyone danced.

Ashriel, who has choreographed hundreds of dances including classics like Erev Ba, Hora Nirkoda and Layla Layla, is among the pioneers who took people from around the world and gave them a tradition all their own. In Portland as part of a four-week Israel 60th anniversary tour, he also gave workshops in California, Florida and Washington.

Ashriel was born in 1930 on Kibbutz Ramat David located between Haifa and Afula. His father emigrated from Austria around 1913, his mother from Poland in 1920.

“When my parents came to Israel, they danced the hora, a Romanian dance,” he said. “They’d sing Israeli songs to the hora.”

He explained that Israeli folk dances are new, not indigenous.

“They started with Gurit Kadman in 1944. She taught the workshop at my kibbutz where I first learned. I took to it like a match.”

Jim Kahan, of Portland, watched intently as Ashriel went through dance steps. Kahan visited Israel in 1968, and remembers meeting Ashriel in Tel Aviv.

“He was really alive, energetic and knew how to get a group moving,” Kahan remembered.

According to Kahan, Israeli folk dancing was a conscious effort to bring disparate people together.

The dances had to be simple because they wanted everybody of all ages from 4 to 100 to participate, he said. They began with folk music from places people had lived and quickly started writing their own. The Hasidic, Balkan, Russian, Arabic, Yemenite and other communities had their own dances. They blended and became part of the repertory.

“Other than the hora, I don’t know any dance that is not choreographed.”

Gradually, Kahan said, dances moved beyond their original purpose.

“It became an art form and sport. It started getting more complicated and athletic. The idea was—if you can do this dance, you’re hot stuff.”

In addition, Israelis came to the U.S. and created dances especially for American teenagers.

“They transmigrated back to Israel, and it became a blend,” said Kahan.

“My first dance was Tam Aman,” Ashriel said. “They told me the music is Spanish, the steps are Yemenite, your parents are from Europe—and it’s very good.”

He choreographed the music of many Israeli composers, and sometimes knew them personally.

“Folk dances are for the people and they have to enjoy it,” Ashriel said.

He worked hard to develop dances that express atmosphere.

“Folkdances must have simple steps—simple movements, but express all the feeling,” he emphasized. “Israeli folk dancing is for everybody.”