Havazalot Netanya

Ed Austin, head of the BYU folk dance dept., emailed the folk dance club about a free performance at the Capital Theater, June 11. A fund-raiser for the Utah Jewish Federation (or a name really close to it,) had arranged for an Israeli international folk dance troupe, Havazalot Netanya, to tour through SLC.

For those of you who may not know, I'm a folk dance minor--and my favorite style is Israeli. Naturally, when I found out about this concert I immediately begged my family to take me (Matt and Heather generously agreed to go,) and then I called to reserve tickets. Oh yeah--there's a funny story. The receptionist handling my call worked for the Utah-Jewish-Fed-thingy, and asked for both a phone number, and first and last name to reserve the tickets under. When I said, "Rachel Mildenstein," she hesitated, then tentatively asked, "Are you, by any chance, Jewish?" I grinned into the receiver and explained that I was not--my name is just very German, but thank you for the compliment. It made me laugh. Back to the dancing...

Capital Theater notwithstanding, as I headed up to SLC, I grew nervous that this concert could be any number of unpleasant-things: boring, lame, really long, or a bad combination of the aforementioned. I am most pleased to announce that it was none of these.

While the team lacked the polished coordination BYU teams possess, they did have technical ability and spirit, more than a dozen costume changes, and appeal. Some of their dances depicted scenes from the bible: Miriam and her tambourine, the Daughters of Jethro, Moses striking the rock, and one that described the building of the temple. My favorite was called, "Sun Beam," which has nothing to do with primary kids. The entire team was dressed in black, tan, and gold--they came out in a synchronized chain, then moved into ripple effect--oh MAN was it cool. All the while the backdrop behind them grew lighter and lighter as if the sun were rising. VERY COOL. Excellent choreography.

I mustn't forget the best details however. [A.] the SLC Jitterbug team initiated the performance. An abysmal performance that reminded me strongly of the big show. I even asked Matt why they didn't sing the muppet song when they opened. *shudder*... it was awful. [2.] There were no applause stops; they seamlessly followed a pattern of one long dance followed by two short dances. [D.] One side of the program was in Hebrew, the other in English... with a few fun typos: "holiest of holly," "a young lad froliskonig in a kibbutz," (that, I believe, is close to the German term for 'frog prince,' ) and of course, there was the BARBI dance.

When we first saw the program, Heather said, "Hey, they're doing a Barbie doll dance." Matt and I assured her that it couldn't possibly be a dance about a Barbie doll. Imagine our surprise when a girl in a neon pink strappy dress, complete with lime green daisies and a bright yellow purse strutted on stage flipping her pony-tail, flirting with a Ken-like person wearing jeans, a leather-jacket, sunglasses--and a black mesh shirt. They began to dance. Matt and I froze and turned away in disbelief, trying not to burst out laughing. This was difficult. It could not be avoided, however, when another girl-- wearing what I can only describe as a girl wearing a bunch of pillows stitched into some sort of fat-suit--walked on stage wearing a similar dress. The padded one wedged her way between Barbi (spelled w/out an e,) and Ken, who then finished the dance with disgust for her corpulence apparent on their faces. My description really can't do it justice.

22 numbers and an intermission later, the audience clapped in unison during the final number; a Hora dance! Whoo hoo! (That was for Alicia/Jacob, and anyone else who might know what that is. Man, it was good.) Then during the bows, the audience spontaneously began singing the Israeli national anthem--a simple tune that I absolutely must learn the words to--and to my surprise, nearly the entire audience knew the entire song. (Probably because most of them are jewish, and from what we saw, 2/3 of them had been to the Holy Land.)

After it was over, the director asked Ed Austin to teach the audience a little Israeli folk. This surprised Ed, who only met the guy 40 min. before the show. Ed asked all 9 of the folk dancers who were present (2 from SPAC, 4 from PAC, and 3 from WSC teams) to come on stage for the inner circle, then asked any audience members who were interested to join us as well. We did Haora Haktana and one other rec-night dance, and the Israeli's knew it too! I had no idea they were set dances--so it was really nifty. I danced inbetween the Barbi girl and another Israeli guy--really really schweet. I did Israeli folk dance with an Israeli national company ON THE CAPITAL THEATER STAGE. : D ! It was a lot of fun.

On a more general note, Matt and I both commented on how healthy they all were. The men were lean--very lean. The girls were not...they actually looked female. And nobody seemed gay! (Both points are quite refreshing when you've been in american dance your whole life.) Also, the girls all had really long brown hair. No short-styles, no blonde highlights--zip. Of course there was one girl whose hair had been dyed red-- but it was still 2 ft long. Guess I'm going to fit in well over there. Tee hee. Not only that, but the costumes were extremely modest. God bless Near Eastern cultures for that. In fact, one of the Bedouin dances they did included belly-dancer costumes--and they wore leotards underneath them! Wow! Big show, indeed.

Also, we heard remarks from Hebrew professors from the U of U that are from Israel, and once taught at the college in Netanya. Both are friends of the present (and recent past) Mormon prophet. With eyes filled with tears, they discussed the similarity between Mormonism and Judaism, our respect and belief in Zion, and how the House of Judah and the House of Joseph were together again. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah. Matt and I kept saying, "If Dad could hear this..." WOW.

What a fantastic night. What an incredible pre-departure bonus education. What increased love, respect, and excitement I feel for these people and the chance I have to spend in their homeland.

(Sorry this post was so long... there was a lot to describe. The beauty of a blog is that you don't have to read it all unless you want to! : P) --R.