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נושא המאמר: ריקודי עם ישראלים ותראפיה בריקוד
מאת: אריאלה פוגל   שמור מאמר למועדפים

Israeli Folk Dance Methods in Dance Therapy Israeli folk dancing is a form of dance usually performed to Israeli music and created by people from Israel. Israeli folk dancing is influenced by folk dances from many countries mostly from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Israeli folk dancing has come to life even before the establishment of the Israeli state. Israeli folk dances were danced in the Kibbutzim of the first immigrations of Jews to Israel. New dances have been created and introduced almost continuously over the last 100 years. From an historical and social perspective Israeli folk dances were introduced as a way to create a new culture in an old-new land, by combining elements from other dance cultures with the music and themes of modern Israel. The movements themselves are quite varied, one may find elements from the Romanian Hora, from the Arab dabke, from the traditional Yemenite life cycle celebrations, from the Klezmer music and from dances of Eastern European Jews. In the last few decades the dances include more modern movements from modern ballet, from swing, from salsa or even hip-hop. The History of the Israeli Folk Dance Where did this dance form come from? Some say like Hermon(1972) that the new Israeli folk dance expresses the link to former generation, the biblical period dances. Unfortunately even that we can rely on the Old Testament and other historic materials about the existence of dances, we don't really know how they danced back then. Some of the folk Israeli dances have been made in the inspiration of Biblical texts and for the Biblical agricultural holidays, so I do agree with the assumption that probably " history has entered not only our minds but every bone, muscle, joint and sinew of our body" ( Hermon, 1972). What is more obvious is that this dance form is influenced from different ethnic groups that lived in Israel or immigrant to the new country and from the reality, believes, wishes of the people in the process of rebirth a new nation in their homeland. The Israeli folk dance started by the pioneers in the beginning of the 20's century. The pioneers that founded the collective settlements (The Kibbutzims ) brought with them the songs and dances from their respective countries, mainly European. Thus, it happened that the dances were Polka and Krakoviak from Poland, the Cherkessia and Kossatshok from Russia and mostly the Hora from Rumania that become almost the national dance of Israel.( Kadman,1972 ). The Rumanian Hora, fitted perfectly the pioneer character and their social setup which I will explain later on in my work, but from 1920' and on few Israeli choreographers started to think seriously about folk dance in Israel that not rely on foreign origin. Among them was Gurit Kadman, who considered today "the mother of Israel folk dance". In 1944, Kadman organized with her friends the first dance festival in Kibbutz Dalia. Kadman( 1972, p 28 ) described how hard it was " the sources for Jewish dances seemed deplorably sparse and poor and did not offer anything to build upon. For us people who fervently wished to have dances of our own and in our lifetime, there was no choice; one had to create dances, and it happened starting in 1944". In the folk dance festival mostly international dance was presented but also a few new dances. Although there weren't many new dances, the festival gained two things- first, dance leaders started to create a new dances that were inspired from the new life in Israel and the different ethnic group's dances. Second, the Cultural Department of the Histadrut( Labor Union ) formed and sponsored a "folk dance department". The second Dalia dance festivals, in 1947, only newly created dances of Palestine were performed. As Kadman (1972, p. 30) outlined " The program contained only Israeli dances…the hope for a miracle had happened…Israeli folk dance was born…" More folk dance choreographers emerged. Among them Tirza Hodes who became in 1952 the director of the "folk dance department" which trained folk dance leaders and teachers, organized performing groups, stimulated the creation of new dances and published folk dance material. Others like Rivka Sturman, Yardena Coheen, Jonathan Karmon, Shalom Hermon , Sara Levy- Tanai and many more made an enormous contributions to the Israeli Folk Dance.( Berk, 1972, p. 39) The new dances spread to the towns and cities rather than in Kibbutzim. The dance were received by Jews all over the world and become very popular especially in America after World War ll. In 1968, sixth folk dance festival took place at Dalia, planned as a celebration in songs and dance for the twentieth jubilee of the State of Israel. Since the 60's and mostly in the 70's the Israeli folk dance have been influenced by a modern dance forms like ballroom dancing from Europe and United Stats and later on the Disco, Pop ,Trance and other music and dances styles. The dances in a big halls replaced the small neighborhood's dances, some of the dances done to songs of foreign countries and most of the dances events are not free anymore (Tahel, 2006).Although all the changes of the Israeli folk dance form, it is still very popular and accepted in Israel and all over the world. The Etiology and Social Function of the Dance Form. What are the effort qualities of the dance form and how is it related to the development of Israeli culture? As I already mention, the dance form have been influenced by the reality and the social life of the pioneers who tried to build a new society. The pioneers were a group of young people that had a full of ideology ideas to build in the new country- new society, new languish, new life and new culture. The pioneers run away from the European bourgeois life for simple and decent life style. They used Jews bible definitions but gave it a new meaning that connected to labors dreams- working the land and create an equal society( Tahel, 2006). So what was in the Hora from Rumania a village dance that fitted so well to those settlers? In terms of qualities efforts we can see few things- The dance have been danced in a close circle, with linked arms and hands on shoulders of the neighbors and continued at the some direction. As Kadman( 1972, p.27) described it "exact expression of the close human relationship between all the members of the community; all of them with equal rights and equal value, regardless of sex or of dancing ability". In a term of weight and flow, it was strong and restricted. It had simple and energetic movement – stamping, jumping and leg swinging. Tahel (2006) explain it as away to state their link to the ground and the sights of the new homeland. The pioneers sing and dance for hours but the movements were full of excitements, urgent, a phrase to the critical time of doubt and fear from the day after. This Rumanian Horas was a suitable dance form those days, almost become the Israeli nation dance and stile a part of the Israeli folk dance even if it changed during the years. But as others dance forms that the pioneers brought with them, like the Polish Krakoviak, they remain a foreign dance forms. The dance creators in the beginning of 1920's and later on, tried to find other sources for creating folk dances, to find away to keep the old but at the some time to start to build a new dances. That raised a problem for the dance creators of "how a country of an old nation can approach the re-creation of a culture which had been lost over the centuries, especially the dance." (Berk 1972, p. 42) Therefore they refer to the dance forms of the ethnic groups that lived in Israel - the Arab, Druze and the Circassians and to the dance form of the Jewish immigrants specially the Chasidic and the Yemen. I want to describe those dance forms in terms of quality efforts and how and why they influence the Israeli folk dance. One source for the choreographers in those days, before establish of Israel country, was the dance of the minority groups the Druse the Arab and the Circassia's. I can't get in this paper to the history of each group but I would like to describe the Dance that influenced the Israeli folk dance during the years until today. The Arab and Druse men dance calls the Debka. Debka means in Arabic "stomping of the feet", stomping as well as jumping and kicking. Gurit Kadman (1982, p. 53) when she describe her efforts to keep the wonderful ethnic dances, understand the Debka as a devotion with a connection to a magi aspect "losing the mind while you continue the Debka". So how the Debka looks like? The classic Debka is a line dance. The leader guides the dancers to the right side, twirling a handkerchief or string of beads. The music, accompanist by Darbuka (drum), clapping and different flutes, has a quite refrain. In between there is an improvised quick and wiled dance that mostly done by the leader while the rest can join him or continue with the refrain keeping the rhythm. This structure keeps the strength of the dancers so they can continue the dance for a long time. The Debka danced by men, women or both, is very common in different areas of the Middle East and performed at wedding and other joyous occasions. There are different Debkas – the one that dances in the some place while moving the body back and fort, anther done by one of the dancers that go forward with a song while the rest stomp in a line, start to stamping, lifting their legs and all again. Also, the women dance with a small, hurried steps with a few movement of the hands, arms and waist (Kedman,1982 ). In one way or anther, it seems that the moves are bound flow, strong with impact, urgent and direct. The dance symbol the connection to the land. The movements are taking from similar actions of agriculture. No wonder that many of the dance creators adapted this dance form. It expressed well the wish of the pioneers and the immigrants later on to have similar strong roots to land like the Arabs and the Druse. More then that, since the life style of the Arabs and the Druse in Israel reminded the life style of the Jew people in biblical time, there was an assumption that may be this dance form have been done the same by grand grand fathers of the Jew people. Anther ethnic group were the Circassians who also use heavily stamps and stomp in their dance but with an influence of a Russian dance. The Circassians, that came to Israel more then 1000 years ago after they suffered from wars in their country, has a dance form that demand a lot of good shape, flexibility and quickness. There are many dances of love and courtship that perform by a man and a woman but the more known dances are preformed by men in a line, pair or individual with boots on their feat doing very strong and controlled moves, direct and sudden like in a middle of a fighting. So how and why these dances sway the Israeli folk dance? The first pioneers that came from Russia found a common culture and languish with the Circassians. The people liked to see their south Russian performance, their beautiful customs the amazing temperament and the men energy. (Kedman, 1982 ). Some of the first circle Israeli folk dances influenced from this dance form epically from the basic move that done by crossing legs forward and backward and to the side. Until today it possible to see the elements of this lovely and charming dance form in Israeli folk dance. During the years the Jews immigrants that came from different part of the world brought with them a beautiful and special dances that creators mostly Kedman( 1982 ) tried to preserved and to document. Among those dance forms there were two groups that the dance has been a very meaningful component in their life and influenced more than the others the Israeli folk dance. The Chasidic and the Yemen people. The Chasidism is a religious movement which originated among Polish Jewry in eighteenth century and affected almost half of Jewry during the following two centuries. They believe that God should be served through deep-seated joy rather than solemnity.( Berk, p. 72) Most of the dances are in a circle with many participates while from time to time a good dancers getting into the circle and dance with bottles on their head or holding a stick on his for head and taking of his coat and other kind of improvising and humorous movements. Some time the Rebbe (the religious leader) would dance before the group on his own, creating new movements for the circle to pick up. Dvora Lapson (1972, p.15) describe the Chasidic dance " Generally, the dance begins slowly with a touch of sadness expressive of yearning and mystery. It gradually assumes a faster rhythm until it reaches a state of ecstasy". Also she note that most often the dancers in the circles holding on to each other's shoulders or belts as they follow each other around.The dances, rider they start slow and restrain or quick and cheerful, always done with immense devotion and with increasing fervor seeking a kind of ecstasy. There are also dances not in a circle that perform by 4 pairs in a square that known as the "sher" and "sherale". There are many, different dances for every occasion like- holidays, weddings, in the synagogue out of the synagogue when ever there is emotional outlet. Nevertheless, it seems that the all kind of the Chasidic dances were free flow, light and delicate and continued non stop in order to reach God with joyful dance ( Kedman, 1982). Beside that, the dance served as a sort of reaction to the outside world, the dreary and sordid ghetto. So how this dances influenced the Israeli folk dance form? In the begging just the two dances that I mention before the "sher" and the "sherale" have been danced in the settlements. Later on, the craters start to generate dances with the spirit and the style of Chasidic dances that are stile loveable and acceptable by the dancers today. I assume that back then, the Chasidic dance that express optimism, devotion and collectively feeling were a good source to relay on in the process of creating an Israeli folk dance. Anther ethnic group that impact the Israeli folk dance was the dance of the Yemen people. Yemen are believed trace back to the time of King Solomon 2500 years ago. During the 2500 years of Jews in Yemen the community usually suffered from hate and restrictions and only rarely was allowed to flourish. Despite this and the fact that they were scattered all over Yemen, they kept their religion and their ancient traditions. (Manor, 1972) The dance was a very major element in the Yemenite Jewish life. Every event in the individual and the community was expressed in dance. The men dances were characterized by creativity and improvisation. Some dances were acrobatic and humorous other dances were spiritual. The women dances were more quite and decent. The danced to songs about life's actions like: work, raising children and so on. The dance is done in a very limited space, because of government limitations, the Jewish Yemenite couldn't dance in public. They danced in small rooms, during a party the people set on the floor around the dancers, clapping hands while 2 to 4 talented dancers danced in the middle. From time to time other dancers replaced them. The good dancers had a richness of inventions, improvisations and creativities in the established dance style. The body of the dancer twists mostly vertical, up and down. Although the Yemenite dance form has been influenced from the dance form of the Arabic, African and Indian, it was more restrained and delicate (no stamping, no warlike movements and no exact hands movements). If we look at the weight, we see that the connection with the ground is de-emphasized. It is like they want to overcome their weight probably a symbol of their willing to reach god and to connect with him. In term of time, we can see that the movements are light, flexible, and delicate without urgent, wild or sudden movements. So How and Why the Yemen dance got to the Israeli folk dance? Probably the fact that the dance form kept for so many years in Yemen and was very original was one of the reasons that the creators refer to it. In a very strange way, this dance form that was restrained and delicate different then the aggressive and the energetic character of the Israelis was accepted and danced with a lot of love and exited.( Kadman, 1982) I guess also that the dance that express the way of people to get over conflicts and stresses and still keep the joyful experience and hope really touched the hurt of the people of Israel who had to straggles then until today. No doubt about it that the Yemen components, specially the very basic and well known "Yemenite step" became a large part of the Israeli folk dancing. Since the 60's the Israeli folk dance was influenced directly from the reality changes in Israel and out of the country, from socialism, collectivism to individualism and self definition. As Tahel (2006) mention in her paper " the first generation lived the pass from dream to reality and the second generation asking the way from reality to dream…". In those days we can see that beside the dances with songs about the love for the land there is dances to love songs , to an actually songs and English songs. Later on in the 70's, at the some time that there was a creation of dances with ethnic songs and movements like the Hasidic and the Yemen, there was a creation of dances to songs and movement of modern dance forms. This is of course a result of the culture and social changing in Israel. Dance Therapy How is the Israeli folk Dancing Connected to Dance Therapy? We can't talk about folk dancing as a dance therapy in the expected sense but we can see that there are a similar elements as a therapeutic process. Sharon Chaiklin (1975, p. 701) gave a simple and uncomplicated definition to Dance Therapy "a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the use of movement as the medium of change…using the body as a healing force for emotional distress". No doubt about it that mostly in the first years of creating Israeli folk dancing and later on, the dance gave the people the strength and the unity to cope with the difficulties and the threats surrounded them. Even when the world war II was still raging, terrible news about the slaughter of Jews in Europe came trickling in, the dance form continued to exist and to develop. As Sharon Chaiklin (1975, p. 701) describe the powerful of dance in all cultures " Dance is a language which uses the totality of body-mind-spirit to relate to the most profound experiences, painful and joyous, to those who would observe or share in the experience". The concept of healing in Dance therapy have been emphasize in the paper of Ilene Serlin ( 1993) when she wrote about " Root Images". She suggests that the dance therapists should listen to the echo of the ancient practices that prefigure and continue to echo in contemporary dance therapy work. By that the therapists can get to the sacred sources and restore the individual's life-force within the context of community. If we go back to the time when the Israeli creators looked for sources of dance forms to relay on, we can understand why they referred to Chasidic and the Yemen people. Both dance forms have a movements that give the participates an experience of an encounter with gods, with heightened form and by that getting heal and comfort . Although the pioneers rejected the old life style that they left behind, even their Hora circles that went on and on, are an echo of the sacred circle of healing practices. The Israeli dance form, with all the different movements, was and still is a sign of health of a community. Beside the healing effect of the dance form, we can't ignore that "the most basic concept, and the one from which all others flow, is that the dance is communication and thus fulfills a basic human needs".( Chaikline and Schmais, 1993). In dance therapy and in the this folk dance we can see that in two ways. Once in term of the dance form as a communication system in culture identify the individual as member of his group.( Chaiklin, 1975). In the beginning of the Israeli society there was an attempt to spread out the values like – cooperation, uniformity, equality and more by the folk dance as other means, in order to build a Israeli identification in the old-new country . The referring to the Debka of the Arab and Druse and to the movement of the Circassiance may be demonstrate it the best. The second is a dance as a communication in term of bonding people, creating a feeling of solidarity and contagion among people .This is essential in a group of dance therapy and one of the important component even today in Israeli dance therapy in spite of the huge changes in the movements. So we can see that despite the we can't refer to folk dance as a dance therapy session in terms of gaining insights, integrating body parts, creating a realistic body image and so on, we understand that there are a similar benefits and repayment from both movements. Miriam Roskin Berger ( 1956) mention that dance therapy can let the participate express his emotions in muscular movement , to communicate his emotional stat to others and to experience a new emotion. I think that the Israeli folk dance have been and still is a form that offer all of this to the participates. In this paper, I review the historical circumstancees of creation the Israeli dance form, gave some understanding about the effort qualities of the form and showed the connection to Dance Therapy. The Israeli folk dance have been develop in the same time of rebirth of a nation in his ancient long lost homeland. To create a folk dance form in a few years, even that it was done in purpose in artificial way, was essential like reestablish country for the Jewish nation. The Israeli folk dance was a significant and successful establishment , a folk dance that combine a Western and Middle East movements, a Traditional and Modern dances, all create a special and a colorful dance form. I can't ignore that the dance form went through a lot of changes and lost some of his original and unique meanings what perfectly mirroring what happened to the Israeli society during the years. Sometimes the society lost the confidence about the rights of her existence and there is a willing to become a "normal" country like other countries but like the dance we can't forget that it a creation of people who have been persecuted and victimized in the countries that they came from. The dance form, like the Israeli society, still experience the knowing that there isn't any other choice and express the willing to stay together, keep the unity in order to cope in hard time and to celebrate in good time References Berger, Roskin, Miriam. " Bodily Experience And Expression Of Emotion", In: American Dance Therapy Association A Collection of Early Writing : Toward A Body Of Knowledge, Maryland, Vol. 1, 1989, PP. 152-191. Berk, Fred. "Israeli folk Dance Personalities", In: Berk, Fred, ed. Machol Ha'am- Dance of the Jewish people, U.S.A America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 39 Berk, Fred. "Israel folk dance in Israel and America", In : Berk, Fred, ed. Machol Ha'am- Dance of the Jewish people, U.S.A America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 22-28. Berk, Fred. "The influence of Ethnic Dance", In: Berk, Fred, ed. Machol Ha'am- Dance of the Jewish people, U.S.A America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp.67-88. Chaiklin, Sharon. "Dance Therapy", The American Handbook of Psychiatry, Vol 5, 1975, 5 pp. 701-720. Chaiklin, Sharon and Schmais Claire. " The Chace Approach to Dance Therapy", In : Foundations of Dance/Movement Therapy: The Life and Work of Marian Chace, Columbia, Maryland: the Marian Chace Memorial Fund of the American Dance Therapy Association , 1993, pp. 75- 97 Hermon, shalom. "The biblical period", In : Berk, Fred, ed. Machol Ha'am- Dance of the Jewish people, U.S.A America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 3-16. Kadman, Gurit. "Folk Dance in Israel", In: Berk, Fred, ed. Ha-Rikud- The Jewish Dance, U.S.A of America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 26-31. Kedman, Gurit. The Ethnic group's dances in Israel. Israel, Masada, 1982. (In Hebrew). Lapson Dvora. " The Chasidic Dance" , In: Berk, Fred, ed. Ha-Rikud- The Jewish Dance. U.S.A of America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 15-20. Manor, Giora. "The Yemenites", In: Berk, Fred, ed. Machol Ha'am- Dance of the Jewish people, U.S.A America: Union of American Hebrew Congregation, 1972, pp. 68-71. Serlin, Ilene. "Root Images of Healing in Dance Therapy", American Journal of Dance Therapy, Vol. 12, no.2, Fall/Winter,1993, pp. 65-76. Tahel- Avivi, Shikma. "Israeli folk dance as a cultural representatives since the pioneers until today", Israel: Tel Aviv University, 2006. from-http://www.tapuz.co.il (In Hebrew ).