Yiddish Dance for Everyone
Yiddish & Hasidic Dances

August 5 - 9, 2025
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. & 3 - 6 p.m. | all levels

with Eli Benedict & Sarah Myerson

Yiddish dance goes hand in hand with klezmer music! In this workshop, we’ll focus on Hasidic dance in the morning session and other forms of Yiddish dance in the afternoon session.
In the morning sessions, led by Eli Benedict, we’ll explore group dances, nuanced solo expressions and improvisations, and intricate partner dances like the mitsve tants. Growing up in the Hasidic tradition, Eli Benedict absorbed Hasidic dances from childhood and later spent years as a professional dancer and choreographer analyzing and documenting the tradition. Participants will explore not only the physical dance steps but also the emotional and spiritual/philosophical significance behind them.
In the afternoon sessions, led by Sarah Myerson, we’ll learn a variety of dances from historical Lite, Galicia and Ukraine (Northeastern, Central and Southeastern Europe).

This summer, in honor of YSW’s 25th anniversary, we’ll also look back at the “other” dance traditions we’ve encountered over the past 25 years. What have we learned so far about commonalities across European and Mediterranean dance cultures, and what delightful treasures will we discover this year?

We’ll work on developing our own personal Yiddish dance styles through learning gestures and steps, formations (circles, squares, couples, solo), positions and terminology. We’ll work together with musicians to explore what makes music danceable and how dancers and musicians can best communicate.

We encourage participants in the Dance Workshop who are also musicians to "switch sides" by playing with the Dance Orchestra from time to time. The idea is to get a better feeling for the synergy between Yiddish music and Yiddish dance.

All dance sessions work with live musicians, and the workshop will culminate in the traditional Saturday night dance ball.

Workshop fee: 
395 € Standard / 270 € Reduziert / 545 € Förderer / 145 € unter 18