Cheyenne’s Mount Sinai Synagogue will receive a $1,000 Folk Arts grant from the Wyoming Arts Council for Beatrice Montross to teach Jewish and Israeli folk dances through a program of weekly classes.
The grant, designed to help preserve the traditional dance forms, will help pay for dance instruction and fund costumes and music.
About 15 members of Cheyenne’s Jewish community will learn the dances, then perform in full costume at the synagogue’s annual Yiddish Food Festival on May 18, and possibly other events throughout the year.
Montross plans to teach such traditional steps as the Hora, the Sher, the Baroiges Tanz, and the Patch Tanz she learned while growing up. Although not Israeli, she will also teach Israeli dances which are very much a part of the Jewish-American culture. The early dances of Israel incorporated music, melodies and distinct cultural characteristics that were valued by the Jewish immigrant diaspora.
"We really appreciate the Art Council’s support in this project. Learning these dances will be a cultural and emotional experience as well as an opportunity to have fun," Phyllis Bloomberg, of the Synagogue said.
Classes will be held on Sunday afternoon from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. March 9 through June 30 at the synagogue. The instruction will include proficiency in steps, styling, and background information on the individual dances. Adults and teens are welcome. Shorter, one-hour classes will be held for children.
Montross is a dance ethnologist. She is a graduate of New York University and holds a master’s degree in education and dance/anthropology. She has taught ballroom and international folk dance at both the university and public school level. She has also taught workshops and master classes in Canada, Bermuda, Mexico and Japan as well as throughout the U.S.
In Wyoming, Montross has conducted residencies in Rawlins, Riverton, Jeffrey City and Cheyenne along with workshops for adults and students in Laramie and Cheyenne. She feels that learning and sharing the traditional dances are an important means of preserving the culture.
The goal of the Folk and Traditional Arts Program is to identify, document, preserve, present and honor Wyoming’s folk arts and traditions. Its primary purpose is to support artistic traditions and customs practiced within community groups.
The Wyoming Arts Council encourages the participation and teaching of traditional art forms within the state by providing teaching fellowships to folk art masters who want to pass on their skills, awarding professional development grants to individual artists and through the funding of project and festival grants to community groups celebrating their cultural heritage or sharing their traditional arts.
For further information about the Folk Arts grant program, contact Annie Hatch at the Wyoming Arts Council at ahatch@state.wy.us
