Come Let Us Dance (LOMIR GEYN TANTSN)

Two Yiddish Dances
Heritage, Style & Steps

COME LET US DANCE, explores 2 dances from Nathan Vizonsky’s 1942 book TEN JEWISH FOLK DANCES, which provides steps, patterns and explanations of the dances, as well as woodcuts by artist Todros Geller and traditional music arranged by choral composer Max Janowski, both E. European born and well-known beyond Chicago.

Growing up in a Hasidic family, he went from cheder and ballet class in Lodz, to a ballet scholarship and performing in Berlin, to detention there as a WWI “enemy alien,” and an arduous journey to the U.S. in 1921. Living in Chicago, he became one of the earliest people to analyze and write about Yiddish folk dance in 1930, where he choreographed the first major American Jewish pageant, Romance of a People, at Soldier Field for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair’s Jewish Day.

He provided the steps, patterns, music as arranged by Max Janowski and brief explanations of the purpose of these important communal dances in his 1942 book, TEN JEWISH FOLK DANCES (1942). Mrs. Rochlin took workshops with Nathan Vizonsky in 1950s L.A. His settings are the basis for the dance taught in COME LET US DANCE.

COME LET US DANCE, explores 2 dances from Nathan Vizonsky’s 1942 book TEN JEWISH FOLK DANCES, which provides steps, patterns and explanations of the dances, as well as woodcuts by artist Todros Geller and traditional music arranged by choral composer Max Janowski, both E. European born and well-known beyond Chicago.

Growing up in a Hasidic family, he went from cheder and ballet class in Lodz, to a ballet scholarship and performing in Berlin, to detention there as a WWI “enemy alien,” and an arduous journey to the U.S. in 1921. Living in Chicago, he became one of the earliest people in the U.S. to analyze and write about Yiddish folk dance in 1930, and to  choreograph the first major American Jewish pageant, “Romance of a People”, at Soldier Field for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair’s Jewish Day.

He provided the steps, patterns, music as arranged by Max Janowski and brief explanations of the purpose of these important communal dances in his 1942 book, TEN JEWISH FOLK DANCES (1942). Mrs. Rochlin took workshops with Nathan Vizonsky in 1950s L.A. His settings are the basis for the dances taught in COME LET US DANCE.

Along with the dances, the video features 1930s photos of Vizonsky and his work, evocative woodcuts from the book by Todros Geller, clips of the dancing of theater director/choreographer Benjamin Zemach, photos from 1930s Berlin, of poet Else Lasker-Schuler, director Max Reinhardt and of the classic Moscow productions of The Dybbuk and The Golem by Habima Theatre, as Mrs. Rochlin relates their connection to her and to Jewish cultural history.

When Karen Goodman met Miriam Rochlin in 1999 and learned of her background and of Mr. Vizonsky’s long out-of-print book, the idea for this documentary was born. Mrs. Rochlin’s wealth of knowledge from a life steeped in Jewish religious and cultural traditions inspired Goodman to turn personal research into a documentary. Mrs. Rochlin provides an insightful and witty commentary on the style and feeling of the dances and the lives of the people who danced them.

Through friends and strangers, Goodman contacted Vizonsky’s daughter in New York, who had kept his small archive and supplied some of his story as well as photos and programs that date back to the height of his career in 1930s Chicago. There are also wonderful clips of the dancing of Rabbi Michael Roth (1920, Romania – 2017, Los Angeles). Joining Mrs. Rochlin is a group of professional and amateur dancers who each bring their own life-long connections to Jewish dance and culture.

Along with the dances, the video features 1930s photos of Vizonsky and his work, evocative woodcuts from the book by Todros Geller, clips of the dancing of theater director/choreographer Benjamin Zemach, photos from 1930s Berlin, of poet Else Lasker-Schuler, director Max Reinhardt and of the classic Moscow productions of The Dybbuk and The Golem by Habima Theatre, as Mrs. Rochlin relates their connection to her and to Jewish cultural history.

When Karen Goodman met Miriam Rochlin in 1999 and learned of her background and of Mr. Vizonsky’s long out-of-print book, the idea for this documentary was born. Mrs. Rochlin’s wealth of knowledge from a life steeped in Jewish religious and cultural traditions inspired Goodman to turn personal research into a documentary. Mrs. Rochlin provides an insightful and witty commentary on the style and feeling of the dances and the lives of the people who danced them.

Through friends and strangers, Goodman contacted Vizonsky’s daughter in New York, who had kept his small archive and supplied some of his story as well as photos and programs that date back to the height of his career in 1930s Chicago. There are also wonderful clips of the dancing of Rabbi Michael Roth (1920, Romania – 2017, Los Angeles). Joining Mrs. Rochlin is a group of professional and amateur dancers who each bring their own life-long connections to Jewish dance and culture.

We learn of Mrs. Rochlin’s own history in Germany (also documented by the Shoah Foundation), and her work in Los Angeles with director/choreographer BENJAMIN ZEMACH (1901, Bialystok, — 1997, Israel). Zemach and Vizonsky were both E. European born and from traditional backgrounds. Both trained in modern dance, ballet and theater, and each had created 1930s Jewish dance companies. Later, when both were in L.A., Zemach invited Vizonsky to teach Yiddish style to Zemach’s company.

We learn of Mrs. Rochlin’s own history in Germany (also documented by the Shoah Foundation), and her work in Los Angeles with director/choreographer BENJAMIN ZEMACH (1901, Bialystok, — 1997, Israel). Zemach and Vizonsky were both E. European born and from traditional backgrounds. Both trained in modern dance, ballet and theater, and each had created 1930s Jewish dance companies. Later, when both were in L.A., Zemach invited Vizonsky to teach Yiddish style to Zemach’s company.

Come Let Us Dance becomes not only a document of two dances but, a glimpse of how Jewish communities and artists from Europe to America negotiated the task of remembering tradition in ever-changing circumstances, while contributing to the cultural life of the countries in which they lived.

COME LET US DANCE IS A TRUE TREASURE AND A MUST SEE FILM FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN YIDDISH DANCES AND EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH CULTURE. PRESENTING A RARE VISUAL WINDOW INTO THE MOVEMENT, STYLE, AND HISTORY OF THIS FORM, THE FILM IS VERSATILE AND CAN BE USED BOTH TO LEARN SEVERAL DANCES DIRECTLY, AS WELL AS TO DEEPEN UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THEIR MEANING. AND THE FOOTAGE OF MIRIAM ROCHLIN, WHO SERVED AS AN ASSISTANT TO BENJAMIN ZEMACH, IS A HISTORICAL FIND! THE FILM IS WELL SUITED FOR USE IN UNIVERSITY COURSES ON TOPICS SUCH AS JEWISH DANCE AND EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH CULTURE. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!
– Nina Spiegel, Rabbi Joshua Stampfer Associate Professor of Israel Studies, Portland State University. Author of Embodying Hebrew Culture: Aesthetics, Athletics and Dance in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine. (Wayne State University Press, 2013). Finalist for a 2013 National Jewish Book Award. 2022
…OFFERS NOT ONLY A STEP-BY-STEP JUMPSTART TO YIDDISH DANCE BUT ALSO A HISTORIC APPRECIATION OF THIS WANING FACET OF JEWISH CULTURAL HERITAGE.”
– The Detroit Jewish News, 2003
CHOREOGRAPHER KAREN GOODMAN LOOKS AT THE TRADITION OF YIDDISH DANCE …TEACHING THE DANCES … IS ACTRESS-DANCER MIRIAM ROCHLIN, A LUMINOUS FIGURE NOW OVER 80 WHO CAME TO LOS ANGELES AFTER EMIGRATING FROM BERLIN.
– Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice, 2003
KAREN GOODMAN DID THE, AHEM, FOOTWORK, AND NOW WE GLEAN THE REWARDS.
– The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles, 2003
…OFFERS NOT ONLY A STEP-BY-STEP JUMPSTART TO YIDDISH DANCE BUT ALSO A HISTORIC APPRECIATION OF THIS WANING FACET OF JEWISH CULTURAL HERITAGE.”
– The Detroit Jewish News, 2003
CHOREOGRAPHER KAREN GOODMAN LOOKS AT THE TRADITION OF YIDDISH DANCE …TEACHING THE DANCES … IS ACTRESS-DANCER MIRIAM ROCHLIN, A LUMINOUS FIGURE NOW OVER 80 WHO CAME TO LOS ANGELES AFTER EMIGRATING FROM BERLIN.
– Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice, 2003
KAREN GOODMAN DID THE, AHEM, FOOTWORK, AND NOW WE GLEAN THE REWARDS.
– The Jewish Journal, Los Angeles, 2003