Yarmulke on ice
It was probably the first time in Olympics history that a kippah was an integral part of an athlete's uniform.
When the Israeli brother-sister ice dancing team Roman and Alexandra Zaretsky took to the ice in Vancouver on Sunday night, the pair chose a "traditional Israeli" folk dance (in the words of NBC's announcers) to showcase their talents: "Hava Nagilla" (watch the video here). Wearing a kippah, Roman was dressed like a nice Orthodox boy -- though the earring was a bit incongruous. His sister wore a head-covering -- though her skirt length never would have passed muster in Jerusalem's Orthodox Meah Shearim neighborhood.
The program itself wasn't that impressive -- a lot of poorly synchronized twirling -- but the most disturing part about the whole thing was that whoever sang "Hava Nagilla" didn't seem to get the words right. The duo scored a 55, placing them in 10th place approaching the finals.
I wasn't sure if it was fair to groan when I saw their cliched choice of costume and song -- after all, performers from other countries also chose traditional folk songs that may have been no less cliched than "Hava Nagilla" -- but I felt vindicated when I learned of their song choice for their final performance Monday night: Theme music from Schindler's List.
Oy.
Share
Facebook
3 Comments
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
Tthe Hava Nagila routine was appalling - there are so many good Jewish//Israeli folk songs and dances and the Israeli couple chose the most hackneyed song (and a terrible version) and then hardly did any actual “Jewish” folk dance steps.
I was really worried when I heard that their free dance was going to be to Schindler’s List but amazingly, they actually did a nuanced and respectful performance.
Leave a Comment
To leave a comment, you must first be logged in to JTA. If you are not registered, please click here.
Already a JTA member?
Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Claude S. on Connecting the dots: Susan G. Komen, J Street and Bill Clinton
- Yaakov Cohn on Connecting the dots: Susan G. Komen, J Street and Bill Clinton
- Herbert Kaine on Times travel writer on Israel: ‘A politically iffy burden’
- Lloyd Trufelman on Netanyahu doth protest too much?
- ASC on Times travel writer on Israel: ‘A politically iffy burden’
Carole Clarke
02/22/10 08:28 PM
They were OK, you have to start somewhere. I would’ve prefered something less hackneyed but sometimes that works. Hanna Ahroni singing “Artza Alinu” would be better. The skaters need better coaching, perhaps abroad.