SIR DANCE-A-LOT

by Bert Stratton

And as the rabbi danced . . . not always. (That’s a song lyric: “And as the rabbi danced . . .”)

And if the rabbi dances, the congregants will. If he doesn’t dance, nobody dances.

At a private party — bar mitzvah or wedding — if the immediate family doesn’t dance, nobody dances.

We have our trade secrets — ways to motivate people to dance, though. We play Fiddler on the Roof music; the guests stand up, sway side to side, link arms; and then we speed up the music. And we have a shtickmeister, dance leader Daniel Ducoff , also known as Sir Dance-a-lot. (He goes by many names. He also has a variety of business cards and eyeglass frames.)

Yiddishe Cup was possibly the first klezmer band to have a dedicated dance leader. Daniel plays the duck whistle and that’s about it. He dances.

Daniel leads a lot of wild-and-crazy dance sets.

It’s not hard. We run into people who are in good moods.

Then again, in the band biz, the party always ends. And I’m reduced to discussing fender dents with the band’s van rental guy. Daily slice-of-life stuff. Not all glamour.

The glamour . . . I tell locals we play out of town. Oh really? You mean you go to Columbus? Yes . . . and Texas and Florida and New York City. Some day, kayn eyn-ore (no evil eye), we’ll play Australia. And don’t forget we’ve played Canada. The internationally acclaimed Yiddishe Cup.

—-

Tomorrow:

STINKY, STAINED FOAM . . . What tenants leave behind.

share