Can a dance be a form of Jewish expression? Throughout their history, Jews have danced as a communal expression of joy and created dances to be watched for entertainment and for didactic purposes. Dancer and choreographer Steven Lee Weintraub will draw from his own experience and the history of Jewish dance to consider—like the character Ellen in A Day of Small Beginnings—what makes a Jewish dance.
Steven Lee Weintraub is a teacher of traditional Yiddish dance and the principal dance leader for Chicago’s Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. He has taught at festivals in Krakow, Furth, Weimar, Paris, and London, served as assistant director of the Israeli Folk Dance Festival in New York City, and has choreographed theater productions in New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. He received his dance training with Alvin Ailey and Erick Hawkins.
One Book | One Community is a series of events centered on A Day of Small Beginnings, a remarkable debut novel by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum selected specifically for this Chicago Jewish Community initiative.