June 3, 2024, Playlist, Ma Navu (Israel), Dancing every Friday and Monday in June.

[katia mucha]

Hi, dancers,

Dancing is scheduled for every 

Monday and Friday in June.

In our years of folk dancing in the Detroit area, Ma Navu 

(How Beautiful) is one of a small number of dances for which 

most dancers have put down their snacks and interrupted their 

conversations to hurry onto the dance floor.  

Ma Navu was requested once again on Monday.

Our dance on March 13, 2020, with Tom programming, was our 

last dance before Marygrove College closed down because 

of the COVID 19 pandemic.  We didn't know it at the time, 

but it was also our last dance in that beautiful space.

On that day, Rick's tabulated playlist of current dances, 

listed Ma Navu as our second most-played dance after Sano Duso 

which had the advantage of being done every week as our last 

dance of the evening. 

 

Tom was also supposed to program the next week on 

March 20, 2020, but by then everything had closed down.

Instead we decided to send out dance videos and dance 

information as a way of keeping in touch, and our first choice 

was Ma Navu.  We also featured this dance on April 15, 2021.

Ma Navu 

(The following information is from Folk Dance Footnotes)

Ma Navu, or Ma Na’avu, was choreographed by Raaya 

Spivak in 1956 to music composed by her 

husband, Yossi (Joseph) Spivak. 

The lyrics come from the Bible, Isaiah 52:7.

How beautiful on the mountains

Are the steps of the messenger

Bringing tidings of deliverance,

Bringing tidings of peace.

Proclaim to Zion deliverance. 

Proclaim to Zion Shalom (peace). 

"The dance is a good example of early Israeli dances. 

It combines elements of appreciation of nature, optimism, 

equality (circle formation), and traditional spiritual values.  

Ma Navu also features the most distinctive step in Israeli dances, 

the yemenite step. 

Yemen was home to Jews for thousands of years.  Legend has it 

that Jewish silversmiths were sent to Yemen, then ruled by the 

Queen of Sheba, around 1000 BCE."

Additional info:

In 1949 and 1950, 50,000 Jews from Yemen were airlifted 

to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet, and their dancing influenced

Israeli choreographers who were creating dances for their new 

country, founded in 1948.  

Ma Navu has a right yemenite step 

and both right and left back yemenites.

Dancing is scheduled for every 

Monday and Friday in June.

PLAYLIST,  Monday, June 3, 2024

1.      Urva Fanka (Macedonia)

2.      Bannielou Lambaol (Brittany)

3.      Jondane Johane (Basque)

4.      He Cane (Turkey)

5.      Eleno Mome (Bulgaria)

6.      Erev Ba (Israel)

7.      Rumunsko Kolo (Serbia)

8.      Milanovo Kolo (Serbia)

9.      Khumkhuma /Teen (Armenia)

10.   Opa Opa Ta Bouzoukia (Greece)

             11.   Robin Ddiog/ Lazy Robin  (Wales)

12.   Ciorba din Curcan to a Romanian hora (Romania)

13.   Masar (Palestinian Sacred Circle)

14.   Debka Oud (Israel)

15.   Hoe Ana (Raratonga/Tahiti)

16.   La Mariposa (Bolivia)

17.   Kortanc (Hungary)

              18.   Ma Navu (Israel)

               https://folkdancemusings.blogspot.com/2014/04/ma-naavu-israel.html

19.   Karagouna (Greece)

20.   Oj Maju Maju (Ukraine)

21.   L’Homme Qui Marche (France)

Dancing every Friday in June.

Villa Pointe Clubhouse, 8pm      

19600 Villa Drive North, Southfield, 48076

rick...@gmail.com

Donations welcomed on Friday and Monday

Dancing every Monday in June.

Mahany Meininger Senior Community Center, 7:30pm 

3500 Marais, Royal Oak, 48073

tsw...@aol.com   Masks optional.

Sunday Zoom dancing with Judy Silver, 7-9 PM

email judy....@utoronto.ca for a link. 

Tuesday Zoom Friends 8:30-10:30 

Dale Adamson Calendar and Judith's Virtual Folk Dance 

Calendar have links to this and other Zoom dances.

For Educational Purposes Only.

Please support our sources.