My attention was caught by the title of a talk presented by HUC (Hebrew Union College) Connect in collaboration with the journal Prooftext: “Dance as a Tool of Pleasure and Humiliation in I.J. Singer’s Book The Brothers Ashkenazi. It was a webinar on Zoom, so I registered to attend and am glad I did. The presentation by Sonia Gollance triggered my intellectual side to learn more about how dance was used in this family epic novel that takes place mainly in the city of Lodz, Poland between 1870 and 1920.
Sonia Gollance, a Lecturer in Yiddish in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London, is a scholar of Yiddish Studies and German-Jewish literature whose work focuses on dance, theatre and gender. In her article in Prooftext she explores how dance is a main motif in The Brothers Ashkenazi, advancing the plot, character development and social commentary. In the very well researched article, she uses the term “literary dance scenes,” pointing out that the term mainly has developed in the context of British literature and the novels of Jane Austen. Her scholarly look at I. B. Singer’s book shows how literary dance scenes clearly depict the complexities of life in Lodz and the differences between the two brothers.
When I heard the talk via HUC Connect, I thought I would be focusing this blog on how dance was used for humiliation in Singer’s book and other related books or movies. While I will include some of that here, after reading the article in Prooftexts, I am equally fascinated with Gollance’s analysis of the dance motif and how it impacts the whole book’s development.
Dance is used masterfully to show the differences between the main character Max and his twin brother Yakub. Gollance points out that not only are the characters being developed by use of dance scenes, but we are being given insights into the different social groups and their assimilation into the main culture. Gollance looks at how each character functions in dance situations.
Early in the book we learn that there are differences between each twin’s relationship with his body. Max, the older twin, is thin and quiet. He doesn’t like to go outside and play with the other children. Yakub is the opposite; he is robust and thoroughly enjoys play. Singer then uses dance to tell us more about the characters. Max only dances when he is forced to. This happens only twice. The first time is at his arranged wedding, when his father tells him to join the Hasidic dancers at his celebration. His father has arranged for them to come, even though that is not what the bride’s family wanted. One hundred Hasidic men basically take over the dancing at the wedding, and Max does join them. The second time Max dances is toward the end of the book. Max has been rescued from a Russian prison by his brother Yakub, and at the border the antisemitic Polish soldiers command him to dance. This kind of dance is referred to as a Mayufes. He does so to prevent himself from being physically attacked by them. He dances and moves as fast as he can until he collapses on the ground. His life is saved.
In contrast we learn that Yakub dances for his own enjoyment and pleasure with his dancing partners. He enjoys moving and engages in the more modern pair dancing. However, he will not be forced to dance. When the Polish soldiers tell him to dance, he refuses and instead strikes the lieutenant, who then empties his pistol into Yakub’s body, killing him.
Singer has used dance to tell us more about each of his characters and also about the social order of that time. In particular, the wedding dance scenes illustrate this. The bride’s family wants the dance that is taking place in the women’s section where men and women are dancing together. In contrast, the groom’s father stops that interaction, with his 100 Hasidic men taking over the dancing. This tells us a lot about cultural differences and challenges of the time for the Jewish community.
The Mayufes scene in The Brothers Ashkenazi is very poignant because it ends with a death. In the movie The Piano there is also a scene where Jews are made to dance, showing a similar form of humiliation and mockery of Jews.
Although not dancing a Mayufes, Edith Eger in her book The Choice: Embrace the Possible,and in various interviews, talks about how she danced for Dr. Mengel. The following is from an interview in 2015 for CNN. (https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/25/world/auschwitz-dancing-mengele/index.html)
“Dr. Mengele came to the barracks and wanted to be entertained,” Eger says.
Fellow inmates “volunteered” Eger to perform for the man who had ordered her parents’ death.
She asked her captors to play the Blue Danube Waltz as she danced for one of the worst war criminals of the Holocaust.
“I was so scared,” Eger says.
“I closed my eyes, and I pretended that the music was Tchaikovsky, and I was dancing ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in the Budapest opera house.”
The German doctor rewarded the Jewish girl with an extra ration of bread, which she later shared with the girls in her prison quarters.
Eger says months later, those same girls rescued her when she nearly collapsed from disease and starvation during a forced death march through Austria.
To learn more about Edith Eva Eger, please check out my blog on July 12, 2019, where I write about her, her book and my reaction to it.
To conclude, I am very grateful to have heard the webinar presented by Sonia Gollance, as she made me aware of how dance can be used in literature to further character development and convey social order of the time. Her article in Prooftexts is available online; here is a link to it. The link works for me and I was able to read the full article. https://www.proquest.com/openview/e19eac68f651b3a1595b5e5584ad3bf9/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47712
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