What is Klezmer Aerobics?

Klezmer Aerobics is a touring cultural performance that is best described as a family-friendly interactive dance/storytelling workout where “the 1880s meets the 1980s.” Read more

"families will love this interactive performance where participation is encouraged and entertainment abounds."

-NYC The Official Guide

"Brenner cut his teeth performing with Chris Farley back in the 80s and has continued the spirit of hilarity now combined with dance and movement."

- Art Nerd New York (Top Event Pick)

"Lively klezmer music and plenty of movement"
- The New York Times (Weekend Arts - Select Cultural Event) 

"Klezmer Aerobics is the next craze!"

- Unorthodox Podcast (Produced by Tablet Magazine) 

For kids of all ages!

For all generations together!

Klezmer Aerobics featured in the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project

The Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project has included an extensive interview on Klezmer Aerobics with creator Daniel Brenner. The interview, conducted by Nina Pick, is included in the series “Yiddish and the Arts: musicians actors, and artists” which includes legends such as Elliot Gould, Jules Feiffer, Jackie Hoffman, Theodore Bikel, and Leonard Nimoy, as well as dozens of contemporary artists with connections to Yiddish culture.

Klezmer Aerobics Camp Tel Yehudah (2019)
Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

Link:

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/collections/oral-histories/interviews/woh-fi-0001218/daniel-brenner-2019

Return of Klezmer Aerobics!

It was wonderful to lead a late night session of Klezmer Aerobics in the back of the B’nai Keshet sanctuary – the Jewish community that has nurtured my family (and me!) for over eighteen years. This time around I spun a lot of tunes featuring the klezmer legend Dave Tarras whose soaring clarinet solos always put extra zest in my step. Here’s  a little video footage.

 

 

 

Yiddish New York

I had the wonderful opportunity to learn with two masters of Yiddish dance at Yiddish New York – Zev Feldman and Jill Gellerman. The workshop with Feldman focused on the Chusidl melodies of klezmer music (with expert live accompaniment by Christian Crowder and Zilien Biret) covering the styles of rhythmic dance gesture and circling that accompany these tunes. Here is Feldman in action in Russia:

 

Gellerman had over twenty musicians jamming at Yiddish New York behind her and lead a large group in line dances and other wedding style dances that were a total delight. Here’s a sample of her teaching style from a class in Poland:

 

The New York based dancers Sarah Myerson and Yehudah Hyman were part of the day, as was the dance master I study with in Philadelphia – Steve Weintraub. It was a total joy for me to be shvitzing on the dance floor with such a learned group of dancers.

 

 

 

 

 

Syria Supper Club meets Klezmer Aerobics

A Personal Reflection:

Earlier this month I had the great pleasure to lead Klezmer Aerobics for a private party for the organization Syria Supper Club. You can learn more about the organization here. Let me just say that it is an inspiring grassroots effort to promote kindness and hospitality across cultural and religious divides. The event was hosted by B’nai Keshet in Montclair, and seated at large round tables were many Syrian refugee families as well as volunteers for Syria Supper Club. Over two hundred people danced an abbreviated form of Klezmer Aerobics featuring live music by Debra Caplan and Craig Levine and simultaneous Arabic translation of the dance instruction. It was really wonderful to see such a diverse group of people smiling and having fun communicating with movement. I did not take any videos or photos of the event, but here is some cell phone footage from one of the volunteers!

 

Hollywood Shvitz!

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Shvitzin’ in Silverlake!

West Coast shvitzing has begun. Some serious dance-induced body perspiration happened under the ceiling lights of Studio A Dance on Hyperian Avenue (two blocks from the groovy Hyperian theater.) A wonderful dance studio with an open-air feel made for a blissful night of klezmer jams, both mournful and joyous.

Golda Och Academy – Thank you for the Shvitz!!!

Pre-K, kindergarten, and first-grade students filled the gymnasium of the Golda Och Academy in West Orange, New Jersey on a cold winter morning for a high-energy 45 minute Shvitz! The children especially enjoyed the show within the show entitled “The Chicken Dreams of Flight” but honestly – they were pulling off amazing dance moves all morning! Thank you Gena Jarmel and Paula Spack for making this happen! Here’s a photo of the dancers…

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Check out the Golda Och Academy – it is a wonderful school!

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Cedar Crest Retirement Community: Thank you for the Shvitz!

 

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Klezmer Aerobics held a private show in Pompton Plains, New Jersey for the 130 acre 1,500 + unit retirement Mecca of Cedar Crest. The Jewish Council brought over sixty residents together — INCLUDING THIS AMAZING WOMAN WHO IS 100 YEARS OLD —  and we all enjoyed a Klezmer Aerobics mid-day shvitz!

Summer Camp Shvitz!

“Hello Mudda! Hello Fadda!” This Klezmer Aerobics session took place at midnight, when the campers were tucked away in their bunk beds, and a few of the staff could come out for a late night shvitz. The spot? Camp Tel Yehudah in Barryville, New York. The dance moves? Gevaldik!

 

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