What do you think of this orthodox women's dance group?

Barbara

Sun, Nov 23 2014, 5:00 pm

cookiejar wrote:

Ummmmm....! What part of this is Orthodox? I know I shall get heavily criticized here, but who said frum women are allowed to dance publicly, with videos on youtube? Men are allowed to watch you dance? They make it sound like this is some frum movement here. Sorry I'm being incoherent here but I'm flabbergasted and cannot formulate my thoughts properly...

Heavily criticized. Gee, I cannot imagine why.

You post a sanctimonious thread attacking people who dare to try to get information about health care professionals, and particularly about therapists (where they might be reluctant to ask people they know in real life), because of lashon hara. You don't even stop to think about toeles, about how this can help people, about how important it is to people.

Then you accuse a group of people who claim to be Orthodox, and who claim to follow Modern Orthodox principles in connection with a dance troupe of not being frum.

Which is pretty much dictionary-definition lashon hara.

If you object to what they're doing, don't go. Don't let your kids go. Me, I don't live in Israel, and I'm not into dance, so I won't be there, either.

But you're right about one thing. If you think that you're violating Gd's commandments by providing information about mental health providers to people in need of such information, but think that Gd is a-OK with your declaring that certain people about whom you know nothing are not Orthodox, then you cannot formulate thoughts properly.

mille

Sun, Nov 23 2014, 5:06 pm

Honestly, this was not geared towards chareidi communities. Isn't that blatantly obvious?

If a man does not want to see women dancing, don't go to such a performance. I must have missed where they stated they would trick chareidi men into attending their performances for the sake of achdus, right?

Honestly, from a modern perspective... I'm thinking of modern weddings. The mechitza at almost every wedding I've been to has been either pretty short, or like just a bunch of plants in the middle of the dance floor. It's very easy to see into the men's side and vice versa. You can see the opposite gender dancing quite readily at modern weddings. Heck, we even pull the bride into the men's section for 'shtick', and sometimes shtick includes women specifically dancing in some silly way in the middle of a circle of people. Sometimes it includes the bride getting up from her chair and dancing in front of her husband, or vice versa. The dance floor is not closed off from the reception area, meaning where you eat dinner. And it's mixed seating for dinner. So even if you happen to not go dancing or not end up in the middle of the circle for shtick, and you just sit at your table... There's a 50/50 chance your table is situated on the side of the mechitza with the opposite gender, so you'd see them. Or even if you just walk to the bathroom, you'll pass the other side...

...Hopefully that made the point clear! Merely SEEING the opposite gender dancing is not such a no-no thing in modern orthodox judaism, and presumably not for people who are dati leumi either (I've only been to one such wedding in Israel, so I am not an expert!). THIS is the perspective that these women are coming from, and it's pretty par for the course. They are doing what they love in a way that is appropriate. Those who do not approve of men seeing women dance can simply forego going to such a performance, simple as that.

But I can hardly see how this is unorthodox, or even "anti"-orthodox...

professor

Sun, Aug 23 2015, 11:17 am

cookiejar wrote:

That would imply that it is no problem if you walk around semi-clothed, the men are responsible to control their looking... Also, in response to the person who wrote that the costumes are modest, I beg to differ... Their hair is covered and their skirts are long. Zehu,

there IS a problem with a woman walking around semi dressed in public, because men who watch their eyes will not be able to go to the grocery or to shul. but if a woman wears a bathing suit in the pool, where men who watch their eyes will never go anyway, its ok