The bourrée
(from Wikipedia) Quick, even movements, often en pointe, giving the appearance of gliding. The word originates from an old French dance resembling the gavotte.
...is perhaps one of the most beautiful movements in a ballet. It looks as if it is a simple movement, but it is actually one which defines a ballerina as great or not. On the points of the shoes, the ballerina can move at any speed, in any direction, and do most anything with her torso, head, and arms. It is the glide of the legs with the sense of emotion coming from within that makes this movement exquisite, and the movement I am most attuned to when I am lost in music. While I may sit still and quiet, I can feel the movement of the bourree tenderly stretching past my legs and reaching forward to capture the feeling that is growing inside. No longer aware of the boundaries of the ground or the sky, nothing but movement, allowing the music to sweep through me, becoming one. This is a place I love to be, long for the most, and will always return.
The cello is my instrument of choice. From the days I was first introduced to dancing with this instrument, I have been in love with it. There is nothing so complete as movement with a cello. Nothing can take me back to gliding through the air, or gliding on the floor as effortlessly as the cello can.
The cello is sitting off to the right of the bimah. As I recognize its shape, the movement begins as a visceral response. The prayer is no longer an entity made of words, it is movement, pure movement, from beyond the head and tips of fingers, to the very last curve of the point on the floor. It always has been and will always be the softest of prayers, the most meaningful, the most sacred of all feeling. The bourree unfolds and I am gone, no longer aware of myself, at one with the music.
The Yom Kippur services were especially moving this year. It has been a year of growth, reflection, and direction. The forgiveness I seek is unlike any I have ever asked for because I am concerned less for myself than for the collective nature of all of us. I am concerned for Israel's future, and for her soul.
I am not alone in this thought, but I am unsure who else present is seeking forgiveness for the crises of this summer descended on Gaza; for the extremism undermining Israel's safety and dignity.
The bourrees have crescendoed. They are circling in intricate, quick patterns reminiscent of weeping willows blowing in the wind. They pirouette onto themselves, halt as if captured, lost, and begin again.
Merely to have survived is not an index of excellence.
Nor, given the way things go,
Even of low cunning.
Yet I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading themselves like green bay trees.
And the food as if they had never been;
Their voices are blown away on the winter wind.
And again we wander the wilderness…
…From our transgressions
Which are confessed in the daily papers.
In her fight for safety, will Israel become a state of nationalism and extremism, or one of tolerance, democracy, and a Judaism that is livable, breathable and sustainable?
La Bayadere has many bourree sequences that fit Kol Nidre quite well
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