CTMD closed 2007 with a historic, first-ever Yiddish Dance Research Symposium the weekend of December 9th and 10th, presented in partnership with New York University's Department of Performance Studies. Moderated by NYU Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the symposium featured variety of lectures, multi-media presentations and panel discussions by leading researchers of the Yiddish Dance tradition. On Sunday night, there was a terrific Tantshoyz dance party at the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, and a special session on Monday to discuss field research and revitalizing the practice of Yiddish Dance in North America.

As a result of the Symposium, a new network of individuals around the world-- the Yiddish Dance Action Network-- has formed to identify opportunities for fieldwork and archival research and create pedagogical resources (for more information on the Network, contact Pete Rushefsky at prushefsky@ctmd.org).

CTMD's Yiddish Dance Project is co-Directed by klezmer revival pioneers Walter Zev Feldman and Michael Alpert. Both Feldman and Alpert have worked with CTMD for decades- Feldman along with Andy Statman helped us present Dave Tarras (see below) in a historic series of concerts in 1978-1979, while Alpert served as Project Director of CTMD's Nashi Traditsii Soviet Jewish Community Cultural Inititaive from 1998-2002. For a profile of co-Directors Feldman and Alpert, click on the below link. And be sure not to miss the next Tantshoyz dance parties at the JCC in Manhattan on upcoming Thursdays January 24, February 14 and April 17th (see details below).

Friday, January 11: CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative presents "A Ukrainian Christmas and New Year's Concert with Cheres and Friends" at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). Tickets $15 (member and other discounts available). Call 212-288-0110 for reservations, 212 571-1555 ext. 35 for further information. (7:00 PM)

Sunday, January 13: Latin Fiesta!: Music and Dance of the Americas. At Teatro Heckscher of El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave. (located at 104th St. on Museum Mile). Featuring CTMD Touring Artists Retumba, La Cumbiamba eNeYe and Ballet Fiesta Mexicana. Admission is $5 general public, free for APAP Conference members with RSVP as well as members of CTMD, Mano a Mano and El Museo members. (4:00PM)

Thursday, January 24: Tantshoyz (Dance Party/Workshop) in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Yiddish Dance led by Zev Feldman with live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. (7:00- 10:00PM)

Friday, February 1: Pachamama Peruvian Arts presents El Niño, an original musical featuring Pachamama students and faculty based on a Peruvian folk narrative. Special guest artists include guitarist Eric Kurimski and vocalist Ileana Santamaria. At PS 212, 32-25 Street, Jackson Heights, Queens. Subway #7 to 82nd Street, (walk 3 blocks north). Bus: Q32 to 81st Street. For information: 212-571-1555 ext 27, gmhamilton@ctmd.org (7:30-10:00PM)

Thursday, February 14: Tantshoyz (Dance Party/Workshop) in collaboration with the JCC in Manhattan and Workmen's Circle. Learn Yiddish Dance to the accompaniment of live klezmer music. Dancers of all skill levels welcome. At the JCC in Manhattan's theater, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. (7:00-10:00PM)

Saturday, February 23: Ukrainian Vechornytsi (Ukrainian village social dance), a program of CTMD's new Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative. Join dance leader Tamara Chernyakhovska in learning Ukrainian folk dances. Music by Andriy Milavsky and Cheres at Ukrainian East Village Restaurant, 140 Second Ave. between 8th and 9th Streets in Manhattan. (instruction 7:30-8:15PM, dance party 8:30-11:00PM)

CTMD's Touring Artists program helps 25 of New York's best immigrant/ethnic music and dance ensembles promote their talents to major concert venues around the country. This Sunday, January 13th, at 4:00PM, CTMD is pleased to showcase three of our most popular ensembles in a program entitled Latin Fiesta! at El Museo del Barrio's Heckscher Theater.

This special concert will showcase the exciting music and dance traditions of Mexico, Columbia and the Caribbean through performances of three of CTMD's most in-demand Touring Artists ensembles, Retumba, La Cumbiamba eNeye, and Ballet Fiesta Mexicana. The concert is co- sponsored by Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders.

Tickets are free for CTMD, El Museo and Mano a Mano members. APAP Conference attendees may receive free tickets by emailing CTMD's Director of Artist Management, Kaisha Johnson at kjohnson@ctmd.org, or visiting CTMD's booth at APAP (Rhinelander Gallery, Booth #205). Free transportation will be provided from the APAP conference to the venue. Teatro Hecksher of El Museo del Barrio is at 1230 Fifth Ave. (at 104th St. on Museum Mile), reachable by the #6 Subway line or the M1, M3 and M4 buses. For more information on CTMD's Touring Artists program, click here: To uring Artists Website

We were saddened to learn of the recent passage of Henrietta Yurchenco, who was a mentor to generations of folklorists and ethnomusicologists in New York and beyond. A wonderful obituary appeared in the New York Times and can be found here: Yurchenco obituary.

For the past year, CTMD has been working with the Mencius Society in Chinatown to provide group lessons to youth in Chinese classical and folk music. We have been delighted by the progress the young students have been making, and they delighted the crowd at their recital at Mencius's studio at the AiCenter on Grand Street this past Sunday, January 6. A packed crowd of glowing parents, grandparents, siblings and community members heard a concert featuring performances on yangqin (hammered dulcimer), erhu (fiddle), ruan (lute), and zheng (zither), dizi (bamboo tranverse flute) and hulusi (gourd flute). Congratulations go to Julie Tay, Xiao Xiannian and the rest of the the Mencius Society teachers for a wonderful recital!

Don't forget-- there's still time to celebrate New Year's with your Orthodox Christian and Ukrainian Catholic friends who observe the Julian calendar!

On Friday, January 11th, at 7:00 p.m. CTMD's Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative and the Ukrainian Museum present A Ukrainian Christmas and New Year's Concert with Cheres and Friends at the Ukrainian Museum, 222 East 6th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues).

Acclaimed Ukrainian acoustic folk group CTMD Touring Artists Cheres, led by clarinetist/multi-instrumentalist Andriy Milavsky, will join forces with Tamara Chernyakhovska's Holubka Dancers, singers in New York's Promin' Vocal Ensemble directed by Bohdanna Wolansky, and New York Bandura Ensemble musicians to present an evening program of joyful Christmas songs (koliadky) and New Year carols (shchedrivky), interwoven with fiery Carpathian mountain tunes and a demonstration of the traditional Ukrainian goat (koza) dance symbolizing winter's passage into spring.

Tickets $15 (member and other discounts available). Call 212-288-0110 for reservations, 212 571-1555 ext. 35 for further information. A reception will follow the concert in the Museum's lower-level Concourse. This special seasonal/holiday concert is presented in conjunction with the Ukrainian Museum's exhibit "Thread to the Past: Ukrainian Folk Art from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair."

To get in the spirit of the Ukrainian winter holidays, CTMD's Eileen Condon attended Christmas services at the St. George Church in the East Village, and files this report:

CTMD is pleased to be a media sponsor of the upcoming Greek-American Performing Arts Festival, presented by Queens Theater in the Park from January 24-27. The Festival presents film, music, dance, theater and more by a range of internationally regarded artists.

In particular, CTMD members may be interested in an opening night concert featuring rebetika with singer Grigoris Maninakis and his band. The festival closes with a "Celebration of Traditional Greek Folk Dance," featuring the U.S. debut of the Kyklos Dance ensemble from Tessaloniki, and live music from some of our dear friends-- Christos Tiktapanides (Pontic lyra), Kiril Ketev (gaida), Lauren Brody (accordion) and the Kavala Brass Band, featuring clarinetist Lefteris Bournias.

For more information, click to the Queens Theater in the Park website.

Featuring the students of Pachamama Peruvian Arts and their master instructors: Luz Pereira, Rosa Carhuallanqui, Patricio Paucar and Héctor Morales, El Niño is an original musical based on a Peruvian folk narrative. A sorcerer traps the spirit of La Niña, the goddess responsible for cooling the ocean waters off of Peru. Only way to release her is through the sound of the pututo (shell horn), the playing of music and the elaborate dance of the god El Niño. Written by Carlos D. Bernales, El Niño showcases Pachamama Peruvian Arts students performing cajón, zampoña, quena, charango, marinera norteña, and marinera Limeña. Special guest artists include dancers Marcos Napa and Michael Ortiz with Eric Kurimski on guitar and Ileana Santamaria on vocals.

Friday, February 1, 2008, 7:30, PS 212 Queens, 34-25 82nd Street, Jackson Heights, New York. Subway #7 to 82nd Street, (walk 3 blocks north). Bus: Q32 to 81st Street. Information: 212-571-1555 ext 27 gmhamilton@ctmd.org

Pachamama Peruvian Arts is a program of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and offers free weekly classes of traditional Peruvian music and dance to children ages 7-14 at PS 212, Queens.

Presenta a los estudiantes de Artes Peruanas Pachamama y sus instructores profesionales: Luz Pereira, Rosa Carhuallanqui, Patricio Paucar y Héctor Morales. El Niño es un musical original basado en una narración folklórica peruana. Un hechicero atrapa el espíritu de La Niña, la diosa responsable de la corriente marina que enfria las aguas del oceano de la costa del Perú. La única manera de liberarla del hechizo, es a través del sonido del pututo (concha de caracol marino), tocar una pieza musical y la danza ejecutada por el dios El Niño. Escrito por Carlos D. Bernales, El Niño muestra en escena a los estudiantes de Artes Peruanas Pachamama, ejecutando cajón, zampoña, quena, charango, marinera norteña y marinera limeña. Artistas especiales invitados, incluyen a los bailarines Marcos Napa y Michael Ortiz con Eric Kurimski en la guitarra y la voz de Ileana Santamaria.

Viernes, febrero 1, 2008; 7:30 p.m., EP 212, Queens, 34-25 de la calle 82, Jackson Heights, Nueva York. Tren #7 hasta la calle 82 (caminar 3 cuadras hacia el norte). Omnibus Q32 hasta la calle 81. Información: 212-571-1555, Ext. 27.

Artes Peruanas Pachamama es un programa del Centro de Música y Danza Tradicional y ofrece clases gratis semanales de música y danza tradicional del Perú a niños de 7 a 14 años de edad en el colegio PS 212 en Queens.

For TV viewers in Queens, our good friends at the RagaChitra Foundation have initiated a weekly TV show of South Indian classical music to be telecast on Queens Cable Channel 57 every Friday at 9 p.m. and re-played on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. for more information, go to the RagaChitra Foundation website.

Drom is a new music venue on Avenue A between 5th and 6th streets that will be presenting a number of our favorite musical acts. On January 17, at 9:30PM, go check out the NY Gypsy All-Stars, featuring master percussionist Seido Salifoski-- we're not sure whether Seido will be joined on reeds that night by the Macedonian wunderkind Ismail Lumanovski or Bulgarian maestro Yuri Yunakov, but you can't go wrong either way. Admission is $10, for more information go to the Drom website.

Our friends from the wonderful local Balkan brass band Zlatne Uste presents the annual Golden Fest on Friday/Saturday January 18th and 19th at the Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham (near 207th St. and B'way) in Manhattan. As always, profits from the event benefit Balkan relief and educational organizations. Zev Feldman will lead dancing for a Moldavian-Jewish Tantshoyz at GoldenFest at 6:20PM on Saturday the 19th. For information about schedules go to the Golden Fest website.

On January 26, 2008 at 8:30PM, World Music Institute and Carnegie Hall presents Armenia's fabulous Shoghaken Ensemble at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall (West 57th St. & 7th Ave). A World Music Institute co- production. For tickets, go to the Carnegie Hall website. Tickets: http://www.carnegiehall.org. That same night at 8PM, WMI will also present the famed Lima-based Afro-Peruvian ensemble Peru Negro at New York City Center, West 55th St between 6th & 7th Avenues. For information go to the World Music Institute website.

On February 2, at 8:30PM, Alwan for the Arts presents Afro-Peruvian Night with Alcatraz (featuring Pachamama instructors Hector Morales and Marcos Napa) and Gabriel Alegria's Jazz Sextet. These two ensembles will present a program that will be a true celebration of Afro-Peruvian culture and a perfect match between tradition and innovation. While Alegria's band has crafted a unique sound that fuses Afro-Peruvian music with Jazz, Alcatraz' repertoire is based on contemporary versions of Afro-Peruvian classic such as Cardo o Ceniza and Mayoral. In the spirit of this tradition and taking advantage of the spectacular line up for this concert (which include former members of Peru Negro, Eva Ayllon and Teatro del Milenio,) there will collaborations between members of both bands which will include creole guitar duets, uplifting percussion solos, typical "zapateo" counterpoint (afro-peruvian tap dance) and much more.Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students. Alwan is at 16 Beaver Street, 4th floor in Lower Manhattan. For more information go to the Alwan Website