Little Jewish Girls Don’t Dance
52 x 16 x 18 in
Mannequin, burnt/rusted bar stool, red fabric, hat pins, image of Samurai Warrior with sword, gauze bow, pencil drawing.
2002 - 2016
I remember coming home with my father from a school dance performance, (I must have been 8) still wearing my hula costume. I was holding his hand, happy and a little proud because I was told I had done very well. This was important because I was the little foreign girl who couldn’t speak English. We ran into a friend of his who asked what I was wearing and my father explained that I had been in a school dance. His friend bent down asking, “Do you want to be a dancer?” I looked up smiling and was about to answer when my father said, “Little Jewish Girls Don’t Dance”.
I know I could have been a poet,
Or even a this or that...
But things did not materialize
And I’m just where I’m at.
Sometimes things could be otherwise
Sometimes that just can’t be
And all the wanting otherwise
Still leaves me with me.
Is that so bad, I ask myself
And wait to hear my answer
It’s really not so bad
But, you did want to be a dancer.
© 2016 Rosa Naparstek. All Rights Reserved.
Appearing in “Innerscapes and Landscapes” exhibition, Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation. New York, NY. November 2021.