Livavtini
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Hebrew ליבבתיני, "you have ravished my heart", partner dance by Moshe Eskayo, lyrics from Shir HaShirim 4:9–10.
The name of the dance in English is variously written Livavteenee, Libavtini, etc. Variation in vowel transliteration is understandable; it's less clear how the second consonant changed from the grammatically correct "b" to "v".
Moshe invariably translates the title as "you fascinate me".
Livavtini was originally a group dance for the stage, not a partner dance, using music from The Parvarim. Later, Shlomo Shai made a new arrangement. Eskayo made the dance with Laura Resnick as his partner.
Styling points:
- In the first part, where the partners take left hands and the man's right hand is at the lady's waist, the lady's right hand is down and free, not at her waist.
- In the second part, the partners go forward in LOD. Some people do a mayim step, but Moshe never did. He just kept doing 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 forward without a mayim.
- Just after that, the partners turn away from each other, the man toward the center of the circle and the lady away from the center. These turns are not along the circle line.
- At the end, after the lady faces her partner along the circle line and both step and close (man forward, lady back), the lady returns to her original spot at her partner's right. Moshe never steps back while this happens; he simply stands in place.