This script comes out of a discussion recently about how different dancers look when you see them during their day job. Especially those who are in the professions. So, we thought we'd document this. Below, we see four dancers and their metamorphosis within a few hours from their day job to dancer. Note that the fifth dancer seems to be in a different position.
Our first principal is Dr Amiram Shapiro, pictured to the left, who everyone knows as Ami on his visits to many of the weekly Israeli dance sessions. Ami is a well known ophthalmologist. At this time, he maintains offices at the prestigious Hahnemann hospital, part of Drexel University. It's possible that he also has an office at Einstein hospital in the Olney section of the city. In addition, on many Thursdays he is in residence at the Eye Institute, a part of Salus University, on Godfrey Avenue in the East Oak Lane section of the city where he teaches a course for optometry residents in the techniques of ophthalmology. For this script we concentrate on this class as it was held on Oct 30th, 2014.
Optometry and Ophthalmology are two different subjects. Optometry tends to deal with vision and how lenses can correct and restore this although modern practices allow optometrists to diagnose various eye ailments. Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that concentrates on the eyes and ophthalmologists are MDs who have chosen to specialize in operations and treatments for this part of the anatomy. Ami's class, as we understand it, is to alert these budding optometrists in what is the latest in ophthalmological procedures. For the class this day there is a special presentation. Several representatives from Novabay pharmaceuticals are about to give a product demonstration for the company's new product, I-Lid, an eyelid and eyelash cleaner. This montage shows the representatives, the container of the product and the literature that pertains to the product.
The location of the special presentation is at 1300 Godfrey Street, one of the three Eye Institute locations within the city. The eye institute is part of Salus University and Salus' mission is to train medical personal, in this case optometrists. These students go through a two years program and we are showing the picture of their latest Freshman class, pictured in August '14. By next year, besides being interns at the institute, they will be eligible to take Ami's course.
This special lecture begins with a discussion and distribution of this product. You don't need to be a specialist in this to realize that our eyes are an important and sensitive organ of our body. The eyelids are the thinist part of the human skin and the proximity to the cheeks and mouth make the eyelids and therefore the eyes prone to infections. The Novabay formula works to offset this. It is this and other information that the students absorb in this initial discussion presented by Novabay's representatives and Ami.
While this is not the Eye Institute's main lecture hall, the room that everyone is in supports the projection of powerpoint presentations and these pictures (dark because the lights are out) were taken during the powerpoint presentation and lecture.
After the lecture, Ami is on his way to either or both of his offices indicated above. We didn't follow for a good reason. Pictures taken in medical facilities involving patient or patient related activities is strictly prohibited in this country making any such attempt futile not to mention illegal. But we had an idea where Ami would be that evening and we made provision to be there to take pictures. And he would have an especial reason for attending: Ami was about to leave this country and travel through Saudi Arabia lecturing on ophthalmology to the appropriate medical staffs and personnel in that kingdom. So for Ami, it was tonight or not partake of his usual Thursday night activities for multiple weeks.
Ami's usual Thursday night activities involve Israeli dancing at Don Schillinger's class in Bala Cynwyd as you can see in these pictures. There are probably several reasons that Ami has made this session a habit. One reason is that the session is advanced enough for him to keep learning and learning, whether for work or not, is an important element in a professional's life. A second, partner dances are offered in this Israeli dance session allowing Ami to hone those specific dancing skills.
Another reason pertains to the availablility of other members of the medical fraternity. For whatever reason, Israeli dancing seems to attract doctors and medical personnel to its ranks. Don's session on Thursday is like attending a hospital where dancing is just another specialty - there are that many dancers associated with the medical community. In this picture we show Ami chatting up another doctor, John Frank, whose specialty is child psychiatry. Perhaps Ami is describing to John his coming trip to Saudi Arabia. The next montage shows Ami interacting, albeit in a more intimate manner, with another medical professional
And, here we see Ami partner dancing with Jody who works as a speech pathologist, dealing generally with stroke victims, at a local rehab facility. Ami and Jody generally do a set together during the Thursday night dance session. Since the Israeli dance instructors generally group partner dances between groups of circle and line dances, Ami will have an additional 5 partners throughout the evening. Anybody who has kept track recognizes that Ami has made great strides in both group and circle dances over the years. It's probable that there will not be much Israeli dancing to partake in on his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia so he's out to enjoy himself this evening.
We have been concentrating on Ami's activities this day. In the morning he is dressed in a suit to fit his professional personae and has dressed down to meet the needs of his dance personae. His partner shown above has done the same. Below, let's take a look at Jody's metamorphosis
Here are some pictures of Jody doing circle dances where a partner is not needed. But Jody has a day job and this type of dress might not be deemed appropriate.
We have some pictures of Jody at work taken by a colleague although these pictures suffer from the same limitations pertaining to patients as indicated above. Here we see Jody at work except for the first picture where Jody is in formal attire with her children Eric and Michelle while attending a wedding. At work Jody is a Speech Pathologist (aka Speech Therapist) dealing with patients suffering with neurological disorders (the majority of patients are stroke victims) who are having trouble with throat issues such as swallowing and pronunciation due to their malady.
There are probably some 40000 or more Speech Pathologists world wide but only 263 of them can claim to be a Board Certified Swallowing and Swallowing Disorder specialist and Jody just happens to be #209 having passed this test early in 2013. As a specialist she is the perfect person to ask about the oral, pharyngeal and esophageal phases of dysphagia but you can get a head start to deciphering this terminology by clicking here which will connect you to the web site associated with the American Board of Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders.
Since stroke is non discriminatory, Jody meets a lot of interesting people who end up as her clients. One individual had an interest that Jody felt this web site shared. He claimed to be the city's expert on all things James Bond. Of course we think our history consultant might take issue with this so we present in this montage several pictures from the several scripts on this web site, previously supplied by our consultant, that pertain to this subject to soothe any hard feelings. If you are similarly inclined as Jody's patient, you can see some of our historian's research by clicking here.
Pictures of dancers struting their stuff can only show so much. Some things may be a little too small to indicate. So, this shot pertains to a special keychain that Jody every now and then flashes. What are we looking at here? A keychain depicting pictures of brain, larynx and vocal cords.
One dancer, as described below, could easily wear her work clothes to any dance class. But even she dresses up for the Israeli dance classes. She also dresses up for her many adventures generally with her husband, adventures that we have chronicled on this web site.
Visitors to this site will recognize Wendy Friedman in these pictures. Wendy has been a subject of multiple scripts on this web site as we have tracked her travels, generally pertaining to workshops about Israeli dancing, throughout the world. This montage includes pictures from Israel, Italy and on cruises. Wendy is fluent in Italian and she has provided the translation into Italian that some of our scripts provide like our write up of Camp Yofi 2013.
Let's look first at her day job (which in many cases is done at night). Here we see Wendy leading her class in her own version of aerobics at Cheltenham High school. Wendy has studied Yoga, Jazz Dance and other disciplines of dance. She includes all this (and some Israeli dance moves) in her own class. It doesn't hurt to be able to stretch like she can if you are going to lead this type of session. Notice that Wendy is wearing a sort of leotard but she changes into something she feels is more appropriate at the many different Israeli dance sessions she frequents in the course of a week.
And here we catch Wendy on a recent Sunday morning at the Israeli dance session at the Germantown Jewish Centre. Notice that a change of dress is in order and, to be fair, Wendy is one of the most stylish dancers at this session both in dance ability and attire. Wendy also lends her leadership abilities to the session by being in the middle of the circle with Grant, the leader, to help him demonstrate many of the dances. And, finally, Wendy provides a sympathic ear to the aforementioned John Frank as he attempts to communicate some other subject than medicine.
Our next two dancers both work for an educational facility in the city, one full time, the other part time. First, let's look at the full time person
In 1963 Pennsylvania authorized the creation of Community colleges within the counties of the state. One of the first counties to make use of this law was Philadelphia and in 1965 the Community College Of Philadelphia opened up for business. 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the college's opening. The college today consists of 4 centers: The main center is at 17th and Spring Garden and the other three are spread across the city.
One of the best known English instructors is Grace Flisser. Grace received a PHD in English literature from the University Of Pennsylvania. It is in her English classes that the classics of English literature come alive to her students. This web site had the great opportunity to watch Grace in action as we took some pictures late in 2012 of her teaching her class. With great pose and authority, she led her students into early 19th century England with a discussion of Charles Dickens and his works. For Grace, Dickens is a favorite and she has the ability to communicate her love for his literature to her students.
Dickens comes alive in Grace's room. We remember part of her lecture where we learned that Dickens worked as a newpaperman until marrying the publisher's daughter (while having affairs with several of the bride's sisters at the same time). Freed from needing to grind out daily scoops, he wrote about the general conditions, especially poverty, that was his contemporary London. Since 2012 was Dicken's Bicentenial, Grace also mentioned Dicken's brief visits to Philadelphia and how the city has celebrated those visits through sculpture and collections.
However graceful and forceful Grace is as a lecturer of literature, she is really impressive when she has dressed down and is positioned on the dance floor. As you watch Grace dance, you wonder how prescient her parents were to name her such. One could easily say that Grace is doing ballet to more popular music. Others have noted this and for five years Grace led the session at the Sunday morning Germantown Jewish Centre where these pictures were taken. But Grace's other responsibilities such as teaching precluded further commitments to Israeli dance and so we are left with brief glimpses of Grace - both figuratively and literally.
Of course there is always one person who operates on a reverse level and this includes these dance sessions. We don't know whether this is because of philosophy or perhaps because he is a natural left hander and naturally tries to reverse the universe. But dress is a non event as far as our next dancer is concerned.
This montage features Marc Rauer at one of his work areas, Community College Of Philadelphia. As opposed to Grace, Marc is a part/time instructor at the school teaching a general introductory course in computer science. Here we see him on the day that he is going to teach networking concepts to his classes. Something about IP, DNS and legs if we remember correctly. When not teaching, Marc is involved in a variety of activities including computer consulting and Israeli dancing.
Well above, we saw that Ami's students were interested in the subject of his lecture. And, it seemed that the students really appreciated Grace's lecture. We don't have either the interest or the appreciation here as this is a survey course in computer science. This means that a wide variety of diverse subjects are required to be covered whether or not the students are interested. Nevertheless, the students hang in there as you can see as we turn the camera around and record the students' reactions in his two labs as he ends the lecture.
In talking with the students, the high point of the course, one that occurs somewhat earlier in the schedule of Marc's course, is his discussion of annimations in powerpoint. This web site knows a little about this as we are the recipient of some of these powerpoint examples. You can see these also, and determine if the students are correct, in our media script which you can access by clicking here. This montage represents several of the first screens of the powerpoint presentations you can access there.
While the previous dancers generally move directly from work to dance, Marc takes a different route. He is part of a group that regularly meets at the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble. Recently he and John Hopkins, another regular, have been playing a game of chess early evening. Thanks to Dawn Watts - one of the employees of the store - and her camera, we catch a game in progress and spotlight the eventual winner, John Hopkins, in this montage.
Just like the other dancers above, Marc makes provision, whether teaching that day or consulting, to attend Don's Thursday night session. In his case though, no change of clothes is necessary as he consults and teaches in sneaks, pullovers and jeans. Many of his sweaters and pullovers are grey and all of his jeans are dark blue so he's ready to dance from the time he wakes up and dresses. You can see these same clothes in the montage above and in this montage of pictures taken from a video shot in Nov'13
And, there you have it. Obviously for those who are retired, the question of changes of clothes between the different activites of the day has less meaning. But for those active individuals, like those above, this documents a type of personal logistics needed to participate in these dancing sessions.