A busy Sunday, Jan 15th, 2012. Germantown and Don's marathon

You may not be aware that Don held a series of Israeli dancing events on the Martin Luthur King holiday of 2012. Don's Sunday events are of interest given that when combined with the normal Germantown Sunday morning dance session, this makes 3 Israeli dance events for that day. This web site keeps track of this awarding those who participate in three Isreali dance events for a day. In addition, another group handles an award to cite those dancers making extra effort for a week. It turns out that the following pictures, broken down by the two cameras we have pictures from, document both awards. Five dancers made it through all the Sunday events and will be given awards and gifts commeasurate with this accomplishment. This is the Israeli dance Iron Man(Women) award. All the following: Elaine Frank, John Frank, Lee Friedman, Wendy Friedman and Marc Rauer (or is it Mark Rauer) will be so honored in the future at an appropriate time. We should add that our last dancer mentioned has also been awarded the Israeli dancer of the Week award for Jan 14th through Jan 20th as he participated in 6 dance sessions for that week including the three indicated here. This is quite an achievement given that less than 3 months before he was operated for a hernia.

Below are two sets of pictures. Immediately below is a description of the first set of pictures. Below this first set is an explanation of the second set of pictures.

Now, in looking at this first set of pictures, the first three rows occur at Germantown in the morning. This web site was prepared for this and these pictures are done with a somewhat advanced still picture camera with flash suitable for these types of portraits.

Unfortunately, we were not prepared fully for the next two sessions and the dinner we attended in the middle of all this and an inexpensive video camera, from which we have created stills, was used to document Don's sessions and the impromptu dinner. So, the fourth tier of pictures show one shot of the afternoon session, the dinner and the return of the five (with one unidentified woman) to the evening session.

The last two tiers of pictures are of the evening session. In one, we break down one of the newly taught dances as we focus in on Amy, Wendy and Osnet as they shake and shimmy. Notice the red from the disco lighting that was available at Beth Sholom as the pictures were taken.

One final thing pertaining to both sets of pictures: The girls wearing blue T-shirts are from a Washington based Israeli dance troupe called Yesodot. These are high school students from the Washington-Baltimore area who train together under the leadership of Mike Fox and Pepe Strauss. Generally, the troupe is giving a performance when travelling and then dancing en-masse as shown below, and they were regulars at the Hora Aviv Memorial weekend camps for many years among other venues. But this was a busman's holiday for them as the group participated in Don's marathon. You can see more info on this dance troupe by clicking here.

Below, we see pictures from another camera pertaining to Sunday afternoon festivities that Don was running during the day. The afternoon event was a workshop with some 6 or so dances being taught that session. On the second row you will see a picture of Don as he DJs the session. Pictures alternate between those who were previously at Germantown arriving at Adath israel, of the circle dancing and instruction during that afternoon and those in the back relaxing and partaking in refreshments.