Any session led by Shmulik Gov Ari has to be special. Gov Ari is a world famous Israeli dance choreographer with multiple dances attributed to him. Gov Ari's presence is not uncommon at Israeli dance workshops and this web site has documented one such workshop that he led in our Melbourne script. Shmulik's web site indicates two sessions on Tuesday at the JCC on the Hudson which is actually in Tarrytown New York (the eastern terminus of the Tappen Zee bridge) and not nearby White Plains.
The Albany session specializes in circle and line dances and is led by Sharona Wachs. It is reported that a considerable number of attendees are in their 20's which is very different than what occurs in the Philadelphia area sessions. This is the result of a very active teen program of dance that Sharona (and Temple Israel, the synagogue that is the venue for this dancing) has encouraged over the years. As to the area: Albany is called the Capital District or Capital region since it is the capital of New York State. This is a very vibrant region of office buildings and residences.
We can understand the afinity of visiting the Rutland session. Rarely does one have a chance to visit a session co-led by a Philadelphia Israeli dance alumna, the aforementioned Andrea Wallach. The other co-leader is Judy Stern. Andrea's research to start this session led to the creation the Vermonter CD distributed in that session and locally throughout Philadelphia sessions.
The further you go north, the more events that take place during the summer months. Burlington and its Israeli dance session is no exception. The session is run by Daniel Stein & Portia Arthur and research into Israeli dancing in Burlington comes with a warning that the sessions does not meet consistently on Sunday nights. Apparently the meetings are publicized by Email. Additionally, a quick google search on the session indicates that in August of last year (2015), the Burlington group hosted an Israeli dance workshop starring the well known Israeli dance (and International dance) instructor, Danny Pollack. We doubt that our participating dancers in this trip expected to be in Burlington for a future workshop but were hoping to be in that city coincident with a Sunday night when the dancing was scheduled.
For most Israeli dancers, when you think of Montreal, you think of Maurice Perez. Perez ran a Wednesday Israeli dance class for many years in that city in conjunction with a Summer Israeli dance workshop. However, in recent years (since 2009) it seems as if the Toronto IsReal Israeli dance festival has replaced the Montreal workshop and the weekly Wednesday class (augmented by a new Monday class) has been taken over by Peter Smolash (leftmost pictured with his wife).
Now, we've given you a possible itinerary (although below in this script you will see that this was modified to an extreme). The next question: who would do this? As proposed it is quite a bit of traveling (5 stops in 6 days) and one had better enjoy Israeli dancing to do this, not to mention possibly having other reasons to start this journey. Here we can reveal the two participants in this. First, we have none other than Andrea Wallach. You already know that Andrea is co-leading the Rutland, Vt session that is included in this itinerary. But, what other reasons could she have to do this? As luck would have it, Andi was scheduled to be in the Philadelphia area in late June to handle some personal business and she used that opportunity to fly in and out of Philadelphia airport to do some travelling. She returned to the Philadelphia area early in July and was already scheduled to drive back up to Vermont. Adding these additional stops would only extend by a short duration her return to Rutland - where she would arrive first for teaching and then return again at the end of this proposed trip. The pictures in this montage show Andrea visiting another venue in New York state, Hilila, in April 2012.
The second party to the planning of this trip was Marc Rauer who occasionally contributes to this web site. Knowing Marc, we assumed that this trip probably had something to do with history and/or a favorite author for him to research. Sure enough, as we found out when discussing this script with him. Besides sampling the Israeli dance sessions indicated above, Marc was going to use the time between the Rutland and Burlington sessions to visit Fort Ticonderoga and the Lake George area (and the map here, which is really a paperbook cover, might give you an idea of one of Marc's interests).
In the end, several factors contributed to a streamlining of the trip. The Tarrytown session that was supposedly being taught by Shmulik really has not existed for a while. Apparently his web site is out of date. The Burlington session is not in sequence with the Rutland session: One would need to go to Burlington on the preceding Sunday to do both both sessions. If Burlington was not being done, it seemed inefficient to both parties to hang around Vermont waiting for Montreal. So, the final itinerary of this trip, using US87 to lead the way north, taken between July 13 through July 15, was to visit Albany on July 13 and the Rutland session on July 14. So, starting out around 1PM on Wesnesday, July 13th, in center city Philadelphia, the trip was on as Andrea drove into New Jersey, took the New Jersey turnpike heading North, onto the Garden State parkway, Rt 17 and then onto the New York Throughway heading to Albany. As you can see Marc snapped a picture of Andrea at a rest stop along the way. And, while we are talking about pictures, Marc insisted that we remind you that all of the pictures not attributed to sources below were taken by Marc using a cell phone camera which optically left much to be desired.
Upon arriving in Albany, sometime around 4:30 or so, the first order of business was lunch. Albany is awash with excellent restaurants and an Asian fusian restaurant featuring Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Korean food was selected. This montage shows some pictures of the Albany skyline that were found on the internet and the fried rice dinner that Andrea ordered at the restaurant, served elegantly in a half Pineapple shell.
By the end of the meal, it became clear that an hour and a half layover was needed before arriving at Albany's Temple Israel for the Israeli dance session. So, Marc used the time to walk around downtown Albany to take pictures. This montage shows several state buildings such as the State House, the Dept of Education and the State Legislative buildings.
The layout of Albany is such that multiple parks add to the charm of the city. Included rightmost in this montage is a park dedicated to the Albany area veterans of America's wars. Walking around it seemed as if every Government building had at least one park to one side or the other.
Eventually our participants ended up at Temple Israel of Albany to await that evening's Israeli dance session. In this montage we show the dance floor, empty at this point, where the session is to be held. You can see that this room includes a stage which Marc will use later to take photos.
As stated above, it appears that Temple Israel donates significant resources to youth programs which support the study and provide the exposure to Israeli dance for younger members of the community. You can see this by looking at the Synagogue's web site. One such program is Camp Givah which introduces young children to the arts including the fun of dancing. This montage, taken from Temple Israel's web site, shows a vocal recital in addition to the younger set doing a very easy Israeli partner dance. No doubt for some of these kids this makes an impression and encourages them to pursue aspects of dancing as they get older.
The dance program of Temple Israel is very well known throughout New York. In fact, in 2012 the Israeli Dance Institute headquartered in New York city ran a program at Temple Israel. To see this program's agenda, click here. This montage includes pictures taken at Temple Israel during that 2012 conference.
Perhaps it is because of this knowledge as presented in the last few montages that Andrea indicates to Marc that the demographics of this dance session will differ from that of the usual dance session in the Philadelphia area - much younger. Part of the session, she relates, will involve line dances which novice and younger Israeli dancers tend to prefer. About 7:30 the session begins as dancers filter in. Marc reports that Andrea was right: it appears that this is a session with many more younger participants. For about a hour there is circle dancing to a repertoire not much different than the first hour in Philadlephia regional sessions. However, after about an hour, one of the male participants, Stan, took to the center of the circle to begin a teach of a new Israeli dance which the group took up with alacrity. This montage pictures the session on the first try after experiencing Stan's teach.
There is reason the dancers practice this dance with such enthusiasm. This new dance, Melach Haolam, has a great pedigree. The vocal is by the well known Israeli vocal artist Chaim Israel with the music and lyrics attributed to Udi Damari. The choreography is by Rafi Ziv known for his vigorous approach to choreography. The tune is fast paced and catchy - Marc admitted to a week of humming the tune afterward - and the steps match the beat of the music. You can see a video of Chaim Israel singing this by clicking here and a video of Ziv demonstrating his choreography in Amsterdam can be found by clicking here.
After the teach and first practice, it's time to rev up the dancing and the session takes to the floor with a confidence having learned the dance and partaken in a first run through. Marc sensed this and he moved up on the stage giving him an elevated view. This montage shows the results of the teach and prior run though as Marc trains his phone on the dancers below. Notice that Andrea is no slouch in this despite some problems with her calf. Note: by this time even though Stan is still in the center, many of the dancers have memorized the steps and are in their own zone of concentration as they perform the steps.
After the teach and run through of Melach Haolam, the session plays a set of line dances. Generally, line dances attract the younger members of any session. This montage, taken from the side of the floor, shows both young and old participating. Not shown in this picture are the leaders in this. One dancer is positioned on each side giving the dancers a visual cue as line dances generally are two or four corner (as in what direction is the dance movement).
As we approach 10PM it's time to head to Rutland. While it looks like a short trip from Albany on the map, the actual travel time is quite long. Part of this is because Lakes Champlain and George block a direct approach between the two cities but also because most of the travel is on local one lane in each direction roads. It's been quite a day: starting out in Philadelphia, touring Albany, dancing at Temple Israel and now moving onto Rutland for a night of rest. The next day is spent exploring Rutland and Vermont not to mention an unexpected return to Albany. This montage shows the center of Rutland which is dominated, like many smaller cities in the United States, by a Walmart.
Rutland is in the shadows of the Green Mountains which are aptly named during the summer months. These pictures were taken from the car as it moves out of Rutland and into a more rural locale. Most of these pictures apparently are taken on Rt 7, a major thoroughfare through the state of Vermont although the last picture is of a fallen tree blocking interstate Rt 87. Which also bring us to nomenclature of the various interstate routes in that part. Interstate 87 up to its intersection with Interstate 90 is known as the Thomas Dewey New York Throughway. Apparently the Throughway moves with US 90 as it heads west toward Toronto (and note that as 90 heads east it becomes the Massachusetts Turnpike). At this point as 87 continues to move north it is called the Northway (or more commonly the Nor'way) by the locals.
By 6:30 our group is stationed outside of the Rutland Jewish center. The name is misleading as the Rutland Jewish center started operations in 1889 as a synagogue servicing the Rutland Jewish community. The RJC's web site is filled with information about its past which you can read about by clicking here. Of especial intertest is in its treatment of women and how that has changed over the years consistent with our society. The last picture in this montage is the basement where the dancing is to take place.
The room in the basement was being renovated as you might be able to see in these pictures. Summer in Vermont, like everywhere during the summer, is a time when folks are away and this probably affected the number of people attending. In these pictures you will see 5 participants. Andrea and her co-lead, Judy Stern straddle the other dancers beginning and end. In addition, Marc was there although he is the one taking the pictures. What we are catching here is the teach of the day: Yedid Nefesh. The Aussie database has the music accredited to the songwriting team of Ehud and Sara(h) Zweig with the choreography for the circle by Jonathon Gabay.
Yedid Nefesh is interesting from a historical standpoint. Like several pieces of music in Israeli dance, this in some way originates as a Sabbath prayer. The origins of the lyrics are said to go back to the 1500's. The youtube video will provide you with an older version of the music that Andrea is using to teach this evening. Supposedly this video features the singing of Ehud Zweig doing his own composition. This montage is supposedly a picture of Zweig although it could easily be a picture of the late comic Andy Kauffman. As mentioned, the choreography is attributed to Jonathon Gabay.
So, Yedid Nefesh, as a dance, dates back to 1971 when Gabay put steps to the music of the Zweigs. Gabay's dance steps - his interpretation of the music - does not make this an easy teach as Andrea would find out but with perseverence her class begins to learn the steps. This montage shows the end of the process as Andrea's group grasps the sequence of steps as the music plays.