Grant Shulman has been leading the Germantown session on Sunday mornings since 2003. In that time he has developed into a great session leader and those attending the session have a great esteem for Grant's strides in advancing and bettering the class. Grant indicated several weeks ago to one of the dancers that he was going to belatedly celebrate a significant birthday with a summer trip. The word of his significant birthday made a few rounds and ended up in Tamar's lap. Besides being able to administer this session, Tamar administers classes for the School District of Philadelphia as a teacher. So, organizing a birthday party is no big deal. She determined both the date and the number and the result was that Germantown on Sunday, Feb 6th, celebrated Grant Shulman's fortieth birthday while the session was in progress. Even this web site became involved in a small way.
For the last few weeks this site has been filming the session as we prepare to pay homage to a favorite movie using the Sunday morning dance session as the subject. Since this was on-going, Tamar informed the alter ego of the disk coordinator about her plans and under the guise of this coming script for this site, a photo of everyone attending the Jan 30th session was taken as you can see to the right. We are under the impression that this had never been done before and therein lies its uniqueness. This is a picture of everybody who danced that day, Jan 30th, 2011 at Germantown and was used as a basis of a gift to Grant.
With the picture, its development into 8 by 10 and 4 by 6 presentations and, most importantly, Tamar's administration of preparations for Sunday morning and Sylvia's purchases of the cake and beverages, the stage was set for a celebration of the fortieth birthday of someone we've all grown fond of and grown to respect, the Germantown session leader, Grant Shulman.
As Sunday's session began, there were a few people in on this secret. Of course Tamar was aware and she was in charge of preparing the surprise. Sylvia, who Grant had originally told about his plans for a summer trip, additionally was helping Tamar with the party's preparation and it is Sylvia who we thank for all the purchases of food and drink and especially the cake, from Whole Foods we might add, which would subsequently prove to be absolutely delicious. And, this web site was minimally in on this as communication between various parties had resulted in a set of configurations of the group photo taken the previous week. This circle of people in on this would widen as the session progressed as a card, also to be presented to Grant, was signed by all the dance participants for that morning.
We should note that several people in on this photo were not at the Feb 6th session and vice versa so you will see some new faces below in the script. But, officially, those appearing in the photo to the right are: Lower row; Marc, Ellen, Tzippy, Tamar, Yaakov, Deborah, Rachel and Orly: 2nd Row; Susan, Ellen, Marilyn, Grant, Grace, Yona and Ilan: Third Row; David, Wendy, John and Elaine: alone at the top; Sylvia. Below, we present in the following script the photos taken Feb 6th.
Because of the annual clothing drive whose proceeds go to support Darfur, Germantown was dancing in its alternate location, the Temin Canteen. Entry to this location in the building can be done through a set of stairs inside the building or from the eastern back entrance. Coming in from the back entrance you pass a kitchen that can be used for catering within the canteen room and is adjacent to it. Dancing already was occurring and Grant was in the center leading the circle. We went into the kitchen where, unknown to Grant, Tamar and Sylvia were busy finalizing preparations. The pictures were dropped off finishing all that needed to be done and Tamar and Sylvia, preparations at the ready, returned to the canteen room and joined the circle in dancing. We had other ideas:
Above you see scenes from the kitchen just before the presentation to Grant. All of this has been done in secret. In essence, perhaps three people know what is to occur. This web site's part of this is seen in the first picture as some excess group shots lay about. The second shot shows the kitchen as it has been left. Clementines (small oranges), utensils, some bottles are ready to be brought out. What would be a birthday party without a cake and that is our third picture. The cake was from Whole Foods and we don't mind giving a plug given how delicious it was. There are no words to describe the taste of the icing on the cake. Finally, champagne may not have been appropriate for this occasion given the location, the time and the dancer's use of their cars for attendance, so the next best thing was bought: Martinelli's apple cider which on many occasions has subbed for higher level drinks with great success.
The sequence of shots above move between Tamar and Grant. With Grant's shots we've also included Susan at the right. The time is about 11:00 O'clock. Dancing has been going on about an hour. Grant and Tamar have agreed that at about 11:00 O'clock announcements would be made. Grant has an idea of some of the announcements Tamar has at the ready including a round of names, questions about dancing during the President's day weekend and other coming events. He expects her to also announce the Darfur event occurring in the Marcus auditorium where this session normally meets on Sunday. But, there is to be one surprise which we already have been let in on. We pan the camera between Tamar and Grant to show how events unfolded. To the left Tamar begins her announcement. Both Grant and Susan register the normal reaction to this. Back to Tamar as she starts her introduction to the surprise that's coming. Included in her speech is well deserved accolades for Grant's leadership of this session over the years. Everybody starts to shout and clap as we are panning back to Grant and Susan. You can see Susan adding her voice to this and Grant kind of bewildered as to who is being honored. He recovered quite quickly and we're sure he recognized the heart-felt gratitude and affection everyone in the room has for him. Everyone wished him a happy birthday in prose and song and this web site also joins in with the wish for a happy 40th year.
This web site has been designed to cover Israeli dance events in the Greater Philadelphia area. It is not designed to center around the alter ego of the disk coordinator. The vaporous personality, let alone the philosophy of that individual, precludes this type of attention. But, for once, will you allow us to diverge from this normal philosophy? The above shots show Grant, Tamar and others enjoying (perhaps admiring) the shots we prepared over the week for this event. Keep in mind, we have absolutely no artistic flair and these things are quite an achievement for someone with no such talent or innate ability. We really enjoyed taking the above shots of dancers enjoying our limited addition and part to this event. Especially interesting is the third shot above of Jani and Grant. As you are aware from this web site, Jani has shown several dances over this year that have become part of the repertoire of the Germantown Sunday morning session. It speaks a lot of Grant that he has allowed this and to some extent even embraced this and in this he is very different from most other session leaders.
These picture show the food and drink being brought out. The cake is presented to Grant by Sylvia who brings it over to a small table at the front of the room. This is followed by Tamar with the bottles of apple cider and we see those bottles as they sit on the cart ready to be opened. Dancers would move between the table and cart as they ate and drank their way through this birthday celebration.
The pictures above show everyone enjoying the break from the dancing as many center around the food carts. In the end, there was some cake that remained and Grant took it home as a remembrance of the event. We might add that the cake was discussed the next night at Don's session at Beth Sholom. Everyone was impressed by the taste and freshness. Additionally, there was not a drop of apple cider left and everyone who partook enjoyed the clementines.
As mentioned many times in this web site, Isreali dancers love to dance. In fact, it's difficult to get shots when they are not. Below, we have a rare exception as the dancers take time out to congratulate Grant and mingle about. The next 8 pictures are taken during this lull in dancing.
Above, Grant's equipment, the apple ipod and speaker and the board dealing with dance requests, are stoicly accepting the break in action. It must be lonely for them since they are usually the center of attraction during most Sunday mornings. Perhaps we are just at the point that jealousy is creeping in given the lack of attention. Not to worry: it's back to our regularly scheduled programming. Grant checks the Ipod, stands in the middle as the dancers reform their circle and we're back to the Israeli dance action. It's somewhat before 11:30AM so another hour remains in the session. Quickly, as you see below, the session returned to what it does best: dancing. But, it was a fun party for a very nice individual who has done much to advance the quality of Israeli dance in this area for many dancers. This web site joins everybody in wishing Grant a very happy and healthy fortieth birthday.
