Patty on the Square

Frequent visitors to this website (if this really exists) have seen Patty before in web scripts on this site. The pictures in this montage are from a recent Sunday morning session at the Germantown Jewish Centre. Beause of Patty's physical exercise routines, some of which will be detailed below, she is a powerful and graceful dancer at any session she graces with an appearance.

Patty has been doing Israeli dance for a long time. In this montage we catch her at several sessions. Since Patty has a great memory for dance steps, it's not unusual to see her take the lead in doing the steps as the music begins. At Germantown, Patty can generally be seen in the middle with a coterie of dancers helping Grant lead the session.

When an Israeli dance session features partners, Patty is accompanied by her real partner of many years, her husband Stephen. The couple is pictured here over the last few years. This dance partnership started with International Folk Dancing, which both enjoyed and still sometime partake in, and has expanded into Israeli dancing.

We know all this through an article in the Chestnut Hill Local, a small but significant local paper serving the Chestnut Hill area (and abutting localities) since 1958. You can read about this paper by clicking here. The article, written by Lou Mancinelli, delves into this couple's (and especially Patty's) travels to the present time. Patty is a PHD in Educational Psychology having studied at the University Of Wisconsin, Cincinnati and Temple. Since Patty retired from a job in Educational Psychology in 2005, she has earned teaching certificates in pilates and gyrotonics. Patty presently is a gyrotonic instructor at the Vitality studio in West Mt Airy.

While Gyrotonics dates back to the 1980's, it is still a realitively new exercise regime to the general public and even to that part of the public active in exercise. It was created by a professional dancer, Juliu Horvath, to recover in a sense from his own injuries. Horvath retains tight control over his creation as it is his company that produces the Gyrotonic machines sold - presently around 2500 - to various exercise studios around the world. The company also provides a 160 hr training course to become a certified instructor and it is said that presently about 7500 individuals have taken this course. This is the course that Patty completed. Horvath is leftmost in this montage accompanied by pictures indicating usage of the machinery.

A picture in the Chestnut Hill Local article above shows Patty, and Vitality owner Jessica Meeker, posing with one of the machines. This montage extends that one photo by showing Patty moving through a complete movement on the machine. These movements increase flexibility and even more importantly strength at the extremes of the movements.

Genetics must run through Patty's family to fully understand her latter career choice of personal trainer. Another article, written by Len Lear, in the Chestnut Hill Local details the work of her son, Zachary, as a personal trainer. Zachery has written a book on the subject and even used his skills to work on his father and Patty's husband, the aforementioned Stephen Segal, to allow his father to reengage in several athletic pursuits.

To have become a registered Pilates and Gyrotonics instructor rather late in life (and after retirement from a completely different profession) shows Patty to be a seeker of new experiences and someone who appreciates learning new skills and techniques. About two years before the creation of this script in February, 2015, Patty got wind of another dance genre that some of the Israeli dancers were experimenting with. After a reasonable number of invitations, Patty entered the world of Rueda. In the Philadelphia area, the teacher of note of this genre is Maestro Flaco. Interestingly enough, Flaco has been on this website in the past. In March '13 we followed Jody Goldsborough as she sampled Salsa Caliente where Rueda was among the salsa styles on display. You can access this script by clicking here. The top of this montage shows several pictures of Maestro Flaco in publicity pictures and/or while teaching. The bottom pictures of this montage show rueda in action and feature Maestro Flaco as he hosts that night at the Painted Bride theater.

As interesting as Patty's life experiences are, Flaco is no slouch in this either. Rumor has it that he was an all scholastic gymnast in the Philadelphia school system while in high school. From there he studied classical dance at a prestigious arts facility although his cultural roots led him back to Latin dancing after his educational experiences. Besides hosting the Painted Bride's Salsa Caliente events (and his own), Flaco is the salsa instructor for the Mount Airy Learning tree's series of classes in Salsa and Rueda. In this montage we show several brochures and advertisements for the classes and events he has been involved with in the last few years.

For the Malt classes, Flaco holds court at another prominent religious institution in the Germantown/Chestnut Hill area. Readers of this web site are very familiar with the Germantown Jewish Centre. But, located somewhat northwest on Germantown Avenue (heading toward the city border) is the St Paul Episcopal Church. St Paul is somewhat like the GJC in that the structure physically dominates its adjacent area. This montage attempts to give readers a view of the facility which is on Chestnut Hill Avenue between Germantown and Bethleham pikes.

In the basement of the rectory is a smallish room that Flaco reportedly furnished himself. It has been made into a small dance studio where he teaches classes in various kinds of Salsa (including Rueda), other latin dances and Philly Bop (a variation of the Jitterbug from the middle of the last century). It is to this dance studio, adorned with dance posters of many kinds, that Patty is directed in early 2014 to study introductory Rueda. This montage shows the studio when empty and displays one of the posters that Patty would find on the walls.

This montage catches Flaco, Patty and his class in Rueda one evening early in 2014. As the instructor, Flaco is required to handle admissions, music and teaching. Rueda is done as a circle of couples. Each couple is doing a variation of traditional salsa. Partners exchange with men moving over one or two partners (generally counterclockwise although there are exceptions) as Flaco makes the calls. The exchange is where the fun comes in as each call requires the partners to do something different in the exchange and do it on a group basis. Something like a Salsa square dance if you will but at speed and spontaneity given Flaco's choice of calls. Each call has a name (in Spanish) and even more importantly a hand signal as the music can be quite loud to interfere with the hearing of the commands. In one of these shots Flaco is giving a wave which is the hand signal for an exchange called Adios. While the exchanges, as Patty would find later, can be quite complicated and difficult, this introductory class deals with the easier movements of Rueda.

As she takes the class, Patty hears a set of announcements from Flaco as to coming events. One such announcement is a surprise: Flaco apparently spends much time teaching younger children the art of dance in schools. It reminds Patty of a movie that you, the reader, may also be familiar with: Mad Hot Ballroom. This montage has some scenes from the movie and its advertisement.

As it turns out, the movie details a program started in 1994 in the New York City school system to make ballroom dancing a part of the life of inner city students. The program was started by Pierre Dulaine, pictured in this montage, who created his own style of teaching to instruct on the movements, not to mention the mental and social necessities, to master Ballroom dancing. Besides the physical aspects, the young dancers are taught the social interactions between the sexes both on and off a dance floor. For the boys, this may have the most effect as many grow up without a male role model at home or in their life. One result may be a change in the way they look at and/or treat their female compatriots. At the least this may answer questions of dress per the use of coat and tie.

Given the success of the program (even before the publicity of the movie), it was natural that these ideas in teaching dance and social skills would move beyond the New York city school system. Around the country private and public systems jumped on the bandwagon. In Phila, several dance teachers, including Flaco, studied under Dulaine as this system, under the name of 'Dancing Classrooms Philly', was applied to several of the public schools and several of the Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Flaco became one of the first dance artists of this program and continues these dance residencies even today at various schools. You can find out more about this (and other similar programs) by clicking here.

The montage above is not the only area where Flaco interacts with younger students. Another article in the Chestnut Hill local, this time reported by Liu Ann Volpe, describes one of many teenaged events where Flaco's infuence is felt. We should add that this is the third time just in this script that this newspaper has had a writeup of something we were discussing. Surely this is the paper's aim: to inform the populace of events around this region of the city and you can see the coverage for yourself by clicking here. for the paper's web site.

Anyway, as we return to Patty and her activities, we find that she is progressing along with Rueda and to some extent, Salsa. In this world of ballroom dance, there's a definitive line, one that is never crossed once a dance has started. There are leaders, generally men and followers, generally women and never the twain shall meet. Very different than Israeli dance. In this type of dancing, success relies on leaders who know what they are doing. Although Patty has danced Salsa before, her knowledge of Salsa patterns is enhanced by what she is learning in Rueda, especially in terms of following the male cross body lead. This is something that easily translates to regular Salsa dancing. Anyway, sometime in May she is told of a change in venue. For the summer, classes and dancing will be held on Lehigh Avenue at Salsa On The Square, a bar that features a DJ playing salsa music. This montage tries to give you a feel for the location which, not surprisingly, features a very large bar.

Patty will dance most Wednesday nights at Salsa on the Square from June through early August'14 with some interruption. Since Flaco has a set of students from different classes attending, he has to be flexible. All Wednesday nights will feature instruction in Salsa turns (Non salsa dance readers could consider this as advanced Salsa steps). This means couples will dance salsa independently on the crowded dance floor. On several of the nights, Rueda will be added to the mix and some time will be alloted for participation in this dance where the actions of all the couples are crucial. At her more advanced level, Patty will be seeing cross body leads in almost everything that is done. This montage, taken mid June, only has Salsa dancing. While we have pictures of several couples, we focus on Patty and her partner, Kwawe. In several of these pictures you can see Patty being led through cross body leads.

This web site always pays attention when interest in dance is propagated, or perhaps we should say, cross pollinated. We're sure you get the idea! This is why we are covering Patty's foray into the world of Salsa. But, the pictures in this montage go both ways. This is Lakia who is one of the better salsa dancers in the region. Six months after these pictures were taken Lakia would try out Israeli dancing at the last Germantown Jewish Centre Sunday session of the year. All reports are that Lakia showed as much grace and ability in that genre as she does here.

We have moved onto the end of July. This session at Salsa on the Square pertains for the most part to Rueda which Patty has been studying as indicated above. As with all Salsa, Rueda is danced as partners but it has a little more flexibility. If there are extra women, the idea of an imaginary male partner is put into effect. In this case, a woman will do her moves as it dealing with a partner. On the next call by Flaco, this woman will have a real partner while the next woman in line may not. It's obvious to the dancer when the change brings someone real or someone imaginary. If too many men, individual male dancers will do the same. In the case of this session, there were seven dancers, 3 men and 4 women so the women spent a quarter of the time with an imaginary partner. The web site can tell you a little secret: There was supposed to be an even number of both but one of the male dancers was recovering from a surprise operation and unable to dance so we can thank him for taking these and the pictures in the following montages. So, concentrate on the woman in the blue blouse. For the scope of these pictures she is dancing with an imaginary partner. Notice at the end she is going into a turn (and into a change of partners) without lead.

It is impossible to explain Rueda by still photography. The only thing you can say is that the poetry of the movements of this dance do come through in the photography. When done correctly all the men are moving in one direction, the women in the other. Turns are effected by all per specific beats, either the 123's or the 567's of the music.

And who is the poet that helps create all this? None other than Flaco, the leader of the group. No doubt in his mind's eye he recognizes the movable poetry that he is creating by the timing and sequence of his calls. This montage concentrates on Flaco clad in his red Tshirt. It's not surprising that the shirt is red as red and black are salsa's official colors (and our website has used these colors in this script). Practiced Rueda dancers will be looking at Flaco's hands to determine if the picture when snapped has caught his hand signal(s) (obviously this photography cannot catch any verbal signals). By the way, the answer to this question is yes as one photo shows Flaco giving an "Hombre Dereche" call, but you've got to look close. Other eyes may be looking at his body momentum as he is generally the first to react to the calls that he has initialized. Finally, others will be looking at the preciseness of his turns done with the different partners. But we think that this montage will allow all viewers to appreciate Flaco's talent both as dancer and caller.

We end as we started concentrating on Patty Segal. Six months after starting to learn Rueda, Patty is among some advanced dancers at Salsa On The Square doing Rueda. She acquaints herself well if these pictures are any example. Her turns are crisp, her feet meet the floor on beat. She looks very different here than at Israeli dance, don't you think, wearing a black skirt and a type of heels (a practical way to push her balance forward). Even more so, Patty is enjoying the dancing and the entire evening. No doubt in her mind the added hours she has contributed to her study of this form of dance has paid off - similar to her study of Pilates and Gyrotonics.

Anyway, as we end this script we do want to inform you that Flaco's Rueda lessons have had a series of ups and downs. A downer is that Salsa On The Square has been sold and apparently will not be hosting further Salsa/Rueda classes. A positive is that six months after these pictures are taken, The Painted Bride runs not one, but two successful Salsa Calientes.

Below, assuming your browser is HTML 5 compliant, you have two controls to see Rueda danced to a full track of music. Since both are being loaded from this website's location and needs to be fully loaded before able to play, it may take some time for each to get ready. Please be patient. Once running, one is a full dance to the music, the other indicates Flaco stopping several times to correct errors. See if you discern Flaco's hand signals. Look at the extra woman and how she is dancing with the imaginary man. While we have not broken down the sequence of turns, keep in mind that you are watching a sequence of turns choreographed spontaneously by Flaco.

Note:While Patty no longer participates in Rueda, Maestro Flaco continues to send videos our way pertaining to his group. Apparently there was a performance by his Rueda group on Black Friday, 2016 and videos of this performance appear on youtubew and the internet. For the enlightment of our readers/visitors, you can see several of these videos of his group's performance at "Temptations" by clicking here.