Well, this is a tale starring Jody G, pictured above, one of the regulars at several Israeli Dance sessions in the Philadelphia area. This is not the first time that Jody has graced this website's pages: you can see her when she was somewhat younger in our historical photos of the late 80's and 90's. Sometime in February of 2013, Jody was invited to two events both of which were to take place on the evening of March 1st. In '13, March 1st occurred on Friday. At first, Jody tried to decide which of these events she would accept while declining the other. But Jody is aware that there are several Israeli dancers who thrive on dealing with multiple events during a day. In talking with one of her dance partners - someone who frequently does multiple events in a day and boasts about doing this - she decided to show the same spirit and accepted both invitations although aware that there would be considerable driving and time management issues.
The first of the night's events would be at Makefield Elementary School in Yardley where Jody agreed to volunteer at an Israeli Dance demonstration. Makefield is a part of the Pennsbury school system and the school handles young children from Kindergarden to 5th grade. Under the leadership of the principal, Donna McCormick-Miller, this school has become one of the premiere elementary schools in the Philadelphia region. Every year the school puts on an International Fair and this year the countries of Brazil, England, Japan and Israel were featured. Demonstrations of various elements of each country's society and culture were featured during that Friday night including a demonstration of dancing.
Later that evening the Painted Bride was to hold an event designated as Salsa Caliente where live salsa music and even more livelier salsa dancing would be on display. Some of the Israeli dancers are into salsa and other forms of dance and Jody had heard about Salsa Caliente through another of the Israeli dancers who had made it to previous such events. The Painted Bride is a Philadelphia landmark for arts and culture and this montage shows several of the performances for 2013. Located between 2nd and 3rd on Vine Street in Center City Philadelphia, it has been a major factor in the renaissance of the cultural scene in downtown Philadelphia.
And, so, we now concentrate on the first event of the evening of Friday, March 1st, 2013 as Jody makes it to the Makefield Elementary school to hook-up with Darcy Silvers Grabenstein at approximately 6:45PM. When the school was looking for a demonstration of Israeli dance, the school contacted Darcy who has had experience in this type of demonstration. Of course Darcy's experience in dance goes way beyond just Israeli as Darcy is a certified Zumba instructor at various locations around the Philadelphia area. Jody has agreed to control the music for this dance recital and on the upper tier of pictures you can see Darcy giving Jody instructions on playing the music. For this evening Darcy has been accompanied by her husband, Micah. Viewers of this website are familiar with Darcy and Micah as they have been the subjects of a script detailing their wedding in June, 2012. The bottom pictures are some of the photographs that have been on this site and you can see an entire script on the wedding by clicking here.
While Jody consults with Darcy, we pan around the madhouse of activity that is the school for that evening. It is clear that the faculty, students and parents take these international fairs very seriously. The pictures on this montage do not do justice to the hussle and bustle of the evening but you can see the ethnically decorated cupcakes and the direction arrows from Beit Shamest, Israel to the various locations (inclusing Makefield) of the countries represented this evening.
For the four countries designated, the school had made available four classroooms where students have decorated and created exhibits pertinent to the culture and ethnicity of the each of these countries. This montage shows the students' exhibits on Brazil with heavy emphasis on the Amazon rain forest and its indigenous peoples, the culture of Rio,and the passion and excellence of the sport of soccer. Here's what this website learned while walking around the Brazil exhibit area: Brazil is the largest country of South America and was settled by the Portuguese so it is the largest Lusophone (Portuguese) speaking country in the world. At one time Rio De Janeiro was its capital but in the 1960's a new capital, Brasilia, was built in the middle of the country. The country is host to the Amazon rain forest recognized as the most biologically diverse region of our planet.
Another hallway and room was devoted to merry old England. This is something to which this website can relate. It is probable that this is the leading Israeli dance website on the study of the books and characters of the British author, Ian Fleming, thanks to our history editor. But the students went several times better providing a sample of British food, culture in terms of castles and armor and a discussion of the 2012 London Olympics. And, of course, as indicated in the last picture, the small replica of Stonehedge reminded visitors of that part of early (and not well understood) British culture.
Another large room was devoted to Israel. In this room was a replica of the Wailing wall which is believed to be a construction project of Herod under Roman tutelege dating to 19BC. This may have been one of the many large building projects that characterized Herod's rule. In addition, exhibits publicized the entrepreneurial aspect of Israeli culture, specifically technological inventions, that have been the basis of several recent books including "Start-up Nation" by Don Senor.
And finally, another room dealt with Japan. Here we can see all the components that makes that country so interesting to occidental eyes including scenes of Mt Fuji, the symbol of Japan. Another table dealt with Japanese flora including Bonzai plants which are minitures of regular trees grown in pots.
Of course, in addition to the rooms featured above, there were appearances by different groups providing entertainment. Some groups would be easy to identify but others were a little more subtle. The pictures in this montage are of a drum band with male dancers doing what most observers would call street dancing. It was very entertaining - these clips come from a video someone took during the performance - but it's hard to place this beyond American culture. The performance took place in the school's cafeteria and most of the audience, including our cadre of Israeli dancers, were filling up on foods that had been selected to go with the various cultures and countries represented.
An art form that we could correlate with a culture is Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, that combines dance, music and aerobics. The group shown in this montage may be Capoeira Morro Verde Batizado based out of Doylestown. As set pieces of music play, dancers/fighters practice a choreographed routine which includes plenty of kicks that would cause much damage if these kicks connected. Most of the audience were students of the Makefield school and their friends but also on the sidelines were Jody and Darcy's Israeli dance contingent waiting for the end of this demonstration so that they could put on their own.
Well, it's finally the Israeli dancers turn. You can see on the left Jody getting the music ready. The shots on the right show Darcy as she introduces the audience to the concept of Israeli dance. You can see that most of the audience has left but those that remain will be rewarded with a demonstration that includes most aspects of Israeli dance as Darcy has selected Amalel Shir, Hineh Mat Tov and Debka Lahat as the dances to demonstrate. After the demonstration, she will allow the audience to join as she teaches Nigun Atik (aka Zemer Atik) and Od Lo Ahavti Dai. Besides Jody and Micah, Darcy is accompanied by Lee Friedman whom viewers of this web site will recognize from our coverage of her Toronto trips, one of which you can view by clicking here.. This creates a bit of a problem given that Debka Lahat is a couples dance and there will be a need for another male partner although in a pinch Jody could be called on to perform although this will upset the expected male/female ratio.
Luckily, as this web site has been told, one of the spectators, name unknown, had a little Israeli dance experience and joined the group making the second male partner. The pictures of this montage show the three Israeli dances that these four performed. Jody, of course, did her part in keeping track of and setting up the music. We have been told that even though there were few spectators, none walked out while the demonstration was in progress. Before each dance Darcy would give a little info about what was to follow and try to explain the music and steps which was foreign to most of the audience.
And, now it's the audiences turn. As you can see on these pictures most of the participants who partake of Darcy's invitation to dance are younger girls, probably members of the school's student body. Darcy is demonstrating relatively easy Israeli dances and the steps are no problem for these girls, many of whom are probably taking dance lessons of one type or the other during after-school activities. Notice also that Lee is in the midst of this which is not a surprise given that, until her retirement, Lee was a school counselor for the Philadelphia school system and was active in educating young minds in all subjects including dance.
It was time for Jody to attend to the second part of the evening. It was now 8:30PM and she had been asked to make it to the Painted Bride by 9:30PM that evening. This involved a car trip from Bucks County into center city Philadelphia. Now, viewers should understand that this web site attempts to interview the participants of our scripts and provide the most accurate of data. When we queried Jody as to the make of automobile she had just recently purchased at the time of these events which we assumed she would use for her trip, Jody told us that she is driving a Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S. Really! Not the Suburu Legacy we've seen often in the parking lots. Obviously, we have our questions on this having never seen a Maserati at any Israeli dance event in the area but for this script let's take this at face value and the pictures in this montage show the Quattroporte Sport GT S priced at $135,000 for those of you who are interested and/or who might be fantasizing.
Anyway, as Jody speeds to her next event, we can take the time to introduce you to one of the great teachers of Salsa and Rueda in the Philadelphia area. This montage features Flaco whose given name is Marck Best. Jody knows several Israeli dancers who take lessons with Flaco as they try to perfect Salsa and Rueda. We should give a little history on this. Mambo is a Cuban dance originating in the early '50s before Castro takes over the island. Mambo is known for skipping the first (and fifth) beat which made it a difficult dance for many to master. In the '90s dancers start to use the 1st and 5th beat, pausing on 4 and 8. This becomes known as Salsa. In the late 50's and 60's, again apparently in Cuba, a type of Salsa square dance, known as Rueda de Casino or more familiarly as Rueda, gains in popularity. The center of this type of dancing is in Santiago De Cuba. The dance spreads at first by word of mouth and demonstration and then by Internet video and has become a favorite of the salsa dancers who take classes with Flaco. Since the caller acts somewhat like a conductor of an orchestra, the honorific of Maestro becomes appropriate. Therefore, it is a Rueda demonstration at the Painted bride called by Maestro Flaco that Jody is hurrying (either in her Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S or Suburu) to catch as several dancers she knows are part of this demonstration and she has been asked to take pictures.
As Jody enters the Painted Bride, the Rueda dancers are moving up to the second floor for final preparations. We see Flaco at the top of the stairs waiting for his dancers. On the second floor they team up into partners. While each guy will enter and begin the dance with a specific partner, the idea of Rueda is to switch partners several times during a dance. The switches are called by the leader, Maestro Flaco, as profiled above. The pictures to the right catch the entire group as it is ready to enter the dance area. Do you recognize anybody? Look closely! Somewhere in the back is Milt Cohen who has graced scripts on this web site in various ways. Milt and the group are wearing red and black, the colors of salsa. The band starts to play a familiar salsa tune and the dancers are on their way to perform.
The dancers have moved into the dance area. The band is at their back. One of the important issues in Rueda is spacing and the partners move themselves into a circle. Each couple has positioned themselves into what Israeli dances call ballroom position and await the start. The music has stopped and this performance is to last for one song, the next song played by the band. While there has been some practice, this is not the set type of choreography that is encountered in Israeli dance. The leader is free to call (communicated by voice and hand signal) whatever moves he deems necessary and the dancers are expected to react.
This montage is at a certain point in the dance. Unfortunately, the lighting leaves a lot to be desired when using a small camera as Jody is doing, but we have to work with what we have. Milt is in several of these pictures as is a dancer named Marquerite. In general most changes of couples have the men revolve counterclockwise, the women clockwise although the leader has ways of calling steps that go counter to this. We have placed a small blue dot over most of the appearances of Mitt in this sequence and placed a brown dot over Marquerite's head. With some difficulty, of course, you should be able to watch the movement of Milt and Marquerite around the circle as the dance progresses. At first Marquerite is to the left of Milt but by the third tier she is now on his right as the calls have moved them in different directions.
All of this dancing is done to a live band and we want to acknowledge their efforts. The band leader is Don Luis "Bongo" Colon and the Band is called Orchestra El Gigante Feat. Apparently this is one of two bands to appear that night and the last picture shows an empty stage as one band leaves and the other gets ready to play. At this point pre-recorded music is piped in. There really is nothing like live music to dance to but don't forget your ear plugs as the music is both rythmic and loud.
This would be a good point to discuss the League of Extraordinary Salseros. No, this is not a Sean Connery remake based on Salsa dancing. This is an original idea of Maestro Flaco that might be a good thing for Israeli dancing. Several of the dancers that night are wearing black Tshirts with the logo "Flaco Dance Factory". We saw one of the dancers wearing this Tshirt above as the dance group assembled on the second floor. These dancers - the ones wearing this Tshirt - have been directed to find and dance with those first time attendees who are just too intimidated by the action of the evening to intermingle. Even established dancers might have this fear as one of our editors is well aware of. This montage features the most attractive member of this League of Extraodinary Salseros, the Salsera Tirzah, who was also part of the Rueda dance demonstration.
One of the dancers who doesn't need the services of the League is Milt. Just as in Israeli dance, Milt grabs a partner and dances, this time Salsa. The partner in these shots was at the time a student of Flaco's in his beginning Salsa class. Perhaps as she gains experience she will open her eyes in these situations which would make it a lot easier for her to follow in this type of dance where lead is by movement of the partner's arms and body. We're sure that she is enjoying this dance with Milt because we have never found a partner of his who has not enjoyed his dancing not to mention his personae.
And, for our final montage, we have Jody dancing with Milt just before she leaves Salsa Caliente to return home. It's been an exciting night of both Israeli and Salsa dancing. And, she has played a part in both events from running the music at the Makefield Elementary school to taking the pictures of the Rueda demonstration that you see here. And, she even got to ride, even if its just in print, in her Maserati Quattroporte Sports GT S for a time. This web site thanks Jody for allowing us to accompany her on this evening's rounds and thanks everybody else that showed up in these photos for allowing us to photograph them in their various activities.