Like much of the Northeast, it had been a cold, somewhat snowy winter by time we arrived at the Germantown Jewish Centre at 9:50 on the morning of Feb 7, 2015. Grant starts the class at 10 and it continues until 12:30PM. We've noted a gradual increase in attendance over the years and so we expected somewhere between 25 to 30 dancers to be a part of this. Our representative had mentioned to the session the previous week that we were going to try this the next week and the time had arrived. These pictures show a snowy, but sunny exterior to the building at the time of our arrival. However, a surprise awaited us as we entered the building.

The building has been a fixture of the Mt Airy section of the city since 1947. Somewhere on this web site the structure (and some history) of the building is mentioned. It was built in two sections and this is somewhat obvious at first look and very obvious when inside the building. The "eastern section" (as viewed to the left) was built first and includes classrooms and the Temin canteen. The "western section" (as viewed to the right) contains the sanctuary and the Marcus auditorium. Three congregations share the building and the building itself, besides hosting the congregations and the Israeli dance session that we are to visit this day, is a hub of cultural, humanitarian and current event activities. For example: in the last mayoral election, Germantown was the site of one of the mayoral debates. The facility, with three other religious institutions in the area, hosts homeless families for a duration until appropriate housing can be found. Multiple charitable events over the year are also held and generally are successful in raising significant funds.

We have included here screenshots of the facility's web presence and monthly newsletter. And, notice the name! Germantown uses the British spelling for center so offically we are about to enter the Germantown Jewish Centre.

This morning we are in for an unpleasant surprise. The Marcus auditorium has not been cleared of chairs and tables as you can see in these pictures. Remember, we told you that it had been pretty cold in the last few weeks at the time these pictures were taken. A water leak had developed over the preceding night and the administration had moved the dance session to another location within the building. We were very disappointed because we do feel the auditorium gives a better impression through pictures of the dance session. By this point Grant, the leader of the session, had also arrived. And, he told us that the session would be moved for the day to the Temin canteen, the alternate location within the building for the Sunday morning dance session.

The Temin canteen, in the education wing of the building, is a much smaller venue for dancing, possibly having a quarter of the usable space of the Marcus auditorium. One of its functions is to hold the religious meetings of one of the three congregations that are housed in the building. Another function, given the kitchen that abuts the canteen, is for handling the food requirements of the homeless families mentioned above. And, sometimes on Sunday, it holds the Israeli dance class. These pictures do a 270 around the room and the rightmost picture is of the canteen's kitchen facilities.

While we are taking pictures, Grant is assembling his equipment for the upcoming session. Here we see him as he has finished the assemblage. Grant, of course, is on the left inspecting the table he uses during the session. We see his equipment: an Ipod that holds the music and an amplifier to increase the loudness when the ipod is played. And, the amplifier better do this as the Ipod itself does not have the capacity for amplification expecting the user to hear the music through earphones. As ipods began to be used in sessions like this, an industry was created with many companies creating amplifiers such as shown here which utilizes the special USB port of the ipod to feed this external unit. We believe the amplifier shown here with Grant is from Apple but other companies, like Bose, offer similar equipment as shown to the right. (This is the Bose equivalent of what Grant has. Similar to Grant's there is a port at the base where the ipod connects.) Notice in back of Grant is a easel with a white surface where Grant will note the music played throughout the session and where dancers can make requests.

And speaking of Grant, he was one of the dancers singled out by this web site to concentrate on. Obviously, any leader of a dance session has a prominence but its not just that we are looking at. For your information Grant has lived in Israel and thus has a command of Hebrew which is useful when looking at various dance videos. He graduated from Cornell in 1993 and received an additional degree in 2002 through the SUNY system of New York state (Binghampton campus). One assumes that Grant moved to the Philadelphia area right after graduation in 2002 and since that time has worked as an elementary school teacher for the School district of Philadelphia.

He has been the leader of the Germantown dance session since 2003 and under his leadership (and Tamar deserves credit for this also) attendance has tripled on the average. In addition, Grant brought the Cornell repertoire with him and this included tapes that were used at Cornell for the Israeli dance activities administered through that college's Hillel. It was these tapes that started the disk coordinator series of disks and the disk documentation for these CDs created a need for a website to hold this. Now you know who's ultimately to blame for this web site's creation and where to send those comments.

The leftmost picture of this montage is very poignant to anyone who ever dealt with the individual whose back we catch talking to Grant. One of the early arrivals every Sunday morning for the dance session, as happened this day, was Howard Field. Howard was a retired psychiatrist who practiced in the Philadelphia area for many years. Among his many interests besides Israeli dancing was English dancing (he was also a regular at the Wednesday night English dance session in Bala Cynwyd) as well as an avid gardener. In addition, based on the Tshits and sweat shirts he would wear on Sunday mornings, he was an involved Grandfather interested in his Grandchildren's activities. These pictures were taken on Feb 7th, 2015. In three weeks time an annual rite of spring occurs in Philadelphia - the Philadelphia flower show. Howard would go every year and on his visit this year he suffered a fatal heart seizure.

Many of the dance communities in the region were affected by Howard's death including the Israeli dance community. But, Howard and his wife, Maxine, also contributed to many charities and events as indicated in the other pictures of this montage. (we have outlined their name with a red rectangle). Their's was a special marriage between two very special people.

As far as we know these are the last pictures of Howard enjoying his passion for dancing. All the dancers miss him and certainly none of them expected the events of that month's end, although to be fair Howard was 86 at the time of his passing.

Perhaps because of his training he always had both a kind and uplifting word for those he met and that extended to those on the dance floor. While physically of age, Howard's mind always seemed young as it was sharp and inquirying. He is already missed in the many activities he pursued. This montage honors Howard as we think he would like to be remembered: dancing at the GJC on a Sunday morning.

The session is about to start. Dancers, including Howard, are trickling in. Generally on Sunday mornings, Grant will start with some very easy dances for the first half hour, graduating to slightly harder dances starting at 10:30. About 10:45 or so we should see the dance that Grant will teach for that session. Around 11, Tamar will proceed with announcements and by 11:30 (and especially after 12PM) the dances will get harder. Grant has an idea of what he will do for the first few dances so we see him jotting these down using a magic marker on the easel. In addition, he has readied the table with an envelope for money (the session charges $5), a book for attendance and light refreshments, some of which have been placed there by the Centre's maintenance staff. We should also add that Israeli dancing is a social event and you can see the early dancers chatting up each other with the news of the day and week.

Our session is now underway. This Israeli dance session only features circle dancing and you can see the outline of the circle here in this montage. Other sessions feature Israeli lines and Israeli partners but it has been many years since this session partook of these other genres of Israeli dance. Years ago this web site was naive enough to think that it could determine which dance was in progress by a set of still photos. Reality set in many years ago about how difficult that is. But we have a cheat sheet: a written list of the dances played in order and so, with assurance based on that list, you are seeing either Hora Chadura, Salaam Yaakov or Ma Nuvu (or perhaps all) being performed. Notice that Grant is generally in the middle of the circle (although in this montage you see him only in the last picture) providing example, lead and support.

One of the plans for this web script is to highlight several of the dancers so that you can learn a little bit about them. Nothing too personal. We already have given you some information about Grant and Howard above. Let's discuss Susan (gray blouse). She is a regular dancer here and on Monday nights at the Beth Sholom class. Susan has been mentioned before on this web site especially in our exposure script where people get their first exposure to Israeli dance. Susan was an elementary school teacher - having studied at Boston University and then majored in Education for her masters from Temple - and, as elementary school teachers will do, is geared to helping people whether this involves writing English, handling math or mastering Israeli dance. Here are some picture where we think the third option applies.

Anyway, its approximately 10:53Am and Grant readies himself for his teach. The dance selected is Hayeled Sheli (translated as My Boy in Hebrew), choreographied by Eli Segal. We queried Grant as to how this dance was selected and his response was that it seemed appropriate for the group and was recommended by Jani Rosen, pictured here. Jani is a familiar Israeli dancer to the worldwide Israeli dance community given her travels and visits to sessions world wide. She lives in this area with her husband Rick and when they are home they frequent most of the local Israeli dance venues. However, lucky for her given the severity of the winter, Jani has spent the last few months in Florida. Apparently Jani saw this dance at a session in Florida and Emailed Grant this news with the opinion that this dance would fit well with his session. Ed Note: These Pictures of Jani were taken at a different time at Germantown

Before Grant can teach this dance, before a choreographer can set steps to a popular recorded tune, before a singer can sing lyrics and before a lyricist can write those lyrics, someone has to create the underlying music. For want of a better word, this is the composer. In the case of Hayeled Sheli, this becomes somewhat complicated given the background to this song. There is a popular Arab singer, Amr Diab, who recorded the song Qusad Einy, translated as "In Front Of My Eyes" in the early years of the 21st century. You can access this by clicking here. The music was composed by Amr Moustafa and the arabic lyrics were created by Khaled Tag al-Din. This is the origin of the music of the dance that Grant is about to teach. You can see the translation of the words in this arabic version by clicking here.

In other cases Diab's recordings has been translated to Hebrew and sung by Israeli singers. Such is the case of the Diab recording Tamally Mark transformed into the Israeli partner's dance of Ata BeLibi. Similarly, another Israeli dance, Ahuv Sheli, begins as Diab's Habibi ya nour El Ain. Diab is a singing sensation in Egypt being a pop star since the early 1980's and his career has apparently seen him earn seven world music awards (or at least as reported by Wikipedia where the leftmost picture originates). Not surprisingly, given his popularity in Egypt, Diab is also popular throughout the Arab speaking world as the rightmost picture indicates (the rightmost picture was taken during a concert in Abu Dhabi). But, in addition, his music has crossed borders and affected Israelis and Israeli dancing.

As this music makes an impression in neighboring Israel it is decided that there is a need for Hebrew lyrics. Yossi Ben David, who also composes music, creates the Hebrew lyrics. The name of the song is changed to the Hebrew equivalent of "My Boy" and the emphasis of the meaning of the lyrics is radically changed. Ohad Oteri is a younger singer, pictured here with his latest album cover, who releases his first album "Leshnois Sidrei Olam" where we believe Hayeled Sheli is one of the tracks. Note:The Hebrew lyrics created by Yossi Ben David can be found by clicking here. At this point we have not found a suitable English translation of these Hebrew lyrics to link to.

Israeli dancers know the names of several famous choreographers such as Gadi Bitton, Rafi Ziz and Moshe Eskayo. These choreographers can probably make a substantial living on the workshop circuit and in running classes. But there is a set of choreographers, perhaps most, who have to supplement any dance activity earnings with other sources of income. One such choreographer is Eli Segal whose day job is being a DJ in Israel. You can access his web page by clicking here (although it's in Hebrew only) and see the pictures indicated here where he DJed a wedding (Eli is in the middle of the first picture doing his thing). But, when not doing his part in finalizing marriages, he is an accomplished choreographer in what we know as Israeli dance.

And, after all of this history to this dance, we now resume our narrative as Grant teaches Hayeled Sheli. Notice how intent Grant's students are on this Sunday morning. The dancers are required to pick up the dance sequence and the arm movements. While still prictures do not allow a viewer to see the nuance of the steps, we feel that you, the viewer, should really feel the effect of the arm movements in these pictures. Since the Israeli dance version pertains to "My Boy", one should be able to interpret these "cradling" movements. The last picture in this montage catches Grant getting ready to play the music. Now comes the major test for those attending the session.

And our dancers respond! For some, it is the second time they are seeing the dance (as mentioned previously, Grant had taught this dance the week before) but for many this is their debut in performing this dance. Notice how the dancers follow Grant through the movements which is not surprising. As the dance becomes part of the session repertoire, most will have memorized the dance steps and will be able to perform with or without Grant's presence. If you are interested in this dance, we reproduce the steps at the bottom of this script.

The teaching and pactice of Haleyed Sheli takes about 20 minutes. There is the initial presentation by Grant and then two run throughs of the dance. Later in the session there will be a third try for the dancers. It's about 11:15AM and time for announcements. This generally falls to Tamar who is the administrative leader of the session. We should add that the Germantown model, which has to some extent been copied by the present Beth Sholom session, has the dance floor (either the Marcus auditorium or the Temin canteen) provided for free and a small budget is allocated to the group and controlled by Tamar. In addition, each dancer pays $5 each for the session when attending augmenting this budget. Tamar acts as the liasson between the session and the facility. We mention this because Tamar's annoucements will include both the upcoming schedule for the Sunday morning session and upcoming events of the Centre. And, as mentioned before, this is a very active facility so it's rare that nothing special is happening as far as the facility is concerned.

Tamar will start a roll call that goes around the circle as everyone introduces themselves. Additional events and happenings are sometimes added by the session participants. On this morning, as an example, and appropriate to this script, is an announcement by one of the dancers (something we will cover later in this script), pertaining to a folk singer's efforts to produce a new album of music. So, this and other tidbits of information is passed on to the group as everyone introduces themselves (including our representative)

The dancing is about ready to restart after the announcements but we'd like to mention two other participants in that Sunday's dance session. Visitors to this web site will recognize Wendy and John in these pictures. Both are regulars at the Monday and Thursday night Israeli dance sessions when scheduling makes this possible. Wendy has been a subject (and in one case the only subject) in various scripts on this web site as has John. Below in the next montage we will see them slowly take their normal Sunday morning positions.

So, It's back to dance. Israeli dancers love to dance and they exhibit this at every opportunity and at any location where there is the appropriate dance music. Grant is very lucky that there are several dancers who will help him demonstrate the dances by joining him in the circle effectively creating an inner circle. So as these pictures progress left to right, you will see the Wendy and John move into the center as is the norm. Determined by the dance music, others may also move into the center to help demonstrate the dances as they deem appropriate.

One such dancer (sometimes in the middle) is highlighted in this montage. This is Yael Golton. Besides being a regular at this session, Yael regularly attends the Thursday night session run by Don Schillinger. Apparently Yael gets her ability to dance genetically although not in the normal pattern we would anticipate. Can we call it kind of in reverse? Yarl's daughter Esther is talented artistically. She is an up and coming, successful folk singer and is the folk singer mentioned previously in this script who had released a new album.

Before we talk a bit about Esther's career, we should mention the man most responsible for popularizing folk singing in the Philadlephia area, Gene Shay. Since the early '60's, first on WHAT and for the last few years on WXPN (the radio station of the University Of Pennsylvania) Shay has been a radio host of a show featuring this art form (although he ended his broadcasting career in Feb, 2015). In addition he has been the force, having cofounded it, behind the Philadelphia Folk Festival held yearly near Schwenksville, Pa. This festival of folk singing has inspired multiple artists (and fledging artists) over the years which probably includes the aforementioned Esther. Note: These shots of Shay were taken from the Philadelphia Inquirer internet site as they interviewed Shay on his retirement from active broadcasting.

Esther Golton grows up in the Philadelphia area listening to the aforementioned WXPN (and other Philadelphia stations) offering "alternate" music genres including folk singing. Esther studies various forms of music at Penn State University and while there apparently starts to perform as the first picture in this montage would seem to indicate. In 1997 she moves to Alaska, a state whose entire population is half of Philadelphia's (and 7% of Pennsylvania's in a land mass 13 times the keystone state). As she establishes herself in Alaska, Esther becomes a music performer, first being a background performer and then as a folk singer singing her own songs. You can see Esther's biography by clicking here.

Esther released her latest album Stay Warm in 2013. Just before embarking on a promotional concert tour, she was stalled by a rare autoimmune illness. Fortunately Esther recovered completely, and has once again focused on the publication, advertising and sale of her CDs and you can buy them off her web site (or possibly even through her mother). Yael has been kind enough to provide this web site with one of Esther previous CDs and, with Esther's permission, you can click here to listen to a selection, Sugar, from Esther's 2007 CD, Unfinished Houses. Esther's web site is www.esthergolton.com and click the store tab if you are interested in purchasing any music while on her site.

As we return to the Germantown dance session, it's about 11:30 and the music (and dancing) is becoming harder and, in most cases, faster. One will start to see dancers leaving: some have afternoon engagements while others lack the expertise to deal with these harder dance choreographies. Knowledge of Israeli dance correlates to the amount of time spent dealing with these dances. Since they are already choreographed, the dancer is required to remember the type and order of the steps as the selection of music progresses. In essence, the dancer needs to develop what athletes call muscle memory.

As opposed to the Marcus auditorium, the Temin fills up pretty fast. The pictures above show a very crowded dance floor. How many dancers do you think made it that morning? We're pretty sure there is one individual who could tell us exactly how many dancers there were. So we asked him. His answer: more than 24 dancers had appeared that morning because at the height of attendance 24 dancers were on the dance floor simultaneously. These number counts come from the next dancer we are spotlighting, Marc Rauer. We are told it is not unusual to see Marc counting the number of participants at many dance venues including Germantown.

Marc has on many occasions taken pictures for this site. He, apparently, is the instigator of the Homage to Scorpios events which are documented somewhere on this web site and the last picture here, found on a search of the internet, may give you a hint as to who is the anonymous source of articles pertaining to a specific author and fictional hero that also have occasionally appeared on this web site.

These pictures are taken about 12PM. The session has been running since 10AM so we are at the two hour mark. Half an hour to go. The crowd has shrunk and perhaps ten to twelve dancers remain. This allowed our photographer on concentrate on some smaller groups. These dancers are for the most part the more advanced and the music and selection of dances reflect this. And, to be fair, Grant tells everyone that the period between 12 and 12:30 will feature a more advanced repertoire.

However, we still have one dancer to highlight and you can see her in two of these pictures in a pinkish blouse.

This is Deborah Kaplan. Now, what we know of Deborah makes her appearance here a surprise. Not by attendance but by appearance. Normally Deborah wears variations of purple, her favorite color. Where's the purple here? Nevertheless, it's always nice to see Deborah as no one has a more good natured view of things than she. Deborah used to dance more and at one time was a regular at Don's Thuresday night sessions. But in recent years it seems as if Germantown has become the basis, perhaps focus, of her Israeli dance activities.

Other weekly activities center around her artistic ability, honed from the time she went to Temple and the Philadelphia College Of Art, and this includes her classes in caligraphy that she teaches for the Main Line night school association that uses various schools in Lower and Upper Merion to provide additional educational opportunities to those communities.

Deborah also has her own business centered around aspects of caligraphy. Of special interest is the ketubot, the traditional Jewish marriage contract, an example of which is far left in this montage. Deborah brings her own special skills and creativity (and love of people and their personalities) in putting to words and art the collective hopes of a couple. Deborah is also available to create the lettering of the envelops announcing the union, and once the marriage is successful, Deborah is available to document the family tree. You can see more of Deborah's art work on her website at www.deborahkaplancalligraphy.com

It's 12:30 or thereabouts. Time has flown by! This happens when dancing with a friendly group and when you are enjoying youself. Grant is playing 'Overet Orach' which over recent months he has been using to close out these sessions. You are already aware that dancing has been going on for two and a half hours, one newish dance has been taught and 36 pieces of music have been selected this morning including Hayeled Sheli played three times during the session. At the height there were 24 dancers simultaneously on the dance floor but others had gone (or were to come) by that time. We'd like to thank all those who participated in this analysis of the class. This web site hopes that you, the reader, have been entertained as we have documented the morning dancing of Feb 7th. Below are some links to videos of the dancing of Hayeled Sheli and two other videos featuring the Germantown dancers.

Steps To Hayeled Sheli

Part 1 Done twice. Starts counterclockwise

Left forward cha cha

Right forward cha cha

left cha cha going forward on your left,hold in place on your right, back on left

Right cha cha going backward on your right, hold in place with your left, forward on your right

Moving right, cross left over right, then do a yemenite right

Moving left, cross right over left, then do a yemenite left

Part 2 Done twice Again counterclockwise

Rona with additional 2 crosses left over right, left over right

part 3 Done once apiece with different starting foot (we start with right)

Right yemenite

Left Yemenite

two steps such that your right shoulder faces in. This takes two beats

Hesitation for two beats

270 degree circle using 4 steps over right shoulder (right shoulder going back). You are now facing to the outside of the circle

Shuffle left 3 steps

Shuffle right 3 steps

180 degree turn in 3 steps around left shoulder (left shoulder back)

180 degree reverse direction turn.

Facing out of circle, repeat process starting with left yemenite

Part 4 done twice start facing into the circle and then counterclockwise

right 3 step pivot so that you are now moving counterclockwise

left cha cha

Right cross, left cross

You can also find the steps on the internet by clicking here.

This website has obtained two videos of the Germantown session doing two complete dances which are presented below. We are told that you are seeing only those dancers who agreed beforehand to be filmed. These videos are being loaded from this website's server without the use of streaming video techniques. This means that you will have to wait until the entire video is loaded before you can manipulate it.

To the left, the dancers do Pitom Kam Adam. Originally, Cherry Hill was the only session to do this but within the last few years the situation has changed and it is the Germantown session that does this dance with the most frequency

To the right is Toda La'el. Germantown is the only session in the Philadelphia region that does this dance on a regular basis

Steps To Hayeled Sheli

Part 1 Done twice. Starts counterclockwise

Part 2 Done twice Again counterclockwise

part 3 Done once apiece with different starting foot (we start with right)

Part 4 done twice start facing into the circle and then counterclockwise

Our editors have found several videos of this dance on Youtube: Click to watch