This script is really a tale of two choreographers. In April'18 the Israeli dance community was involved with the dance, Israeli Sheli, created for the Israel 70 celebrations. Note: Israel 70 is the generic used for the world wide celebrations pertaining to the 70th anniversary of Israel's independence. The dance was choreographed by Gadi Bitton who put out a world wide request for videos of groups performing this dance. You can see the results of these performances (at least in the case of the Philadelphia regional Israeli dance community) in our script, Israeli Sheli.
Much of the practice and performance of Israeli Sheli occurred in the beginning of April'18. Few knew that another famous choreographer would dominate the regional Israeli dance scene later in the month. Until April 16th, those who had an interest in travelling knew that Dudu Barzilay was scheduled to be one of the leaders at the Boston workshop, Yad Beyad Boston, which takes place yearly at the end of April (for 2018 this would be April 27 through 29). This montage shows some web related material about this workshop.
Talma Solar is the administrative leader of the Beth Sholom Israeli dance class generally meeting on Monday nights. At first Talma's weekly Emails pertaining to the future doings at Beth Sholom only talked about a special guest on April 30th. At the Beth Sholom session of April 16th, inside of two weeks of the Boston event, the announcement that Dudu Barzilay would be the special guest at the April 30th session lit up the dancers who were present that night. This was followed up a few days later in Talma's next Email as indicated here at the right.
Certainly anyone heavily into Israeli dance knows of Dudu. Even most novice dancers are familiar with his work since he has been choreographing since 1993, some 25 years as of this writing. In that time Aura's database credits him with 131 entries (this montage shows Aura's listing of his latest dances at the time of this script being written).
It's probable that Dudu gets his dance capabilities genetically. His father, Mishael Barzilay, was a very well known and respected Israeli dance teacher. In his prime he also dabbled in choreography as the already mentioned Aura database lists 5 credits for choreography which we have duplicated in this montage. At another website Zooz, one we have profiled previously in this website, Richelle Arber writes fondly of a workshop in Sao Paulo, Brazil where Mishael was a guest teacher. We've shown only a portion of that script: to see the entirety click here.
Sharon Polsky, who at present leads the Cherry Hill session, well remembers Mishael also. She attended many workshops during the 80's and 90's featuring Mishael as one of the teachers and remembers fondly what might be his teaching catch phrase "Watch Me, Please" when showing a specific set of steps in a dance. While Dudu looks like a student of ballet: lean, straight as an arrow, head in the direction of dance, could we say lithesome, Mishael had the dance pose of a folk dancer as you can see in this video on you tube starting at 1.10.
While it can't hurt to have your father precede you in a profession - and Mishael would have set a high level for attainment - since 1993 Dudu has also been a leading world-wide choreographer and teacher. Just from what we can find for 2018, Dud will have been at the annual Harkana Israeli dance festivities in Paris, the aforementioned Yad Beyad Boston in late April, Machol Czechia scheduled for mid July, the scheduled end of summer Machol Hungaria in Szarvas, Hungary and the scheduled fall'18 October 5-7 Lerikud Baltica in Latvia.
This is in addition to his participation as leader of three Israeli dance sessions in Israel: a weekly Sunday session in Tel Aviv, a weekly Monday night session in Ramat Gan and a monthly session on Saturdays also in Ramat Gan.
Of course, being the guest teacher at seminars around the world , not to mention a leader of sessions in Israel, is not why Dudu is known around the world. It is his choreographic ability that puts him into demand. Almost every Israeli dancer has a Dudu favorite. For this website it is Meohav Ad Hashamayim which starts as the music of an arabic folk dance (although we have no other information). Lyrics, in Hebrew, are created by Arlet Sfadia and sung by Yoav Itzchak. Youtube has the vocal featuring Itzchak at this link which was put up in 2009. Just like most Israeli dance music, this song has been cut to produce the version we dance to. The song is included in Itzchak's album So Glad You Came introduced in 2008.
Sometime in 2009, Dudu begins to set steps to this music. The result, at least to this web site, is an all-time favorite dance with interesting yet straight forward steps to an interesting piece of music. You can see this yourself as we replicate a youtube video (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWSqFVC7AxM). When watching this video, note Dudu's body positioning. Head up, body straight and the head turns reminescent of a ballet dancer.
Of course Dudu's choreography has evolved over the years. At first partial to faster, more middle eastern music, his early dances reflected the music in his sequencing of steps. But in recent years Dudu has also delved into slower, more melodious musical pieces. And, that brings us to a favorite of one of this website's frequent contributors. At Germantown, through the request of Wendy Friedman, the session has put Sodot (secrets) into its repertoire. Sodot was choreographed in 2013. Again, we have replicated the youtube video of Dudu performing his own dance (which you can access at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IyADhnwEGo). Notice how different the music is from the piece shown above (although the body positioning remains comparable). Sodot continues to be a favorite of Wendy throughout the years.
As we return to the present, we would be amiss if we did not indicate that for the last few years Beth Sholom has featured Israeli dance choreographers and teachers on a kind of regular basis so this invitation to Dudu (and his agreement to attend) was not all that surprising but well received as you will see. Several years previously the well known Italian teacher of both Italian and Israeli dance, Roberto Bagnoli, gave a workshop at Beth Sholom - as seen here - on one of his United States tours.
A year later it was Sagi Azran's turn. In one weekend Sagi did a workshop at Beth Sholom on a Saturday night with the next day appearance at a weekend workshop of Don's class at Adath Israel.
Earlier this year, Moshe Eskayo stopped by. The extent of his appearance was a serenade to him involving several of his dances by the dancers who were present at the time. These pictures are stills taken from several videos taken at the time.
Anyway, that brings us to the evening of April 30th, 2018 and Dudu's appearance. For those readers not familiar with this Israeli dance session, it began 5 years before under the auspice of several volunteers. In the intervening years, as several volunteers drifted off, a pair of local Israeli dance participants (mentioned below) have taken over and made this a very vibrant session. It's not unusual to have 70 or more participants at its Monday night sessions and during many weeks this session is the largest in the Philadelphia region. These photos were taken the night of April 30 somewhat early on but you can already see that Dudu's appearance was well attended.
Credit goes to Talma Solar and Marek Milbar (and a variety of DJs) for the success of this session. These pictures, which include Talma and Marek dancing at this and other sessions, try to capture the two participating in the April 30th session. Also included here we have Talma handling the food prior to the session starting (and the result which the dancers sample as the session moves along). What's not included here, something Marek shares with several other dancers, is Marek moving to the center of the circle and teaching a dance.
The session nominally starts at 7:30. However, most Mondays will see dancers arriving about 7:15 and dancing may start before the 7:30 start time. These photos were taken a bit earlier than 7:30 this night as Dudu and others surround Rob and his computer. Among those photographed here is Marek and Eitan Aloushe, discussed below, who was up from Miami and attended this session.
Our cameraman now turned around and recorded several of the dancers as they entered the facility. To the left, sitting in the middle of the table, is Sharon Schanzer who is the author/lecturer of the occasional after session seminars at Germantown's Sunday morning session. The middle picture is of Wendy who has been a featured dancer in several of this web site's scripts. At right we see Steve (behind an unidentified woman) entering the auditorium which allows us to indicate that as of Jun 3, 2018, Steve will be hosting an addition to the Beth Sholom session: a Sunday night session alternately featuring International and Ballroom dance.
It's still early in the session. Our photographer seems to have been busy taking portraits of some of his favorite dancers. Left we see Jody, the aforementioned Steve and Boel and to the right is Lee. Jody had just thrown a party at Don's Thursday night session to celebrate her 60th birthday - you can click here to see a preliminary script on this. Boel is the leader of the Friday night Princeton International dance session which Steve also attends. Lee has been the subject of a script on this website dealing with her frequent travelling to dance sessions around the world.
At first, Dudu danced with the circle to some easy beginner Israeli dances. Here we see him between Jody and Ozzie. Eventually, the song selection started to center on Dudu choreographed Israeli dances. There were plenty to choose from because as already mentioned,at the time of this session, there were 131 such dances.
As to Dudu's contribution to the Delaware Valley's session's repertoires, we asked one of our editors to analyze these 131 selections and tell us what Dudu choreographies sound familiar to him. His list of dances (please excuse the spelling): (1)Chayav Lamut Alay,(2)Debka Hilit,(3)Debka Inbar,(4)El Haor,(5)Enatzel,(6)Hatmunot Shebaalbum,(7) Lecha Karati, (8)Ma Kore Itach, (9)Maoryan, (10) Meohav Ad Hashamayim, (11) Mi Yohav Otach Kamoni, (12)Neimat Kaveret, (13)Piton Kam Adam, (14)Rak Beyachad Nenatzeach, (15)Shar, (16)Shmuot, (17)Shomreni El. (18)Sodot, (19)Tishmeru Al Atzmechem, and (20) Yachad. We also asked several session leaders about the number of Dudu choreographies that are a part of their repertoire. Talma thinks that Beth Sholom plays 10 to 20 Dudu dances on a regular basis. Grant, who is the leader of the Germantown session, recalls five or so dances dances being regularly played. As to this web site, we covered Dudu when he was one of the guest choreographer at the Toronto Is Real Israeli dance festival of 2011 where these pictures were taken of one then local dancer having a lighthearted moment with the choreographer.
Our photographer also took a few videos. One is of interest where Dudu joined the dancers in the Israeli dance Mishpachat Tzanani choreographed by Victor Gabbay some 20 years ago. For some of the dancers, especially Wendy immediately to Dudu's left, this might have been a dance to remember. (Note: for some browsers you may need to move your cursor over the picture to access the video controls)
After a while, it was time for Dudu to teach. For the session he taught 3 of his own choreographed dances: Linshom Ktzat, Tamid Elecha and Tni Li Ktzat Mimech, the first two being circle (and choreographed in 2017)and the last being a partner (choreographed in 2018). Apparently Tni Li Ktzat Mimech was the only one of these three that Dudu also taught at Yad Beyad Boston although Dudu had taught Linshom Ktzat at a workshop in 2017. These pictures show the dancers as they await Dudu's instruction. Note: Dancers in general are respectful of instructors, but, from what this website understands, there was an added intensity in the crowd as it awaited Dudu's presence in the circle.
And speaking of taking the center of the circle, these pictures document Dudu's first moments teaching his first dance, the aforementioned Linshom Ktzat, as Dudu is surrounded by dancers. What do most of the dancers remember of this? We asked a few! Most responded that Dudu seemed to be a good instructor, something we expected to hear. But what you most heard was Dudu's posture, straightness and poise. Many said that he exuded what seemed like ballet training. Perhaps this was a stable of Dudu's early training in dance?
Through the process of enlargement and croping, we are able to hone onto Dudu's top torso and head in this montage. Not to mention his speed in transversing the floor. We think this also shows the excellent posture the dancers talked about in the prior montage.
After the instruction, it's the dancers' turn. These pictures show the circle attempting this dance for the first time (for most of the dancers). There are generally three genres of Israeli dancing: partners, circle and line. This was a circle dance and, as you can see, the dancers are moving generally in a counter clockwise direction although aspects of most circle dances have changes of direction.
These pictures are from another camera taken after the first teach. If you study this, you should see Dudu dancing at the right of the circle (Click the picture to enlarge it and it will be easier to see him - although not obvious)
There would be two other teaches by Dudu. Another circle and the lone partner dance. The partner dance would later that week also appear at Don's Thursday night session as Don taught the dance. In the weeks since it has become part of Don's repertoire. The photographs here were taken between the first and last circle dance taught as Dudu joined the other dancers in several circle dances.
Our photographer took many shots of the dancing where Dudu did not appear. To make this an official Diskcoordinator script, we present these for our viewers gratification
Before we end this script, there are several dancers that we should highlight - perhaps highlight again. This montage features Lee Friedman. It's not surprising that Lee was at this workshop given that it seems that Lee attends every workshop almost anywhere in the world. We've documented Lee's travel in another script that is on this website, but here we see Lee holding high flyers promoting other workshops, in this country and abroad
And, here in this montage, is the flyers Lee has been promoting at local dance events for the last few weeks (at the time of this writing). The first flyer features a trip through the Balkans. Assume plenty of dancing on this trip as the Balkans - Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, etc - is the center of International dance. The second flyer publicizes a trip through Spain. This one is of particilar interest to Lee as she is a co-host of the tour. You can see more information on these and other trips presented by Jim Gold International tours at their website accessible at jimgold.com.
This is Ayala! Ayala says that her relatives in Israel don't believe that she has taken up Israeli dancing here in the Philadelphia region. Well, this website can verify her claim. In fact, this may have been the first special workshop she will have attended in her exposure to dancing in this region or elsewhere.
From left to right we have Jody, Steve and Boel as shown before. A bit more information this time! Let's start with Jody. As mentioned above Jody was nice enough to allow the entire regional Israeli dance community help celebrate her 60th birthday. She had the March 8th, 2018 Thursday night session catered and she also provided free admittance that night to everyone. We know that her example has gotten others thinking along those lines for significant birthdays of their own. You can see a preliminary script of this party by clicking here. Hopefully before too long we will have a permanent script created for Jody's event. Next in line is Steve. Thanks to his efforts the dancing at Beth Sholom is being extended to Sunday nights. Steve will be organizing this new session to alternate between International and Ballroom dancing and this starts on June 3rd, 2018. It is already being indicated on this website's scheduling grid. We will discuss Boel below
Boel leads the Princeton International dancers, who meet each Friday at the Suzanne Patterson Center, 1 Monument Drive, in Princeton, in her roll of President of the Princeton Friday Night Folk Dancing organization. This montage includes a flyer about this dance session (again, click on it to read it in its entirety). This website hopes to include Boel's group in our scheduling grid as of fall'18
And, although he was not introduced, another choreographer was in attendance this night. Eitan Aloushe had run several Philadelphia based workshops between 2005 and 2008 while living in Philadelphia and delving into dance choreography. In fact, one of his partner dances, Esh, was played often at that time during the now defunct Sunday night Israeli dance session in northeast Philadelphia. Eitan is now based in Miami. We are not sure if Eitan had attended the Boston workshop and was attending Beth Sholom in transit home or whether his attendance was specific to Dudu's visit. Whichever, it was nice seeing a once familiar face in the crowd and one that introduced several newly minted local Israeli dancers into the world of Israeli dance workshops. (see below)
For several years, while Eitan was local to the Philadelphia area, he organized and ran several summer workshops as this flyer from 2007, somewhat worse for wear before it was scanned, indicates. For 2007 the choreographers were Avi Levy and Naftaly Kadosh and the picture rightmost indicates the dances taught at the workshop that year . Dudu was supposedly another guest choreographer during a MiniPhilly workshop of a previous year.