In the Valley Forge area, there seems to be two spots that abet and enable would be Israeli dancers. Below you will see that one of these spots is the pool at LA Fitness, nee Bally's. Another spot, one which involves our first Israeli dance newby, is the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble. This B&N has attained almost mythical status within the Valley Forge area, not to mention within Barnes and Noble's composite of stores. Of course, the ambiance of the store extends the effect with the cafe dominated by a large picture of the writers who frequented the round table of the Algonquin Hotel (pictured on the left) in the 1920s. Pictured here also is the cafe and patrons on a recent Saturday morning.
But this web site alludes to facts both strange, wondrous and eerie. Several years ago one of the Valley Forge B&N patrons led the country in the use of the Barnes and Noble discount card for a six month period. He beat IBM and the like in the amount of sales from Oct'12 through March '13. Hard to believe a local shopper could do this, but this is what happens in this magical store.
Several of the regulars have tried Israeli dancing and while they don't pursue this on a regular basis, they do have fond memories of their experiences. In fact, several of them are the stars of this script as you will see below. Perhaps it was through them or perhaps it was through some other influence but this web site became aware of another regular's attempt at Israeli dancing, this time on Jan 11,2015 at the Sunday morning Germantown Israeli dance. This regular has a position on the other side of the register at the Cafe as she is an B&N cafe employee. Below we show some peekaboo shots of Dawn Watts as she tends to customers. Dawn is one of the Baristas at the cafe and if you peer at the register, you will just about see her.
On the big day, Dawn used the Septa rail network to arrive at the Allen's Lane Railroad station near the Germantown Jewish Centre. Walking down a few blocks, Dawn made her way to the GJC and up into the Marcus Auditorium. Below are some photos of Dawn as she started to dance. Keep in mind that Grant, the session leader, plays relatively easy dances for the first half of the session and you really do not have to be an expert to participate.
Of course after a while the dances do get a bit harder. Luckily the session has enough dancers who will take the effort to help beginner dancers through the p[aces. Dawn hooked up with Susan who regularly dances at both the Sunday morning session and the Monday night Beth Sholom session. Susan was a teacher (and still substitutes so we are told) in the Philadelphia school system and this training shows on many Sunday mornings as she'll take a beginner dancer under her wing. Below, we see her helping Dawn with the harder dances later in the program.
We talked with Dawn as the session ended and she expressed a desire to try this again. As of yet, she has not made it a second time to the class but we hope that she will. The second time might lead to a third and so forth. The web site always warns that Israeli dancing can be habit forming.
As you will see, the pool at the Bally's (now really LA Fitness) in King Of Prussia has become a hot bed of exposure to the local sessions of Israeli dancing. At the pool on Friday mornings you may find Tom Hough (Tried the Voorhees session in 2004) and LaVera Seymour (Cherry Hill in 2011) who have tried Israeli dance. LaVera's experience is described below in this script. A third pool visitor, Laura Mack, recently tried Israeli dancing and this is her tale.
Laura's parents have a unique farm in the Valley Forge area and perhaps someday we will present you, the viewer, with some pictures. But, apparently, when younger Laura lived in the center city Phila. area. In looking for a residence, Laura happened upon a house just bought by someone relocating from the Phoenix area who had just gotten a job in IT with the University Of Penna. In the end, several others, including Laura, rented bedrooms in the house for a few years.
The owner introduced Laura to several forms of dancing including Country and Western line dancing at the KP Corral in the King Of Prussia mall. While Laura didn't pursue dancing, we feel pretty confident in relating that the owner began to concentrate on dancing to the point of giving up his career in IT at U of P.
Laura lost touch with all the residents of that house. However a chance discussion with several people at the pool brought up these memories and this web site was contacted. Below, we show you below the reunion between owner and renter at the Nov 21st session of Israeli dancing at Adath Israel.
We think you should be able to pick out Laura from the above pictures. Recognize anyone else? Regular visitors (if such exist) of this web site will recognize none other than Don Schillinger. Don was the owner of the house that Laura shared. This web site was asked to effect the reunion which was a surpprise to Don.
After catching up on each of their lives, Laura joined the session. Below are a set of pictures taken while she was there. THis web site wants to thank Warren for his help in showing Laura the steps to some dances. Warren does this quite often with novice dancers and his efforts are greatly appreciated.
In the end Laura joined the circle on her account to try these dances. Similar to Country and Western dancing, each dance confronts the participant with a new set of steps. So, the pictures below show Laura trying to master this and then discussing this with other session members. Apparently, she had fun with this given that she and her nephew attended Don's Thankgiving day marathon the next week.
From left to right in the leftmost picture is Nancy Bostock, John Burns, Marc Rauer, John Hopkins and Sean Davis. In the picture to the right is Nancy Bostock, Carol Clapper, Harold Clapper and John Hopkins. These pictures are of a group of people who often meet at the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble on late afternoons. The first picture was taken at that site when several of the participants met there recently. The second picture was taken at a surprise birthday party for Nancy thrown by Carol. This group often swaps information about their activities and, as this is written, recent subjects have included Ham Radio operations, the ingredients to Carol's special Apple Pie and the benefits of the Valley Forge LA Fitness club(until recently the Valley Forge Bally's total fitness) where some of these B & N participants also belong. It is not unusual, so we are told, for this group to cross-pollinate ideas and activities. In fact, the group has its own web page pertaining to its activities at www.offyougo.info.
If you study the pictures closely, as has this web site, you can see that at least three have a common link into one of our main themes. In 2001-2002, Nancy Bostock participated in an Israeli dance class in Dresher that Don was running at the time on Sunday afternoons. John Hopkins has on occasion attended the Cherry Hill session on Tuesday nights as has Carol Clapper. We don't know whether the others have ever participated in any Israeli dance sessions.
Perhaps these three were the impetus of a contact this web site had at the beginning of 2012 with Sean Davis about participating in an Israeli dance session and be;ow you will see the result. But, first, after about 11 years, we profile Nancy Bostock and her return to a session of Israeli dancing.
On October 28th, the Germantown Sunday morning Israeli dance session decided to hold a brunch at Mi Puebla, a restaurant that they had visited before for brunch after the session of dancing. Through certain sources, the barnes and Noble group got wind of these plans. Everyone had the option of attending the Sunday dancing, the brunch or both. nancy decided to do both and would be joined at the brunch by other Barnes and Noble group members, Ray and the two Mary's. Below, you will see Nancy dancing with the Germantown session. She was helped by several dancers who have appeared in other scripts on this web site. So, you see her below with Lee, Susan and John.
After the dancing, several Germantown dancers (accompanied by Nancy) continued the morning session at Mi Puebla, a mexican restaurant on Germantown Ave in the Chestnut Hill session of the city about a mile away from the Germantown Jewish Centre where the dacning is held. Attending this brunch was John and his wife Elaine, Yael, Wendy and her husband David, Howard and Deborah. About half an hour into the meal, they were joined by the two mary's and Ray from the Barnes and Noble group. The pictures below show the brunch at Mi Puebla.
Ed Note: John Hopkins tried Israeli dancing sometime before the creation of this web site, so we are told. There is no photographic record of his visit to the Cherry Hill session. Those who remember him remember a very happy and funny individual. And, apparently, John Hopkins has this reputation of being quite humorous and proved it with this website. Apparently, when John Hopkins noticed his name was mentioned he sent along to this web site a web site dealing with moose and menorahs. This is not for everybody but you can reference this by clicking here.
Apparently, either by google or by way of discussion with these others, Sean Davis became aware of this web site. Apparently, he is the only one who knows about our existance and his knowledge of this site and its contents is very impressive - in fact, quite educational as we had forgotten many of the scripts written in the past that he was aware of. From what we have been told, this is not surprising as Sean, by his nature, is a researcher. Always seen in Barnes and Noble with a book in his hands, beside working for the Pa. State Government, Sean is also taking classes at Strayer University to attain a master's degree in education.
Sean indicated to us that he would like to participate in one of the classes we cover and on January 15th, we met Sean at the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble and accompanied him to the Germantown Sunday morning session. Now, before showing pictures of Sean's visit, we should indicate to you, the reader, that we did inform Grant Shulman, the leader of that session, of the pending visit. Grant did alter somewhat the repertoire for that morning to make it a little easier for Sean to follow. Anyone studying this web site - and that probably is only Sean - knows that there is a steep learning curve to this genre of dancing. Memorization is important as is a physical standard that would involve a lot of high speed turns, pivoting and movement. Sean did very well lasting 75 minutes into the session for his first foray into this. There were many appreciative comments from fellow dancers during this and following sessions pertaining to Sean's stamina and stick-to-it-ness. Below, we document Sean's visit to the January 15th Germantown Jewish Centre Israeli dance class that meets on Sunday mornings from 10Am to 12:30 PM.
The pictures above show Sean as he arrived at the session. As usual at Germantown, the crowd is sparse at the beginning. It generally gets more crowded as the session goes along but not this morning. A lot of dancers were going to participate in Don Schillinger's workshop and marathon that was to occur later in the day and decided to sleep in and not attend. Nevertheless, whoever was in attendance welcomed Sean to this session of Israeli dancing.
In the trip that morning Sean asked about the best techniques in trying to master the dances. We told Sean what we would tell any beginner. Follow the movements of the dancers who seem to know what they are doing. Sometimes the leader will make a special effort to lead a novice and one should make the most of this type of opportunity. This is what Sean did and those who are experiencing an on-going class as a novice would be wise to follow Sean's example. Follow others! Israeli dance etiquette does stipulate when doing this that you should be out of the circle - in back of whom you are following. At the beginning, this is what Sean did although he picked it up sufficiently to end up in the circle before he left. Below are some pictures of Sean following others.
The followees in the above pictures are Minna, Susan, Minna again and Grant. Thanks to all of the dancers who provided an example for Sean to follow. Minna, expecially, was very helpful giving Sean a little authorized (and unauthorized) history of the dances. Minna knows of what she is discussing as you can determine yourself by looking at a script she authored by clicking here.
Like Sean, those that are new to this genre of dancing quickly become tired as the session moves along. Don Schillinger, who has watched this syndrome many times, feels that it is because the exercise is in conjunction with quite a bit of thinking and decision making. Israeli dancers get used to this after a while and one has described it as somewhat akin to playing chess while dancing. Sean was made aware of this on the trip to Germantown and was cautioned to stop dancing and call it a day when too tired. He did go strong for a hour and a quarter which is really quite remarkable. During the session, and at the following session, this endurance was remarked on as was his ability to pick up the steps somewhat easily. To quote John Frank, "Nice to see a new face. He had a lot of stamina for a first timer". Below, we have some other pictures of Sean dancing.
For those unaware, this session runs through the fall, winter and spring on Sundays from 10 to 12:30AM. It is led by Grant Shulman and a variety of dancers make it a point to come each Sunday morning. In this crowd one can find relative new beginners to Israeli dancing, some intermediates, some who are advanced and even more interesting those who danced in the past and use this class to keep up. So, it provides for a great variety of styles and expertice. Grant does a great job in organizing all of this. The group generally meets in the Marcus auditorium as it did this morning but has a secondary location at the other end of the building, the Tenim canteen, when the Marcus is being used for another event.
In riding back to the Valley Forge area with Sean before parting ways, we did take the opportunity to interview him about his reputation as a book reader. In this regard, we asked him to list several of the books he has recently read and the following list indicates title, author and content.
This was not the only event of the weekend of January 14 through 15. Click here to see pictures of the entire day.
Our next novice dancer made it to an Israeli dance session in a unique way even for this script: she found out about Israeli dancing through her work as a Drexel Coop Student. Britta Spangler is a senior at Drexel in the business school with an interest in aspects of fashion design. The school gave her a coop assignment (for those unaware, Drexel undergrads go 5 years with three 6 month co-operative assignments where they are supposed to work in the field(s) they are studying) to contact 50 alumni, meet with them personally or through the phone, and report on their experience in life from the point of graduation to the present. Apparently, per her correspondence with this web site, one alumni waxed so eloquently about his hobby of Israeli dance that she decided she wanted to try it.
Britta did go on an excursion of Israeli dance and you can see the highlights of this excursion by clicking here. That script deals with the entire trip and all the participants and included pictures of the dinner before the session and then dancing at it. What follows here is Britta's writeup on her own view of this experience. Following the standard policy of this web site, we have asterisked out the names of those who have expressly forbade any mention.
I was assigned the project of contacting 50 Drexel Alumni and determining their life experiences since graduation. For this, I was given an office at 3201 Market Street and a list of alumni to contact although it was made clear that I could develop my own list if those contacted provided additional leads. To the right is a picture of me taken in front of my building as I was preparing to sample an interest of one of the contacted Alumni as will be explained below.
In contacting the alumni, you run the range of those absolutely not interested (and who will not provide the time needed for an interview), those who are completely self absorbed as to their successes (both real and perceived) to that one unique individual who moves the interview and meeting onto a different level.
Let's first discuss the characteristics of the majority of the interviews. The older Alumni tended to have had careers in traditional engineering and finance positions which probably follows closely the curriculums available to students at that earlier time. Many boasted about the achievements, discoveries and financial successes they had accumulated generally to the point of listing these out for me in a kind of time line. I did notice that most of the older Alumni either had worked for the same employer their entire working career or within the same industry. (Aerospace engineering is a good case in point as divisions would be transferred from one company to another)
The younger alumni were more diverse both in terms of discipline and career moves. This no doubt is the result of the expansion of curriculum in the school over the years and the changing work place environment. You could certainly see the change in gender as the percentage of female alumnae increased among the younger graduates.
One individual, **** *****, who was the 27th alumni to be interviewed, was rather unique and I thought I would write up my interview with him and the subsequent activities he directed me to, in order to give an example of what it is like to deal with some aspects of our Alumni.
My initial phone call to **** ***** was on Tuesday, April 19th. As with most Alumni, he expressed surprise in hearing from a current student and in this project. His first reaction was quite negative to a proposed meeting between us. But his negativity was based on different presumptions than most of the alumni who were adament as to not meeting. In general, I would hear that the proposed subject was too busy, either with career or family. In Mr. *****'s case, it was his position that of all the Alumni I could or would contact, he had accomplished the least since graduating with his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the school in 1971 (Note: Our Alumni records show that he also has a Masters of Math from the school but he will not confirm this although he did concede, very sheepishly, a graduate degree from the University Of Pennsylvania). In spite of his protestations about the meaninglessness of scheduling a meeting, I was determined that he would be my 27th subject. Since he lives near where I live, the Valley Forge, Pa area, I thought a lunch would be the most convenient way to get together and he finally agreed to a lunch at Panera Bread at the Gateway Shopping Center in Wayne on Friday, April 29th.
I might add that this co-op assignment has also given me additional insight into people's personalities. Several Alumni would only meet when I indicated that it would be Drexel's (through me) treat for lunch. Others were pleased about my treating, but it was as if this was expected. In Mr. *****'s case, he insisted, even before we met, that it would be his treat for lunch and there was no question about this when we met.
As mentioned, meeting with the Alumni generally proceeded along the following pattern. An introduction, some chit chat and then a listing of accomplishments throughout their life. I normally would jot down the high points for a separate report on each of them that I have submitted to the Alumni office. In Mr. *****'s case, we proceeded through our introduction and then while standing in line to order he made reference to many of the restaurants in the area and we briefly discussed several of them. I guess this was chit-chat to him. As we sat down he apologized in advance for what he assumed would be a very boring interview. I brought out my notebook and took a few quotes. "I am the world's least successful consultant," was a synopsis of his professional life and he added that in his own mind he had been unemployed for 34 years. I can quote his words having jotted them down as they were quite humorous, "Britta, hopefully you will not experience this but the first 30 years of unemployment are the toughest. After that, this becomes a lifestyle."
The conversation quickly turned to his hobbies. Apparently this consisted of dancing, physical exercising at the nearby Bally's fitness, reading war history, researching a favorite author whose name I don't remember but may have been British, programming the web in something called Javascript and doing puzzles. He was very proud of being able to complete the NY Times crossword puzzle most days and I remember him saying something about completing a Monday puzzle is less than 5 minutes. I don't know if that is significant or not as I am not a crossword puzzle solver.
Apparently he spent quite a bit of time at the local Berwyn (Valley Forge) Barnes and Noble which I have used also. He was especially interested in dancing and apparently participated in a certain type of dancing up to five or six times a week. It was very aerobic, he assured me or he wouldn't do it, and even claimed that it helped his memory. Apparently, as I was to find out, this is a form of folk dancing and I told him of my interest in Africa where various native dances and music are quite interesting, if not haunting, in their nature. I have had such experience in Tanzania when I was there for a prolonged visit and part of our conversation involved my relating to him of my several trips to Africa (where I hope to be a Peace Corps volunteer in the foreseeable future). This conversation ended with a written down link to a website (later Emailed also) for which he had done some of this Javascript programming mentioned earlier (Ed. Note: It was this web site, www.thediskcoordinator.com that was referenced) and ultimately, although not through him, an invitation to go Israeli dancing (that's the genre of dance he is active in). I thought I would try it in the name of good Alumni relations.
While I never understood the full details, I apparently would be part of a group of 6 to 8 Pennsylvania based dancers visiting a dance session in Cherry Hill. The time and date was set for Tuesday night, May 24th, 2011. One of the dancers picked me up at Drexel (taking the picture of me in front of the building as we met) and we ended up at the Marlton Diner where other dancers in our party were already having dinner.
Speaking of Alumni affairs, one couple, John and Elaine Frank, pictured in the middle of the picture to the right, had just returned from a 50th anniversary Alumni weekend in Boston where they both had been classmates in one of the colleges there. What I remember of the conversation was that John had studied to be a psychiatrist there (he is now a child Psychiatrist in the Philadelphia area) and his wife was studying to be a psychiatric nurse. This similar interest was how they met. Both pursued their respective careers throughout their lifetime of work and this included a stint at the Valley Forge military hospital which I was led to believe no longer exists. From their experience at that hospital, they settled in the Philadelphia area as they pursued their careers. This is similar to what was observed above: older people have had greater tendency to remain in one career not to mention one geographical location while pursuing careers.
After dinner, several pictures were taken in the diner as seen to the right and it was onto dancing. When we arrived, there were about 15 dancers already positioned in a circle led by the group leader, Naomi, who apparently is a professor of psychology at a local university. This type of dancing relies on memory and practice, neither of which I had, although several of the dancers did remark on my quickness in catching the steps. On several dances, Naomi would take my hand and lead me into the dance. Her actions do show her to be a good teacher and I was not surprised to find out later that she was, in real life, part of the educational establishment.
Another dancer, Rob, who was part of our group of Pennsylvania dancers, also did much in helping me with the steps to these dances. He related that at one time he ran and taught dance sessions in Israeli dance on Sunday nights and was well aware of the problems that beginners faced.
Below, are some of pictures that were shot while I was following Naomi on one of the dances. Naomi, as were all the dancers, was very welcoming during this evening.
Of course, this was all new to me but I was surprised that some of the dancers that I had met at dinner also needed to look at other dancers to determine what steps to do. Rob, mentioned above, told me that there were over 5000 dances in the Isreali dance repertoire so it would not be surprising that dancers would run into unfamiliar dance steps when going to a new session as our group was experiencing.
Below, are some pictures of the entire group dancing together, both session regulars and visitors like me. I'm in the middle between Naomi and Rob, It certainly seemed as if everyone was enjoying themselves and I didn't feel unconfortable at all in participating. I don't know if that is due to the friendly nature of this group or my coop experience in interviewing strangers about their life work which certainly has given me more confidence in dealing with strangers through all sorts of situations.
Eventually it was time to go home. I left early with my ride although I understand that dancing continued until 10PM. Of course, there was one more round of pictures to be taken. Above right is a picture of me with John, Elaine and Rob. There were other pictures taken with various dancers but this is the only one sent to me.
And so ended my Israeli dance trip and this report. There are two things to add to this. One of the dancers in the circle, Deena, was a graduate of Drexel with a masters in Library Science. She volunteered to be interviewed when she found out how I ended up dancing that night in Cherry Hill. The other was what several people at Drexel have told me to do for all of my life's experiences. Always get a recommendation. John Frank has been nice enough to oblige and here it goes, "Britta was a natural, I loved how relaxed she was and how willing she was to hang in and keep trying with dances that were completely new to her. Hope we see more of Britta soon." How about that for a recommendation!
As mentioned above in dealing with Britta Spangler's intro to Israeli dancing and will be mentioned below, as we are discussing Thaddeus Govan and his introduction to Israeli dancing through a computer science class, there are some unique ways to be so introduced to this genre of dance. LaVera's exposure is certainly unique given that it occurred unexpectedly while she was at the King Of Prussia Bally's pool. You will have seen LaVera's picture as part of this web site's Potpourri script. She is part of a weekly water aerobics class that takes place at the King Of Prussia Bally's pool every Friday morning. Her small exposure on this web site pertaining to another participant in that class prompted an Email from LaVera to this site about arranging an opportunity for LaVera to attend a local Israeli dance session so she could experience an Israeli dance session in person.
Now, before we describe her participation in such a session, we should explain that we have found out that exposure and emersion to new activities and ideas is for her the norm, not the exception. As an example, below are several pictures of LaVera in other activities mainly through the aegis of the Valley Forge Optimist club or Bally's fitness.
Above we see LaVera at the pool at bally's surrounded by Eileen and Hope. She has been a member since 2006 and physical activity is a daily regimen for her. This would prove useful as we shall see in subsequent pictures. The second picture shows LaVera in her position as President of the Valley Forge Chapter of the Optimist club. The Optimists are a service organization directed to children and young adults and the picture above shows a Martin Luther King day celebration consisting of several local Girl Scout troops. If you are interested in finding out more about the Optimists, click here. The third picture shows the "Bally's Buddies" at play. This is a group of the Bally participants who extend their group experiences beyond exercise and the Bally's facilities. In this case this is a picture from a recent get together at Chumley's restaurant in the Radisson complex in Valley Forge. The last picture shows LaVera being honored as one of the women of the year in Montgomery county, a county that surrounds Philadelphia. So, besides congratulating her on her exposure to this type of exercise, Israeli dance, we also extend congratulations to her on the award as indicated above.
It was decided that LaVera should attend the Cherry Hill session on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 and we suggested that she study this web site somewhat in preparation for this outing. LaVera brought along her daughter, Promise, and everyone met at the Valley Forge Barnes and Noble (apparently a favorite hangout of another Israeli dancer as we found out subsequently) to car pool into Cherry Hill.
The Cherry Hill session, as visitors to this site are already aware, meets on Tuesdays, 7 to 10PM, at Temple Beth Sholom. From the Valley Forge area it was expected that we would arrive about 7:15 but traffic made our group fashionably late and we arrived after the dancing had already started. The pictures to the left and right are of Promise and LaVera (and on the right, Amy, who regularly dances at the Cherry Hill session) as they are about to enter the room that holds this session and its dancers. We asked both women whether they were really ready for this and both replied enthusiastically in the affirmative.
As we were to find out, LaVera and her daughter do everything enthusiastically and, in this case, La Vera's aerobic activities on most morning would serve her well. Israeli dancing is tiring both from the physical and mental strains that it puts on dancers. On both of these fronts, these two women were more than equal to the task.
The pictures to the left and right show La Vera and her daughter participating in the session. It was obvious that both had danced before although this genre was new to them. As with all beginners, picking up the introductory steps can be tricky and most beginners are not expecting the degree of memorization needed for this. Most beginners are also surprised at the amount of aerobic exercise this type of dancing exerts. Yet, both took to this very well and were able to participate both in the easy and more advanced dances. As to the aerobics, we already told you that LaVera's Bally training most mornings would be of help to her as she did the steps. In Promise's case, it's always great to be young and in her case, also athletic.
It was agreed as the trip started that the group would leave by 9:00 for the trip back to Valley Forge. In the interim between our group's arrival, about 7:35, and the 9:00 departure, both of our beginner dancers not only afforded themselves well to their own way of thinking but drew praise from some of the more experienced session dancers in how quickly they picked up many of the steps.
For those keeping count, Promise and laVera would have been exposed to several of the older Israeli dances with roots in International Folk Dance such as Od Lo Ahavti Dai. But also, they would have seen more modern dances one of which was Salamati whose music is Persian and whose steps are uniquely Israeli and go far beyond what would be expected from International Folk dance.
Well, 9:00PM has come and our group is ready to return to the Valley Forge Area. One last set of pictures to commemmorate Promise and LaVera's visit. These stills have been extracted from a video clip and while the camera was running both women talked about their just completed experience with the Cherry Hill session. Both indicated that they had really enjoyed themselves and vowed to do this again (and perhaps accompanied by a few of the Bally's buddies). As these questions were being answered, other members of the session joined them and most praised their ability to pick up and execute the steps of many of the dances. In stages left to right is La Vera, Promise, Amy, Ruth and Judi. The conversation continued on the way back askin g about certain steps and certain dances. Statements were again made as to their enjoyment of the evening. And, we can add that for one other participant, your reporter in this, it was both his pleasure and enjoyment to play host to two very accomplished, poised and gifted women and he also greatly enjoyed the evening.
We come to Israeli dance in a variety of ways. Some arrive culturally. Some arrive through camps they have taken in the past. Some arrive through the need for an exercise regimen. Some arrive through their passion for dance. But through an introductory computer science course? Our next personality is introduced to this type of dance through his attendance at an introductory computer science class at Community College Of Phila. The disk coordinator is not exactly sure how these subjects interact, but however they do, Thaddeus Govan, a student at CCP and a professional photographer, becomes intrigued enough to contact this web site to find out where these classes are held locally. We arranged to meet him on Tuesday, May 25th, and take him to Naomi's class in Cherry Hill so he could see a class in person. Below is a pictorial record of that visit. We have divided the 12 shots shown into 3 parts: amidst the group as Naomi shows a new dance, in the circle for circle dancing and an exposure to line dancing. Thaddeus seemed to enjoy this session and may come to future sessions given his schedule.
Naomi normally spends 3 weeks (sometimes 4) showing a new dance. The week before she had started to demonstrate Haradio Hayashan. So, as Naomi begins her tutorial of this dance around 7:45PM, Thaddeus would be a week behind some of the other dancers if he should try to follow her instruction. This is a rather difficult dance and way beyond the level of the disk coordinator who still has trouble coordinating his clapping during Nigun Atik. So, it was surprising when Thaddeus plunged right into this demonstration as indicated in the pictures above. We think that he acquitted himself very well in trying to learn this dance, but as we said it's not easy. Especially if you are not used to the quick changes in balancing (dancers would call this changes in weight) and direction as exemplified by this dance and Israeli dancing in general.
While we can not be specific as to what dances our pictures above have caught Thaddeus and the other dancers, it is apparent that Thaddeus missed the memo as to the color of the day which apparently is red. This was not all bad as we could look for flashes of yellow before clicking the shutter. As the disk coordinator knows from experience, Naomi is very protective of her dancers and she probably will not be happy to know that we are about to point out several mistakes that Thaddeus is making. You can see that he is turning in the wrong direction in the middle two shots where he is next to Naomi who was kind enough to position herself in front of Thaddeus as a kind of learning tool. But, as stated before, more so than most genres of dancing, Israeli dancing is like a 3 dimentional chess game as you move in many directions while facing in many directions. This is a steep learning curve and can be very disorienting at first. But, Thaddeus made a good effort and that's the most important thing.
When Naomi has a lot of beginners (and Naomi is not the only instructor to do this) she will do line dances which in general are easier to follow (and learn) than circles. So, at a certain point, she began to demonstrate the line dance, Turkish Kiss, which as the name implies is a turkish dance. The music is fun and very energetic. The pictures above show Thaddeus as he tries to absorb the new dance and new positioning. In the end, when the music played, he did very well. There are a set of line dances, including Turkish Kiss, that instructors can use to increase the morale of their dancers and, in this case, Naomi used this dance to that effect during this evening of dancing