If you viewed this web site between Jan. 15th and Jan 17th, 2010, you would have seen what we duplicate below
Well, if you like to dance on that Sunday, and with apologies to Alfred Hitchcock, here's what we have in store for you starting at 10:00Am and ending 11:00PM or therabouts - the Great Philadelphia North by Northeast marathon.
Join the Sunday morning session at Germantown Jewish Centre between 10 and 12:30 led by Grant Shulman. This is a very friendly class that has been in operation since 1997.
In the afternoon, join Don as he DJs a circle only session at Beth Am in Abington. Don has been at this facility before as it has been used as a substitute location in the past
End the North by Northeast marathon at the Klein branch as Don substitutes a partner workshop for the normal activities of that session
Now, the disk coordinator pleads guilty in stretching an idea. North by Northwest is one of his favorite movies. Alfred Hitchcock is one of his favorite directors. How could he resist in melding this into a web site that specializes in covering Israeli dancing events in the greater Philadelphia area. He was only looking for the opportunity and this presented itself when Don Schillinger added an event on Sunday afternoon, Jan 17th, at Beth Am in Abington.
Sunday in Philadelphia for an Israeli dancer already involves the Sunday morning Germantown session and the late evening Klein JCC event recently taken over by Don. Several dancers including Jani Rosen, Elana Benamy, John Frank and the disk coordinator make it a full day of Israeli dancing each Sunday by doing both events on a regular basis. For that Sunday, Jan 17th, an afternoon of dancing could be added to these activities thanks to Don's decision.
Now, what brought on Don's decision. His Monday, Beth Sholom, sessions were being affected by his travel iternary and by the Monday federal holidays at the beginning of the year. To celebrate the Martin Luther King's birthday federal holiday, the Beth Sholom session was cancelled for Jan 18th. Some ask why a religious center would be closed on that day. You should understand that for all the sessions in the Greater Phila area, behind the instructor and/or the leader lies the staff of the institution who provide various means of logistical support to allow these sessions to run. This staff, at all the dance locations, deserves and has earned the time off for these holidays. Hence, the cancellations.
All right. We already have two Sunday sessions ready to go and a third added. But, Don took one dancer's suggestion and with a 1:30 PM start made it possible for a dancer to conceivably attend all three events. One dancer was so resolved and he plotted out the directions needed to attain this goal. Below, you can see the route that would be travelled. From GJC, one would move northeast and from Beth Am the route is East. So, from this limited scenario grew the idea that the 3 events, none of which were related to each other, taken together amounted to a marathon, and thus we have the name, created on January 15th, of The Great Philadelphia North by Northeast marathon. Understand that it is ideas such as this through his lifetime that have made the disk coordinator the failure he is today.
So, below are pictures and commentary of that day, Sunday January 17th, 2010.
| Well, the weather certainly didn't take into consideration that a marathon over 3 locations was taking place. It rained all day and this picture, taken about 10:15Am or so, shows the weather conditions. You are looking at one of the entrances to the Germantown Jewish centre which hosts a Sunday morning Israeli dance class from 10Am to 12:30Am each Sunday (except during the summer) with Grant Shulman as the leader. | Another entrance and another picture of GJC that morning, January 17th, 2010. Grant had sent out a prior Email indicating that he was going to teach Lahazor Habayta that morning, a popular dance which was introduced in Toronto during the summer of '09 and which other sessions have taught recently. Below these pictures at the bottom of this web page is a listing of the dances taught at all three sessions that Sunday | In another web page of this site, we detail the cyramic cups that have been distributed over the last few weeks at GJC. The picture above shows the last allotment on display that morning ready for distribution. All the dancers have been pleased with these cups and everyone did their part that day in bringing in their cups so less plastic is used by the center | Again, you can see the stack of plastic cups next to the water. Germantown has a "go green" campaign on for the entire facility and this cup campaign allows the Israeli dancers to participate in this and use their own cups to cut down the number of plastic cups used during a session. |
| This shot shows the equipment used by Grant to run his Sunday session. You are looking at an IPOD on top of its speaker. The disk coordinator has detailed the use of this IPOD in other pages of this web site. In addition, you can see a MAC portable also available for use. In this, the disk coordinator has some bearing as the disk coordinator brought in his own IPOD that morning to be refreshed with Israeli dance music through the portable. | Not a good picture of Tamar (the flash failed) as she makes announcements to the group. Tamar is the group administrative leader and an active member of GJC. As has been recollected, it was through her efforts that this session was established in 1997. Financially, GJC has been very generous as it provides the space for dancing for free on Sunday mornings | Grant in the middle of the circle giving instructions on the new dance. You can see that the group is in the Marcus auditorium for this session. This web site has previously discussed this auditorium's revival after the fire at Germantown which affected the entire facility. The dance floor is even better now for dancing and the Marcus auditorium is one of the biggest auditoriums where Israeli dancing takes place in the Philadelphia area. | There was relatively low attendance that morning at Germantown but please rest assured that this lack of attendance was not the result of the event scheduled for 1:30PM detailed below. Only one person decided to attend Don's event as opposed to her normal presence at Germantown. For this group, weather conditions are a factor per attendance and this goes a long way to explaining the sparseness of the crowd this morning session. |
| The weather certainly hadn't gotten better by 1:20PM or so as this shot shows. Beth Am is just south of the Abington Library and Don has used this facility before for certain events. It was going to be interesting to see who would come out to dance that afternoon and whether he would be able to break even. In this, Germantown has an advantage, as the facility itself provides the space for free. That would not be the case at this venue and Don had said something about needing 15 or so dancers to break even. | Entering the building, we found the auditorium and inside that, this table, as you see above. On it, Don's equipment in need of assembly for use. All the leaders of these dance sessions bring or pre-position computer and audio equipment as this web site has documented in the setup web page. Above these pictures, you have seen the IPOD used by Germantown. Don utilizes one of several PCs including a Sony Vaio and large amplifiers, one seen to the right. From the experience of trying to mount these monsters on Thursday night at Adath Israel when they are hoisted above ground to add to the sound, it's fair to say that these are not easy to lug around because of the weight and the bulk but Don seems to be able to handle these relatively easily with or without the dolly that also is standing here. | Two dancers were already seated and they are to the right, not shown. But this is a picture showing the expanse of Beth Am's auditorium. Every religious facility needs an auditorium to celebrate the rites of that religion - be it weddings, births, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, etc - and so these facilities already have space that could be made available for dancing. One would think that with this space these facilities would be ameniable to renting them for events such as this. Not always the case: although for this Sunday, Beth Am was available. |
| Here are the women mentioned in the previous picture. They were waiting patiently for Don to begin his Isreali dance class. With the disk coordinator, Don now had 3 paid participants. Let's see in the following pictures if his hunch was right and he at least broke even for this afternoon. | Well, what do you think? Dancers had been streaming in and there were about 14 or so at this point. He's almost there and eventually some 20 dancers would show up for this session. You see Don in the middle teaching one of the 3 circle dances that he would do that afternoon. Below all the pictures is a list of all the dances taught this day at the three sessions | This is taken with the last photo. At this part of the teach, the choreography has everyone going out of the circle. Let's concentrate on the Beth Am's nice wooden floor that was very easy to dance on. Wood has a give to it that makes it ideal for dancing. Unfortunately some auditoriums use concrete or hard surfacing and that surfacing is not easy on the feet. We didn't suffer that problem here. |
| Another picture of the circle. One got the feeling that this afternoon session was an alumni gathering of Don's Temple Sinai class of many years ago. In Greater Philadelphia there is a definite feel for the communities you are in. For instance, Camden and Voorhees dancers generally attend events on their side of the river. You get a similar feeling for the Old York road corridor where this is occurring. There are quite a number of dancers who will only attend events in this area. | Anybody who has watched him interact with younger people knows that Don is fabulous with children. It really is a great talent. He has this down to a science in terms of what to play and what to do when kids (and this would extend up to their teens) are in attendance. For this afternoon session, some parents brought their kids and Don didn't fail to include the kids in the dancing. Above you can see a "kid" partner dance in operation. What can't be seen is the fun and excitement these kids have when participating | A close up of one of the "kid" partner dances. The woman is a regular at the Beth Sholom class on Monday and we believe this is her two daughters that she is dancing with. We will not speculate on her reaction but we can guarantee that the kids enjoyed this. It's not just a visual thing: you can feel the excitement and energy the kids put into their dancing. | This picture is taken late in the afternoon. As stated, some 20 dancers, most from the Old York Road corridor, took part at this special afternoon session at Beth Am. It would be obvious at the next session, the Klein partner workshop, that this session catered to circle dancers as only the disk coordinator and Elana, shown above and discussed below, would be in attendance for both sessions. |
| Above, you are looking at the outside of Tiffany's dinner in the Great Northeast of Philadelphia. This picture should confirm that the weather conditions were rainy for the entire day and especially heavy when this picture was taken approx. at 5:00PM. Several dancers and Don had already agreed to meet here and, in the end, a party of 5 was seated. Tiffany's has been the scene of other such dinners for dancers given its proximity to the Klein JCC and its location on Roosevelt Blvd - and the food's pretty good. | As the disk coordinator made it to the entrance of the diner, who should he run into but none other than Elana Tenenzapf. She had been late attending the afternoon session at Beth Am but considering that she was travelling from above the Princeton area, her lateness certainly could be forgiven. Elana does a lot of Israeli dancing in the area and is a regular at Don's Thursday and Sunday sessions. She has sometimes visited the Cherry Hill session and she attends Vera's class - north of New Brunswick - with great regularity. She also is a regular at Hora Aviv each year. | This is a group picture just before everyone split for the Klein JCC and the Sunday night session.From left to right: Don Schillinger, the Ubiquitous Elana, Alain and Caryle. You might ask: What does a group of dancers talk about when together having dinner? Why, of course, discussions centered on whether there was a leap year this year and the disk coordinator learned that for this year there is none which is going to make for a tighter schedule. And, Elana, regalled us about the history of the road network in Phila. The disk coordinator can report that he now knows that it is Welsh and not Walsh road and that the Roosevelt Blvd is named after Teddy. |
| We'll spare you from another outside shot - this time of the Klein JCC - as it was still raining. So, we move inside where Rich is acting as he does each Sunday as fee collector for the coming session. Rich used to be an avid Israeli dancer and sometimes you can see him dance at Sharon Polsky's class on Tuesday night at Beth Sholom, but on Sunday he remains at his post and collects the fees for those attending this session. And we also see two dancers in the act of paying up. One is Sharon who is a regular at Don's Thursday event and is here this night because of the partner dance emphasis and the other is none other than Elana, whom you've met previously. | Don had left Tiffany's diner before the rest of us and was in place to start his session promptly at 7:00. In fact, this shot is taken upon our entrance and the first partner set is already underway. We see Don at his controls although his computer is not visible in this shot. We can verify that his equipment, last seen at Beth Am, has been moved and reassembled in this location. Since Don has taken over the Sunday night session at the Klein JCC from Rob Marcowitz he has instituted several changes. One change, an hour of beginner Israeli dance at 7:00PM, would not take place this night. Another addition is a request board that can be seen in this picture. | Here we see 2 and half partners on one of the first partner sets. The half partner missing, the husband of this dancer, would be along shortly to even up the pairs. On these partner workshops, Don will play 5 to 6 partner dances for each partner set. It's possible during a partner set that a partner dance may be taught and Don did teach 4 partner dances as you can see on the list below (the partner dances are designated by a K). Each partner set is separated by a circle dance in which one can hook up with someone to partner on the next set, have some refreshments, use the facilities or do the circle dance. |
| We can report that there was a nice crowd in attendance for the partner workshop at the Klein JCC that night. This is a picture of one of the partner dances and we see Rob Markowitz participating. Even though Rob has given up the administrative control of the session, he continues to be a large presence each Sunday night. There have been many sessions where he has subbed for Don and at most of the sessions he has split the teaching duties. Everyone is glad that Rob continues to participate as he has been doing this for many years and has a tremondous expertise which he can share with the rest of us. | A circle dance in action. Even though this session was geared to partners, and there was probably 13 partner sets throughout the evening, that still meant that 12 to 13 circle dances were played. You can see the circle of two of these in this and the next picture. Also, you can see that the dancers easily switched between the two genres. In general, people get acquainted with circle Israeli dancing at introductory sessions and for some, it's a surprise that Israeli dancing has a very active partner division. It can be tough to break into as most newcomers do not have the expertise to dance with an already experienced Israeli partner dancer but eventually persistance pays off and you become part of the crowd. | Well, here's another shot of probably the same circle dance. For the evening, one participant estimates that between 60 to 70 partner dances, for our purposes let's say 65, were done with the aforementioned 4 indicated below being taught. For the rest of the day on the prior two events, that same participant is making a guess that 35 circle dances were done at Germantown earlier that day with 25 circle dances (not counting repeats) done at Beth Am. There were also 2 or 3 easy partners done in the afternoon at Beth Am for the kids. So, what's the totals: Probably about 75 circle and 68 partners. Like any folk dancing, each dance has its own choreography so besides the physical stamina needed to do the entire day, there was need of quite a bit of mental stamina also. |
| This row of shots shows some couples doing partner dancing. Israeli dance partners really does have the characteristics of both folk dancing and ballroom dancing combined. It seems to be at a higher level, at least to one person, than traditional folk dancing partners, with the need for some male (or whoever is the lead) lead as the turns are involved enough that the woman needs the support. This is especially true on dips (or cortes) that are common in music that ballroom dancers would use for tango. It is not ballroom dancing as enough choreography is built into the dances that at many times each partner is dancing alone especially on file (or train) movements inside and outside of the circle. This combination of folk and ballroom can be quite interesting and at many levels somewhat difficult | We catch some dancers moving into the circle in prominade position. Prominade positions are part of the folk dancing aspect, and more traditional aspect, of Israeli dance partners. As with regular folk dancing, what has been caught in this shot might be called the ice skater's hold. Where Isreali dance differs from other types of folk dancing is how it gets to this position, It might be a series of male directed turns of the woman to arrive at this, or it could be a separation of the male moving inside, the woman outside and then back into a promenade. Or, perhaps, instead of in and out, it might be back and forth along the circle. | Since the tradition is to change partners between each set, and a set consists of several contiguous (or played together) Israeli partner dances, we can conclude from the shot above that this is the same set as the picture to the left. Also, it would seem to be the same dance as we see the beginnings of a promenade to the outside of the circle. Although there is no requirement for symmetry by the choreographers, most will split a music phrase when moving the dancer(s) inside with an symmetric pattern to the outside. One person has indicated that this reminds him of computer programming with a type of pattern to the movement similar to writing instructions in code except that this is done physically as well as mentally. Whatever the reasons for the enjoyment, many participants find this type of activity a counterweight to their generally sedentary daily work schedules. | As we end our pictorial of the day's events, we should remind you that the North by Northeast marathon was the invention of one participant who got it into his mind to attend the 3 separate Israeli dance sessions that went on that Sunday, January 17th, 2010. It appears on this web site due to the fact that the same individual is this site's administrator. You have seen the upside of trying to do something like this. There's plenty of physical and mental activity and there's also the comaraderie of the other dancers and, on this day, the other diners at our table at Tiffany's. We should mention the down side however if you are ever tempted to try this same thing yourself. The individual was wiped out for the next 2 days. Luckily his schedule is flexible. Is yours? |
The following made it to both Germantown and Klein: Jani Rosen & Elana Benamy
The following made it to Beth Am, Tiffany's and Klein: Elana Tenenzapf & Don Schillinger (who does not get extra credit for this)
The following made it to both Tiffany's and Klein: Caryle Feldman & Alain Luxembourg
One person made it to all four events (including Tiffany's) and hopes to recover some time in the near future