Roberto Bagnoli, whose Presidents' week 2016 tour is discussed below and is pictured in this montage, is well known throughout the International Dance and Israeli dance communities for his teaching abilities. The Internet reports that Roberto was born in Rome and studied dance under a variety of teachers and mentors. We assume that sometime near the change of the century, Roberto decided to make the village of Reggio Emilia home to his dance classes and this city is the center of his dance activities. Included in these activities is his founding and leadership of FARE (folk Atelier Reggio Emilia) which is an umbrella organization that promotes dance activities. His present day schedule also includes additional dance classes outside of this village. This montage presents several pictures of Roberto as found on the Internet.||All’inizio di questo secolo, Roberto si è trasferito a Reggio Emilia dove insegna e ha creato FARE (folk Atelier Reggio Emilia), un organizzazione che promuove varie attività che si trattono di ballo. In oltre, insegna in alter zone in Italia, che vediamo in queste foto.
His choice of Reggio Emilia to reside in itself is of interest. We'll discuss this city and the structure of education associated with it below but let's deal, in a rather limited way, with Roberto's activities in this village (which is probably a good sized town by American standards). Roberto has a website, www.morenu.it which gives a bit of a look at his workshop activities at the time of this writing, Labor Day, 2016. In addition, the bottom of the first screen of his website gives his weekly schedule but it is in Italian. So, we present to you Roberto's schedule in both Italian and English as of mid Dec, 2016 although you should consult his web site's first page for future accuracy. In addition, it seems that the classes in Reggio have created a dance group led by Roberto that demonstrates international dance throughout the area.
you can see in this montage some of Roberto's additional activities - these are screen shots from his website - including a barn dance featuring all sorts of dancing and Roberto's upcoming schedule of workshops around the world. If you have the time and need some additional reading, search google and other search engines and you can see that Roberto is a frequent teacher at dance workshops worldwide.
This website has covered Roberto before through his twice annual camps - one that specializes in Israeli dance designated as Camp Yofi - and the other that specializes in a combination of Balkan and Israeli dance designated as Balkanot. Both of these camps are located north of Reggio Emilia off of Lake Garda. You can get a little more information about Camp Yofi, and especially about two Philadelphia regional Israeli dancers, Wendy and David Friedman, and their visit to such by clicking here. This montage of pictures are from the 2013 Camp Yofi attended by the couple. Note: Readers will notice that parts of this script has been translated into Italian by Wendy Friedman.||Questo sito ha presentato due volte gli stage di Roberto, Camp Yofi (balli israeliani) e Balkanot (balli internazionali, particolarmente Balkan). Il camp si trova a Lago di Garda. Per ulteriore informazione di Camp Yofi e due partecipianti filadelfiani, Wendy e David Friedman, cliccate quà. Il montaggio consiste delle foto di questa coppia, e Wendy cerca di tradurre il testo in Italiano.
This script will mainly be about one of Roberto's trips to the United States in 2016 but let's spend a little time discussing his base of operations, Reggio Emilia. Physically this city is somewhat west of Genoa which itself is on the coast directly north of French island of Corsica. Reggio is on a line between Parma and Bologna. Gourmets will recognize Parma as the origin of all things parmesan as this cheese is the specialty of the city. In addition, it's also known for its ham. Bologna's claim to fame is probably the sausage we know as either Bologna or Baloney. While this area is apparently one of good wining and dining, Reggio Emilia has its own reputation as far as art and teaching and this was what we were alluding to above when discussing how natural it would be for Roberto to take up residence in this city. As far as education in concerned, the name either during World War II or post war is associated with a revolution in teaching younger children.
Italy seems to be a leader in the study of the best methods of education. In our country, we are all familiar with the various Montessori schools which really indicate educational facilities following the philosophy of Maria Montessori. Montessori may have been the first licensed female physician in Italy having been graduated grudgingly from the University of Rome (This was at a time when women were a rarity in higher education and Maria may have been the first of her gender to gain medical credentials). Apparently, in her post doctorate work in dealing with mentally disabled youngsters, she developed theories of educational attanment in youngsters during the late 1800's into the early 1900's. Her theories of education crossed the Atlantic when the first US school based on her theories was opened in 1911 although it wasn't until the 1960's that such schools took hold. Click here if you're interested in more information on this.
Likewise, there is the Reggio Emilia theory of education, originated by Loris Malaguzzi shortly after the end of World War II. As opposed to the Montessori theory that followed her ideas on human development into adulthood, Loris' theories made the instructor into an aide to the student in allowing the student to pursue their own interests. While the school that was the initial host of this theory was situated in Villa Cella (supposedly part of Genoa today), this educational theory now bears the name of the city that Roberto calls home. Of course, Reggio Emilia is famous for other things things besides this teaching theory as the first acts to create a united Italy may have occurred in this region during a successful fight against Austrian occupation. The Italian tricolor flag may have been conceived and sewn within the town's confines. It has always been more leftist leaning and attractive to artists and the like. Perhaps this attracted Roberto to the city in the late 1990's. As indicated above, while Roberto teaches occasionally in Milan and holds semiannual workshops in the Lake Gorda area, it is Reggio Emilia that is his base and we'll start our story from there.
In Italy, anyone traveling to the US (and we'll concentrate on Miami as the arriving destination) has a series of international airports that could be used. To name several, there is Naples, Rome, Milan, Genoa and perhaps even Venice although it seems that Rome and Milan are the only locations featuring non-stop flights. Let's assume we were in the Northern Italian area - possibly stationed in the aforementioned Reggio Emilia area - embarking for Miami during the second week of February, 2016. Using either Genoa or Milan for departure and anywhere between 11 and 14 hours en-transit, depending on the flight, we'd step off the plane onto sunny Miami where the highs for this week would be between 66 and 75.
We mention the information above because periodically Roberto Bagnoli tours the US giving workshops in various genres of dance. During these trips he makes it to a variety of venues. This website knows of at least two tours of the US in 2016. Sometime around the end of May/Early June, Roberto was reported to be spanning the country by holding workshops in Chicago, Cincinnatti and Hawaii. This script concentrates on an earlier tour of the US in 2016: in February centering around the Presidents' weekend. We assume to start this trip, Roberto followed what was described in the previous montage (although we have shown Rome as the point of embarkation). Having landed in the United States for the period of Feb 11th though Feb 21, best we have been able to document is workshops in Florida, a scheduled but cancelled workshop in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, workshops in Elkins Park and Fort Washington in the Philadelphia suburbs followed by a workshop in Washington DC, our nation's capital, and then ending with weekend workshops in Albuquerque, New Mexico before returning to Italy. Speculating on the details of his trips back and forth to Italy, this map is an attempt to display Roberto's journey mid February 2016.
As mentioned above, some of the details of Roberto's trip to the United States at that time are unknown to this website. However, of certain facts we are assured. Roberto was in Orlando as of Friday Feb 11th (and the high temperature for the day was a pleasant 75 degrees) as he and Ed Austin from Utah were the featured instructors for the annual Florida Presidents' Day Weekend Workshop, 2016. This workshop is under the aegis of the Florida Folk Dance Council (this organization is almost 50 years old and still going strong) which comprises a group of clubs in Florida that specialize in International dance of all kinds and whose website is at www.floridafolkdance.org. This event started that Friday night and included workshops on Saturday and Sunday with a refresher/review on Monday morning, Feb 15th.
The impetus for Roberto's invitation to teach this weekend lies with a member of the council, Andi Kapplin (leftmost pictured with Roberto and with one of the advertising pieces for this weekend), who had heard great things about him from another dancer in Vancouver, Canada. Apparently she had suggested Roberto for this event to the council for several years and finally, for this weekend, everyone's schedule could be met.
Roberto would not be leading this workshop alone as has been mentioned. The council had also secured the services of Ed Austin who is the artistic director of Folk Dance Ensemble at Brigham Young University (BYU). While this script is concentrating on Roberto's tour of the US we should note that Ed also is no slouch with over 30 years experience in folk dancing. The pictures in this montage are of Roberto and Ed together and then with both instructors posing with Pat Henderson, the President of this council.
We asked the aforementioned Pat Henderson to explain the timing of the workshop: "Here is a synopsis of Roberto's trip to Florida this year. The Florida Folk Dance Council Presidents' Weekend Workshop is held every year in the Orlando area. This year Roberto and Ed Austin from Utah were our two teachers and we had an international dance weekend. On February 11, Roberto arrived from Italy and stayed overnight in the event's hotel, the Renaissance Orlando Airport Hotel. On Friday night our event started with a night party and Roberto taught one easy get acquainted dance. The next two days, he had a teaching session in the morning and in the afternoon. On Saturday, he had a culture corner in which he talked about the different masks that people wore during Italian festivals. On Saturday and Sunday night, we had another dance party. On Monday, he reviewed all the dances and flew north for more workshops.". As to how it went, let's add another quote pertaining to this weekend from the aforementioned Andi Kapplin: "As the saying goes, "The third time's the charm" as this was the third year I had recommended him. He was absolutely fabulous. He taught 6 dances - all keepers - and the music was marvelous. His singing and yelling during the dances just added to everyone's enjoyment - and was quite contagious! He was very personable: attended the other instructor's sessions, participated in the evening parties and was always ready to answer any questions"
Now, let's go into the particulars of the council's annual Presidents' weekend workshop. We've included several pictures of the Orlando Renaissance hotel which is located near (in the area of) the airport. We assume that the workshop took place in the hotel's ballroom and the last picture of this montage shows the ballroom hosting a concert of some sort. Being at the Orlando airport, this hotel would be very convenient for Roberto on his trip from Italy and Roberto used this facility for his overnight stays. In this, Roberto would not be alone as many of the dancers stayed overnight(s) at this hotel including some dancers from the local Orlando community.
While Pat Henderson thinks there were many pictures taken during these sessions, here in this montage are the few photos of the workshop that were shared and appeared in the Florida Folkdancer, the newsletter of the Florida Folk Dance Council. And, while we are talking about these newsletters, you can view the archive of this newsletter - and we believe that you'll agree with us that it is laid out very professionally by Pat who is the editor- by clicking here.
The limited pictures above certainly makes it look like everyone enjoyed themselves at the workshop. The council newletter has also printed written reviews from the participants. While not every review was praiseworthy, we've taken a few and included them here. Most of these reflect the same enjoyment as expressed by Andi Kapplin above. And, quite frankly, we will see the same response as we report on the other venues where Roberto was holding forth on this trip to the US. But, you the reader, can easily check google and you will see the same type of reviews that Roberto has consistently received throughout his years of giving workshops worldwide.
If you weren't there, we can provide a list of the dances taught noting that this workshop pertained to International dance so these dances will not be familiar to those readers familiar with Israeli dancing. If you want to delve into this, you can read Roberto's notes on content that have been made public by the Folk Dance Council. You will find that Roberto notes include the dances Branle De La Fosse Aux Loups (France), Bum Bum Boje (Macedonia), Corlu(Romania), Dansje Vous Elsche (Netherlands), Hai Ne Ne Ne (Russian Gypsy) and Kerem Eyle (Serbian Gypsy). This however was not the true repertoire taught that weekend as Roberto actually taught Corlu, Hai Ne Ne Ne, Repasseado, Serez, Te Joci Cu Focul and Vendegkuldo. In this montage we are displaying the notes to the first of these dances.
In Roberto's original itinerary, we would at this point be discussing Roberto's trip to Harrisburg, PA. You may recognize the name of this city as it is the capital of Pennsylvania about 120 miles west of Philadelphia. Roberto was scheduled to give a mixed International/Israeli dance workshop for the Susquehanna Folk Music Society as you can see leftmost in this montage. But, we've also included the weather for the Harrisburg area in Feb 15th. Not good for travel given the snow and fog. This forced the cancellation of that evening's workshop.
We should note that Roberto's workshop was part of a set of seminars for this Harrisburg group in world music and dance. Rightmost in this montage are the remaining seminars in this series (from late August 2016) for those readers in that area who might be interested. We've also included left-most Susquehanna's home page which is accessible by clicking here.(Note: this website highly recommends seeing Susan Werner in concert)
With the change of plans, Roberto could have stayed over an extra day in Orlando. But, Roberto had already made provision on where he was going to stay on Tuesday night while in the Philadephia suburbs. Two prominent Philadelphia regional dancers, Israel and Ptina Siegler, already were set to play host to Roberto for that night. In the previous year, the couple had spent time in Italy and part of their acquired Italian routine was to take Roberto's classes in Reggio Emilia. As Roberto's trip was being arranged, they volunteered their hospitality in hosting Roberto for the night of Feb 16th. With the cancellation in Harrisburg, they extended their hospitality to two nights, Monday and Tuesday, Feb 15 & 16. We should mention that there are several Philly based dancers - Lee Friedman, Sharon Polsky, Andrea Wallach, and Wendy and David Friedman - who have partaken of Cape Yofi, Roberto's Israeli dance camp, over the years and the two day layover allowed these dancers to catch up with Roberto at dinners and lunches during these two days and Wednesday afternoon. These pictures were mostly taken by Wendy Friedman and picture Roberto with some of his Camp Yofi students.
By Tuesday night, the weather was fine in the Philadelphia suburbs to host Roberto's dance workshop. But, where? In the Philly area there are classes on Monday and Thursday nights in the immediate Philadelphia suburbs. Tuesday night is in South Jersey. Sunday mornings sees Israeli dance in the Germantown section of the city and several Wednesdays in the month see Israeli dancing taking place in Wilmington. This is further limited in that Roberto's appearance would only make sense if a significant number of dancers would attend and chip in. It turns out that the only real possibility would have been the Monday night session if it could be moved to Tuesday. As luck would have it, this session was delayed to Tuesday Feb 16th given the Presidents' day holiday. The Philly dancers know this as the RikudPhilly@BethSholom session (the session's location is Beth Sholom in Elkins Park) and this group publicized Roberto's visit through their Constant Contact Email software as shown here.
This website covers this Beth Sholom session as part of Israeli dance activities in the Philadelphia area both past and present. Let's give you a short history of the facility and then we'll look at the history of dancing at this venue. As far as Beth Sholom the synagogue is concerned, it's rare to dance in such a building that is a National historic landmark. The reason for this is the architect of the building, the great Frank Lloyd Wright. He combined with the religious leader of the existing Beth Sholom at the time, Mortimer Cohen, to develop a plan that would soar into the skies. The pictures here are of Wright (left) and Cohen on the construction site, the Wright plans and the building lit up at night. You can read more about the development of Beth Sholom by clicking here.
There is also a history of Israeli dancing at the synagogue. During the early years of this century a Tuesday night class in this genre of dancing was led by Sharon Polsky. Her class was joined (and superceded in 2011) at first on Wednesday, then Monday by a class run by Don Schillinger. Don's class continued to the end of March 2013 and then Don had to drop it for a variety of reasons. This montage has various pictures of Sharon and Don leading their classes at Beth Sholom. You can view a script that features Sharon Polsky by clicking here and a script dedicated to Don's last class at Beth Sholom by clicking here.
When Don's class ended, a number of dancers who were members of Beth Sholom decided to petition the Adult Education dept of the synagogue to sponsor a replacement for Don's class. It was their feeling that being a component of Adult education had pluses that far outweighed any minuses. Pluses were that the dancing group would not have to rent the Fleishman Auditorium, where the dance class meets, from the synagogue. A minus is that cutbacks in adult education funds probably would affect the status of the class and no one knows what the economy will bring. Another minus might be getting someone to voluntarily control and run the class although there were more than enough volunteers as it would happen. These three people pictured here, Talma, Steve and Marek stand out in getting the synagogue to reopen dancing in June, 2013.
Obviously these efforts were successful as other volunteers joined the effort. These volunteers include the aforementioned Sharon Polsky and the well known Israeli dance music programmer/instructor Rob Markowitz. By June 2016, the session was able to celebrate a big third year anniversary of dancing. Included in the Beth Sholom group's accomplishments was the inviting of Roberto Bagnoli to run his workshop on Feb 16th during his February tour of the US. In the intervening years since its inception, this session has become popular with the local Philly dancers and its not unusual for an evening's attendance to reach 70 or more participants. The group has augmented its funding through the Adult education program by allowing the participants to contribute to the session's upkeep. The pictures in this montage were taken early on the June 20th, 2016 session marking its third anniversary.
So, having given you the information about the session, we can now turn to Roberto's workshop at Beth Sholom in Elkins Park, PA on Tuesday, Feb 16th, 2016. Our photographer caught up with him early about 7PM. In one of these shots we have Roberto conferring with Rob presumably about the music needed for his workshop. Another shot shows the food and beverage table being prepared and the final shot shows the children's playthings (the Fleishman Auditorium in real life is the home of Beth Sholom's pre-school) awaiting the music and dancing.||Lo stage di Roberto a Beth Shalom di Elkins Park in Pennsylvania, il 16 Febraio 2016. In una foto, vediamo Roberto, discuttando con Rob i detagli del programma, la musica, ecc
Of course, the lack of participants is transitory as very shortly more and more dancers arrive. These pictures were taken from 7:30 through 8PM or so. Many of these dancers are recognizable to anyone local to Philadelphia who is looking at this - they go by the names of Andrea, Lee, Malkah, Susan, Wendy, Warren and so forth. Even the music that was danced to can be discerned: the head turn by Lucy indicates Amalel Shir for instance. This workshop, like the weekly session, started out with easier Israeli dances and many of the early participants that night were beginner dancers and this may have been the first Israeli dance workshop for many of these participants. Notice that Roberto is both dancing in the line and smoozing as one of these shots has him talking with John Frank who is another well known Israeli dancer in the area. Our photographer this evening, who prefers anonymity, is also well known to many of the dancers and you can see several instances of greetings with Lillian the most vivid. And note: clicking on any of the pictures prsented in this script will show you the orginal size.||Queste foto erano scattati dalle 19:30 fino alle 20:00. Si possono riconoscere I ballerini filadelfiani, Andrea, Lee, Malkahm Susanm Wendy, e Warren. Nel guardare a Lucy in questa foto, si capisce che stia ballando Amalel Shir, come gira la testa. Lo stage, come del solito, inizia con I balli più semplici in cui i ballerini principianti possono partecipare, qualcuno per la prima volta. Si nota che Roberto balla col gruppo, ma pure, chiacchiara con I nostri ballerini, per esempio, John Frank, un nostro ballerino di filadelfia. Nostro fotografo, chi rimane anonomo, è molto conosciuto ai ballerini, e in questa foto sta parlando con Lillian. Nel cliccare sopra le immagini, è possible vedere la grandezza originale.
It's probably about 8PM at this point. The dancing has been going on for about 45 minutes as the session started about 7:15. About 20 or so dancers are on the floor. We see Roberto intermingling with the group in this set of pictures.||Alle 20:00, dopo 45 minuti di ballo, vediamo un gruppo di 20 ballerini con Roberto.
As the dancing continues, more and more dancers arrive. We estimate that in the end the maximum number of dancers on the dance floor was close to 100. It was now time for Roberto to teach his first dance, Tu Romnie, which is international and not Israeli. Those who have experienced Roberto before knew what to expect but what a shock for those of us who had never danced with him before. Roberto is a bundle of energy whose joy in dancing is so obvious that it is infused into his students. These pictures are stills taken from a short video of a portion of his teach. The video, which is below, is just one of enthusiasm to the point that you will see dancers primp for the camera.||Piano piano arrivano più ballerini. In fine eravamo in 100. A queto punto Roberto ha insegnato il primo ballo, Tu Romnie, un ballo internazionale, non israeliano. Chi già conosceva Roberto capiva com’è, ma chi l’ha conosciuto per la prima volta, si rimaneva meravigliato da lui. Qui si vede in un pezzo del video il suo entusiasmo e la sua energia ben diffusa con gli studenti.
Here is the video that we have for Tu Romnie. The video goes for 49 seconds and is only a portion of the dance. Watch the enthusiam of the dancers as our photographer pans around the circle. Roberto seems to extract this from the participants. By the way, here's some information about this dance. It seems that the creator of the music is Mahala Rai Banda. You can listen to the music itself by clicking here. (wait till the video is done to avoid sound conflict.)||Ecco il video di Tu Romnie. Il video dura 49 secondi e consiste di solo una porzione del ballo. Si vede l’entusiasmo dei ballerini intorno al circolo. Roberto è ben apprezzato dagli studenti. L’autore della musica è Mahala Rai Banda che sentirete se cliccate quí.
As mentioned, as the evening moves on after his first teach, more and more dancers take to the floor. Eventually Roberto parks himself in the middle of the circle and leads the dancing. As it will turn out, there are three more dances that he intends to teach at this workshop. His positioning at the center of the circle will allow him to easily transform into a teacher. Our photographer was only able to video the first three dances taught before his batteries ran out.||La serata proseguiva bene dopo il primo insegnamento, e poi, piuù ballerini arrivavano sulla pista. Eventualmente, Roberto conduceva I balli dal centro del circolo. Dallì, insegnava ancora un paio dei balli.
So, this is Roberto's third teach. The dance is Kmo Achshav choreographied by Yaron Ben Simchon. This montage is a set of stills taken from the video recorded by our photographer. The dance, like all of Simchon's dances, has many interesting turns. Ben Simchon has become a very popular choreographer during the last few years. Israeli dancers know him as a kind of sidekick to the choreographer Gadi Bitton and both choreographers have appeared together many times at various camps and workshops around the world.||Ecco l’ultimo ballo insegnato di Roberto. Il ballo si chiama Kmo Achshav, di Yaron Ben Simchon. Il ballo, come molti di Ben Simchon, ha molti giri interessanti. Lui è diventato un coreografo molto popolare negli ultimi anni. Spesso, insegna assieme a Gadi Bitton in vari stage dappertutto il mondo.
And, this is the actual video of Roberto teaching Kmo Achshav. Kmo Achshav is sung by Harel Skaat who also wrote the music. You can hear the renditon by Skaat by clicking here. If you would like to watch the choreographer's (Yaron Ben Simchon) rendition, this is also available on Youtube by clicking here. Two notes on this video: Note 1: This is just the teach as the batteries in the camera expired just as the music started to play after Roberto's teach. Note 2: Our photographer forgot that he was also recording audio and you will hear some back and forth with Elaine Frank, John Frank's wife. Elaine probably was asking whether he was filming for this website as Elaine is probably this website's biggest fan. So, Elaine, you certainly were correct and we're very happy to include you in this script.||Ecco il video di Roberto nel insegnare Kmo Achshav, cantata da Harel Skaat, l’autore della musica. Cliccate quì per ascoltare la canone di Skatt. Cliccate quà se volete guardare il video di Yaron Ben Simchon, oppure quà per vederlo tramite youtube. Il video con Roberto è registrato mentre Roberto insegna il ballo. All’improvviso si sente il nostro fotografo parlando con John e sua moglie Elaine, informandoli che questo video sarebbe presente sul sito web, ben apprezzato da Elaine.
Anyway, as you can see above, Roberto drew a crowd whose perimeter extended to the maximum of the Fleishman Auditorium. This website would conclude that this was a successful workshop in terms of attendance. For Roberto, it's off the next night to the next scheduled workshop to be held at the International folk dance session that meets every Wednesday night at Or Chadash synagogue. The official name of this group is the Beaver Folk dancing Weekly At Or Chadash and this deserves an explanation. The session was begun sometime in the middle 70's at Beaver College in Glenside PA. Sometime in the middle 90's, twenty years or so later, the dance space that the session used was appropriated for additional classrooms, administrative offices and student labs. With no place to dance, the location was changed to Or Chadash, in Fort Washington, PA. The Synagogue itself had started on the grounds (and in the facility) of a Jewish college in Wyncote but by 1995 had grown large enough that a new location was warranted. A building being vacated by a Presbyterian church was discovered and after extensive changes became the new home of the synagogue. This building, named Fairwold, had a rich history in itself originally being built in 1888 by the Heberton family on their then exising farm in what was then called Camp Hill (now Fort Washington). The dance session moved into Or Chadash not that long after the congregation had obtained and renovated the building. You can see more about the history of the building by clicking here.
Now, several words about Beaver College which in itself has an interesting history. While many Philadelphia area residents might think that a local location might be named Beaver Hill and a college might erect a building at or on it, the college really starts as a female Methodist seminary in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, not far from where an Ohio River tributary, the Beaver river, originates. By 1872, the facility is a college open to both men and women although, in 1907, it again reverts to all women. For some reason that someday we may investigate, the college moves east in 1925 to a location in Jenkintown, PA and affiliates itself with the Presbyterian church. In 1928, the college acquires Grey Towers in nearby Glenside and, by 1962, operations are consolidated at the Grey towers site. In 1972, men were again admitted. And finally, In 2001, as the college attains University status, it changes its name to Arcadia college as it is known today.
So, on Wednesday Feb 17th, 2016, Roberto Bagnoli arrived at Or Chadash in Fort Washington, PA to teach a workshop for the Beaver Folk Dancing Weekly At Or Hadash dance session led by Sue Anderson after having had an early dinner at the Moonlight Diner on Limekiln Pike in Wyncote PA. The picture here is taken at the restaurant and, besides Roberto, includes many of the Phila. based dancers who have attended various sessions in Italy led by Roberto. This website has limited information about the rest of the evening and how it went. Perhaps some day we will be able to give you a discography of the dances Roberto taught that evening! Maybe someday some pictures will be unearthed! But, we are confident that the dancers at this session were as thrilled with Roberto's efforts as were the dancers at Beth Sholom.||Il giorno seguente, il 17 Febraio, Roberto è arrivato ad Or Chadash a Fort Washington, ad insegnare una lezione per Beaver Folk Dancing Weekly da Or Hadash, la cui “leader” è Sue Anderson. Prima di ballare vede un gruppo di ballerini con Roberto da Moonlight Diner a Wyncote in Pennsylvania, un ristorante della zona. Non abbiamo molta informazione di quello stage, però, siamo confidenti che Roberto fosse ben apprezzato pure lì!
On Thursday, Feb 18th, Roberto headed south into the Washington DC area to appear that night at the Alexandria Folk Dancers' session led by Patricia Day Williams. This group has recently changed its name to better reflect its location and the reader may know of this group as the Mount Vernon International Folk Dancing session. The session meets on Thursdays from 8 to 10PM at the Mount Vernon Unitarian Church in Alexandria although for this Thursday the session was extended to 10:30PM. Similar to the other groups, Patricia had been advertising Roberto's appearance as shown here. Patricia culled the quotes from Roberto’s most recent appearance at Mainewoods Dance Camp, where she first met Roberto several years ago. She is delighted to report that he fully lived up to the quotes!
Roberto was asked to teach three international dances; Branle de la Fosse aux Loups, Bum Bum Boje, and Hai Ne Ne Ne which have been mentioned before, and one Israeli dance, Rafsoda. These requests correspond with the dance repertoire of the session: mostly International but with a fair amount of Israeli.
Rafsoda was relatively new at the time of Roberto's visit and is the artistic work of the famous Israeli Dance choreographer Gadi Bitton in 2015. We don't have specific pictures of Roberto doing this teach so we have substitued several pictures from Gadi's teach and demonstration of this dance in Brazil that same year.
But we do have some pictures of Roberto at this session that have been graciously submitted by Patricia. The turnout of thirty one dancers was excellent, drawing both international and Israeli dancers and dance teachers from VA, DC, and MD, to join the regulars who meet every Thursday. Leftmost, this montage shows Roberto as he reviews one of the dances for videotaping, with a subset of dancers participating. The second photo shows Roberto reviewing his dance Hai Ne Ne Ne for videotaping, again with some of the dancers participating while others watched and ate from the festive spread shown in the last photo.
For his final set of seminars on this trip to the US, Roberto, on Friday morning, flew down to a workshop sponsored by the Albuquerque International Folk Dance Foundation known as AIFDF. Roberto's workshop would physically take place at the Lloyd Shaw Dance Center where the AIFDF regularly meets. The dance center is named after a very interesting Colorado resident active in education from the 1930's to his death in 1958. Dr Lloyd Shaw studied and attempted to bring back American dance lore/dances from an earlier time. There is still a Lloyd Shaw foundation dedicated to sustaining Dr Shaw's work and passion and possibly this is the funding source of this dance studio although a different story is indicated on AIFDF's website. We don't know if Roberto would be aware of this but to some degree his work with FARE in Italy is akin to what Dr Shaw did earlier in the middle of the last century. This montage's pictures are of the Albuquerque dance studio and Dr Shaw.
The AIFDF generally meets on Saturday evenings and has a very informative website which you can access by clicking here. This website has scanned the site and we present several pictures of dancing found on their website in this montage. Two things are evident from the pictures in this montage: (1)in many cases costume and dancing are combined (2)there is a great passion brought into the session's dancing.
In a similar manner to the other dance venues on Roberto's tour, the AIFDF publicized his appearance on their website. It seems that they had been trying to have him visit and give a workshop for several years. The Stockton referenced here is the Stockton Folk Dance Camp, an annual summer Internation Folk Dance workshop housed at the University Of The Pacific in Stockton, Ca where most years Roberto is one of the featured instructors.
During the weekend of the Albuquerque dance workshop Roberto was scheduled to teach during four workshop sessions. The first was Friday night, Feb 19th, starting at 8, then there were two sessions on Saturday starting at 9:30AM with a break for lunch around twelve and then a second session from 1:30 to 4PM. On Sunday there was a final session to the dance weekend that morning. In that time Roberto taught eight dances to the workshop participants. Several of these dances have already been mentioned above and several are part of Roberto's dance notes also mentioned above. Now, thanks to one of the AIFDF organizers, Laura Dickenson, we have several pictures of Roberto teaching in the middle and dancing as part of the circle. These pictures in this montage are tight shots of Roberto in the middle of the circle explaining the dances. We think you can see here what is normally described about Roberto's teaching style: very precise and yet very elegant.
And, these shots in the top row of this montage - from the same source as indicated above - shows the Albuquerque dancers, with Roberto as part of the circle, practicing what he had been teaching. We also enjoyed the background displays on the walls of the Lloyd Shaw center that weekend and have cropped some of the pictures to show the saddleblankets (also called Mexican or Navejo Serapes), the musical note mobiles and the pictures on the wall which apparently include portraits of Lloyd Shaw. Just the ambiance of the dance studio must have made this a great weekend of dancing.
The Florida Folk Dance Council is composed of at least seven clubs that we list below:
Dances taught during Roberto's February tour of the US.
| Dance | Location | Video |
|---|---|---|
| Corlu | Orlando, Albuquerque | |
| Hai Ne Ne Ne | Orlando, Alexandria, Albuquerque | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2XWpTED10 |
| Repasseado | Albuquerque | |
| Serez | Orlando, Albuquerque | |
| Te Joci Cu Focul | Albuquerque | |
| Vendegkuldo | Orlando, Albuquerque | |
| Tu Romnie | Elkins Park, Albuquerque | |
| Tzifteteli Tourkiko | Albuquerque | |
| El Hamayim | Elkins Park | |
| Kmo Achshav | Elkins Park | |
| Mistovev | Elkins Park | |
| Branle de la Fosse aux Loups | Alexandria | |
| Bum Bum Boje | Alexandria | |
| Rafsoda | Alexandria | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baxMMS1J-HI |
We would like to thank Pat Henderson of the Florida Folk Council for proofreading this script. Again, you might be interested in Pat's newsletters, officially titled as the Florida Folkdance, which can be accessed at http://www.floridafolkdancer.org/archive