Readers of this website, thediskcoordinator.com, know that there is a special section at the bottom of the index (welcome) page that pertains to what was known at the time as the Cherry Hill field trips. This name derived from the Cherry Hill Israeli dance session which at that time met on Tuesday nights and was led by Naomi. The field trips started with a 2009 Sunday "dance" trip to Brendenwood, a retirement/nursing home complex in Evesham, NJ. The reason for this choice was that the Mother of several of the Tuesday night dancers was living at Brendenwood at the time. The dancers and the Mother requested a special dance session to "cheer up" this complex. When the Mother moved to Lion Gate in Berlin NJ, the session began to give performances there, too. This montage contains a few pictures from these early performances.

By 2011 the group was moving a lot further into New Jersey. One of these performances was at the Greenwood building of the Abrams House retirement complex in Washington Crossing, NJ. At the time, another of the session's dancers had her Mother in residence there. By that time this website had begun to document each of these performances in specific scripts. You can access this script involving the performance at Greenwood by clicking here. Similar to the montage above, these pictures were taken at the performance that Sunday.

One of the little things that was noticed by the dancers that Sunday at Greenwood was the art preparation used to inform the residents of the date and time of the performance. The pictures in this montage show this. Of the many Cherry Hill field trips taken over the 4 to 5 year period of 2008 through 2013, this presentation seemed to have the most publicity given through these internal (to the residence) PR pieces.

We would find out later that this PR was the work of Laurina Kaligowski, NAAP. The NAAP designation pertains to nursing home professionals who attend to the residents' creative and educational needs. If you study the history of this profession originally this type of entertainment centered around bingo and resident birthdays. Today, this is a big subject in nursing homes and residences and the profession itself hosts a website at www.naap.info in addition to hosting a yearly annual conference which coincidently will be held in Philadelphia during April, 2018. Obviously the interest in the prior Cherry Hill Field trips over the years proved that even the scope of entertainment had broadened out. But Laurina had gone much further in this with her creative uses of PR and art work to publicize this event at the Greenwood house.

Anyway, after 2013, the field trips were no more. As far as this web site understands no other local group took up the slack and, quite frankly, the only reminisces of these performances lies on our Index (or welcome) page as indicated in this picture. You can see this for yourself at the bottom of the disk coordinator web site.

Therefore it was a surprise when this Email shown here showed up Oct 8, 2017 in this website's mail box. We might as well add that you can reach this website at diskcrd@thediskcoordinator.com. It took a bit to understand the context of the message: even to understand the reference to Greenwood given that our documentation in the abovementioned script deals with Abrams. But, in due time we understood the intention. But, who do we send it to? Since one of our editors, Marc Rauer, had attended many of the CHFT events, we forwarded this message to his mailbox to let him deal with it. What follows in this script is Marc's description, in his own words, of the events leading to a performance at the Regency Jewish Heritage nursing home on Jan 7, 2018.

I guess there probably wasn't a worse time to have this Email land in my mailbox. This occured sometime in the middle of October, 2017 just as I was starting to work with Sharon Schanzer on a new lecture that we periodically give after the Germantown Sunday morning sessions. In addition, there was a bit of prep work going on for the annual Homage to Scorpio's event at Germantown not to mention that I was to be the guest leader at the Germantown session in a few weeks given Grant's expected absense. The dates for all this were in flux, moving from Nov 5th through Nov 19th although in the end all of this would settle on Nov 12th. Nevertheless, On Monday, Oct 16th, I chatted up a few dancers at the Beth Sholom session that Monday to determine interest and by Wednesday I had created the Email that accompanies these words (either to the left, right or above depending on something called a randon number generator). This Email was sent to several past participants of the Cherry Hill field trips, several other dancers in the Philadelphia region who I thought might be interested and Elyse Litt, who I had just seen at a special event held by Don Schillinger at the Germantown Cricket Club.

I specifically decided to invite Elyse, pictured here from another event, since she had just sent me her schedule of dance classes and I thought she might be the person to front this. As of October, 2017, here's Elyse's Israel dance teaching schedule:
* Tues ladies night Congregation Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob & David (AABJ and D), 7 30-10ish. 700 Pleasant Valley way in West Orange (great class for beginners, intermediate around 9)
* Wed Nights Temple Beth Or-Beth Torah 111 Valley Rd, Clark, NJ 07066, 7 till 1030 (advanced beginners to intermediate and advanced)
* Thurs nights Temple Beth El in Hillsborough, 67 US-206, Hillsborough Township, NJ 730 to 930 (Beginners to intermediate) Alternating with another teacher.
Note: Elyse added the following: Anyone thinking of joining us should E Mail me first at dances.from.the.heart@gmail.com to check for schedule changes and be added to my mailing list.

Anyway, in talking with several dancers, the date of Jan 7th, 2018 was settled upon. At that time, in October, all we could expect was that January 7th would probably be colder as January on the East Coast is cold. It might be snowing, there's always that chance. But what was not expected was an Arctic cold front now unfondly remembered as the Bomb Cyclone. Jan 7, 2018 was part of a particularly cold set of days. Nevertheless, the show had to go on no matter the weather. Shortly after New Year's a back and forth set of Emails with Elyse were written and digested. Here we show Elyse's Email discussing the music we might use. Now, I don't know about you but I like to keep tabs on the origins of things and, so, I found this list to be quite interesting. And, to show you the differences between the different regional dance areas, some of these dances such as Adon Olam and Shuj Shuj Zemer either were never introduced in the Phila area or had been introduced and forgotten.

I had told Laurina that I wanted to come up to her facility prior to our performance. The date selected for my visit was January 5th. I asked Lee Friedman if she'd mind riding shotgun and providing navigational instructions on this trip and she readily accepted. So, on perhaps the coldest January fifth on record with the temperature never above the teens and the wind gusts never below 20 mph, we made our way to the Regency location. My Prius is not designed to travel well in this weather. The wind caught the car and readily moved it at its whim. Roads next to pastures and leas were very snow covered from wind driven drifts. I've included a map (originating at Quakerbridge Mall which is at the juncture of US 95 and Rt 1) to show you our travel itinerary.

When Lee and I arrived, shaking from the cold and the wind, we were in for a pleasant surprise. Similar to what was described above, Laurina had again gone out of her way to publicize the performance to her facility as these pictures show. I can't tell you where she found the photo that showed Darcy and Mike in the forefront (seen best in the leftmost and rightmost picture) but it certainly was not from this web site. Additionally you can see an unidentified bystander, and then Lee and Laurina (laurina, right in the rightmost picture) posing with the advertising.

Laurina then led us to the auditorium where the Sunday performance would be held. I took a few pictures at first with Lee and Laura placed in the middle of the dance area. Eventually, Lee and I spaced ourselves at the extremes of a phantom dance circle and did a mayim to gauge how many dancers would fit and we both concluded that up to 14 dancers up could simultaneously be in that area.

I should include a picture of the stage which is a bit further down from the proposed area of our performance. To my mind this was very "ecumenical" given that the facility seemed very Jewish oriented but had a snowman on the stage. I congratulated Laurina for the snowman but commented that most snowmen were decorated in red. Apparently dressing Mr Snowman in blue made him more of a Jewish snowman in the view of the facility.

Now these pictures, taken outside the building, seem more appropriate for a Jewish oriented facility. Having braved the cold and wind coming up to Somerset, both Lee and I certainly weren't overly happy contemplating the ride back. It seemed even colder and windier as we left after 2PM. But, at least we knew the maps made sense and we expected that the ride back would seem shorter than the ride up.

When I got home I decided to create an Email (shown here) sent to those dancers who had indicated an interest throughout the last few months. Specific instructions on how to get to the facility from the south (from Pennsylvania) were included - those coming from the East or North would need to get their own navigational aids. The dance repertoire suggested by Elyse was included. I decided on a color scheme for the group similar to that worn during the earlier CHFTs - White tops with blue jeans.

In addition I felt that a program giving the audience some information would be advisable. Of course, I could have duplicated the programs that Andrew created years ago for the CHFT. As I've included it here, you can see that they were cute and as informative as needed. But, as usual, I went much further than needed as you will see directly below.

Working through Friday night into Saturday morning I created a two page handout that I thought would handle what was needed as far as an audience program handout. The first part, about a half a page, gave a short history of Israeli dance and how it evolved from International Dance. After that, I took most of the dances from Elyse's list and gave the reader the specs on the dance: choreographer, singer, music created by and lyrics created by using information from Aura Lipski's web site at www.israelidances.com. On Saturday morning I sent off my original effort of a program to Darcy who made some modifications. There were some typos to change but Darcy deleted one particular item pertaining to Shuj Shuj Zemer that would become a major topic of conversation after the presentation when some of us went out to eat afterward. Anyway, you can access the entire two page document by clicking here.

Well, we get to the big day. Jan 7, 2018 was very cold but, at least, not bitter. The wind had died down. It would be interesting to see how many dancers showed up. A lot of the dancers emailed their inability to make this engagement. Probably this was because of prior commitments and/or the weather but, in at least one case, due to illness. My thinking was that whoever came, we'd do our performance and I was sure that the audience would have at least some entertainment that afternoon. Similar to Friday's trip, I picked up Lee and we made our way to Somerset, NJ. By the way, I should at least mention a bit about the area should any readers want to visit. It's not highly developed and it's part of Somerset county although Somerville is the county seat. In fact, it's not even its own township being a part of Franklin township. If you locate New Brunswick and draw a line to Somerville (the line would be going Northwest), Somerset would be at the middle of this line. Coming from the South, as many of the dancers would be doing, it's not too accessible. As opposed to access roads such as US 1 and Interstate 95 for New Brunswick, and 206 for Somerville, Somerset's main accessibility lies with Rt 27 which is not designed for high speed travel. However, for those coming from the North US 287 dips down underneath the head of the Raritan river and makes Somerset much more accessible. Here's a more detailed map with the red circle designating the Regency facility and the blue circle denoting the StageHousetavern where most of the dancers would congregate for a meal after the performance.

Lee and I were the first to arrive. It was about 1:30 or so. From this picture you can see that the Heritage facility was eagerly awaiting our arrival - Notice the addition of 'Today'. Shortly, Darcy and Mike arrived, laughing at their prominence in this picture, and we proceded to the auditorium to see how that was now configured.

When we all went into the auditorium several residents were already in the room as denoted by these pictures. Laurina had set up some audio equipment in the corner and we could see, in the back of the room, that a table of light snacks and drinks were being set up. This was the first time we were seeing the structure of the chairs (and wheelchairs and walkers) and eventually we asked Laurina if we could move the chairs back a bit to get a bit more room.

In today's society you're never far away from communications although in my case it was a near thing. On what would turn out to be my cell phone's last day of existance (I think the battery finally gave way) I learned by phone or email that several other dancers would not be making it for a variety of reasons. It was possible that we might be as low as 6 dancers when we performed. This picture shows Darcy and Mike both talking with Laurina. Darcy brought her own audio equipment which meant that we could entertain the ever growing audience with music as we awaited Elyse's arrival.

About this time Lee did her thing as only she could. Those who know her know of her unique ability to work a room and these pictures (which include Vera) show her in action. I'm in a bit of a different situation being afraid of strangers and new locations. In the end Lee was successful in having learned quite a bit about the people who made up the audience. My attempts to hide which is my common reaction when meeting new people would be much less successful as I was a small part of the entertainment.

And, having mentioned Vera in the previous montage, you, the reader, should know that our group had the assistance and benefit of two teachers of Israeli dance in this performance. Above I related a bit of information about Elyse Litt. This montage includes pictures of Vera who holds a weekly session in central New Jersey. Thanks to these teachers, who have experience leading dancers through routines, the initial butterflies in performing in front of others quickly dispersed and dissapated at the appropriate time.

Now, I don't want to leave you with the feeling that everything went smoothly. I was the cause of some problems in scheduling. When Naomi did her field trips, the starting time was at 3PM with a group meetup at 2:30. This was my thinking when I sent out the first Emails. Stupidly, in talking with Laurina on the evening of Jan 2nd, I did not bring up the question of start time. This was not brooched until we saw Laurina on our Jan 5th trip. Laurina had set a 2 to 3PM schedule for the group. This caused a lot of problems for several of the dancers, including Elyse, who were under the impression that we were all meeting at 2:30. I apologize to everyone for not handling this correctly and any inconvenience that resulted. These pictures show the dancers as 2PM came and went.

As the crowd enlarged, and more dancers arrived, about 2:15 Vera took it upon herself to instruct the audience in the arm movements of Nigun Atik, an easy beginner Israeli dance, which the dancers then performed. These pictures were taken during the performance of this first dance.

With a first dance under our belts, Vera started preparations for a second, the line dance Turkish Kiss. Turkish kiss has extensive arm movements and was a perfect dance to solicit audience participation given the audience's limitations of movement. This montage shows our group performing this dance and I can add, as I looked over the audience, that many in the audience were mirroring our arm movements.

By 2:20 Elyse had arrived and took over the presentation, as we can see here. over the next 12 or so dances, Elyse would introduce the next dance to the audience with a brief description and the language of the music. I know I learned some things from her intros so I'm sure the audience did, too.

This is an enlargement showing only Elyse as she addresses the crowd. The role of the presentation leader is very important in allowing the audience to really enjoy the dancing. Similar to Naomi, in a clear and decisive voice, Elyse gave a brief description of the dance, the language, perhaps the origin and how it fit in the modern concepts of the present genre of Israeli dance. While I believe several of the Philly based dancers were surprised in how well Elyse did this, I wasn't surprised and you, the reader, shouldn't be surprised either given the previous Emails from her that I have shown and discussed above.

At selected times I stepped out to take some pictures. Laurina also was taking pictures as we were performing. The combination of Laurina's and my pictures make up the pictures in these montages showing the performance. Notice that our group looked pretty good in the white and blue colors. I can report that there was enthusiatic clapping after most of the presentations. The circle was so close and "cozy" that some of the dancers were able to follow other dancers when confronted with an unfamiliar dance.

Of course, for one dancer, the important thing was to continue to work the room. Here are some shots I took showing Lee doing just that. And it appears that Lee retains much of what is told to her as she would relate much information about the audience to the other dancers at the dinner after the performance.

All the while more and more residents are being seated in the auditorium. These pictures, taken at the same time as the video below, show that, as Laurina had promised, the auditorium was pretty much full. I have a tendency to count everything, number of dancers, number of people in the audience and, perhaps, the number of dances performed. My numbers were the following: 9 dancers, 1 photographer, 66 in audience (Laurina thinks it was 80), two dances done early with Vera, 11 dances done with Elyse during the main performance and, finally, one dance as an encore.

One specific dance that the Philly area based dancers didn't know was Adon Olam. Elyse included this in the performance. The lyrics seem to be in both Hebrew and French although I am not an expert in language. Anyone knowing me knows that I'm still learning English. What's interesting here is that half the dancers (and the one snowman) really didn't know the steps as they started but were still able to follow and learn the steps as the music progressed. In this way everyone made their contribution to this dance presentation. Note:For some browsers you may have to run your mouse over the picture to see the controls.

After more than an hour of dancing (including the one encore) the presentation was finished. At least one audience member required more photos as you can see here. I don't know the name of the individual but he certainly made an impression accompanying the dancers for a while with his tamborine.

Sometime earlier in the day Darcy, after some research, had found a suitable restaurant, the Stagehousetavern, for the group to meet and eat after the presentation. This shot is from their website. Eight of us had dinner there and all of us talked initially about the Regency performance. Eventually a discussion of my writeup ensued. You may remember reading above that I sent a draft to Darcy and it was her edited version that was passed out to the residents. One major deletion had occurred and this was discussed during our dinner.

I've been told that I have an idiosyncratic mind. This might be because I like to find insignificant relational factors between things. When looking up the dance Shuj Shuj Zemer, I was struck with the accoutrements worn by the singer (also musician and lyricist) Gjyste Vulaj. The pictures here are taken from Gjyste's youtube video for her song. Notice anything interesting in these pictures? This was mentioned somewhat prominently in my original version of the audience handout but was deleted by Darcy's editing. Everyone at the table had a laugh in the respective explanations of the inclusions and deletions.

In the end there were 10 of us who made it that afternoon. Let's list them (and one other) for you so you know who to thank for making this presentation a success on a day that was part of a weekend of bitter weather. First, let's thank Moshe Gordon for taking photographs of this performance (and I hope one day to see them). Also, I appreciate his language skills in communicating with the audience in several foreign languages. While there are no photographs of him at this performance, this website has several other photos from the diskcoordinator archives.

Great thanks go to Elyse and Vera. Elyse put a lot of effort into her selection of music and it showed. She went far beyond the call of duty for the encore which involved finding a piece of music that the Russian contingent of the audience could especially enjoy. Even though I know it was inconvenient as to the time for her to attend and lead this performance, Elyse's presence and leadership made the difference. And, additional thanks go to Vera for her handling of the audience prior to Elyse's arrival.

Another two dancers to thank are Etty above and Malca below, who came from the Ft Dix area. I should note that both Etty and Malca were regulars of the original CHFTs many years ago and today are regulars at the Beth Sholom session on Monday nights.

Darcy and Mike also deserve a round of thanks for their support in this project. Darcy was one of the earliest to Email her intention to attend and Darcy also edited my initial attempts at a program for the audience as mentioned above. Darcy also did the research that led to the group dinner at the Stagehousetavern.

Many thanks to Ellen Miller for making it to this presentation. Ellen is an avid Israeli dancer who makes it to many of the special Israeli dance events around the East coast including some of Don Schillinger's workshops and marathons in the Philadelphia area. And, what can you say about Lee. Again, many thanks for riding shotgun on our trip to Somerset the Friday before.

And, finally, an especial thanks to Laurina. I hope this performance, despite its minimal planning and cohesion due to the ad hoc nature of it all, met your expectations.