In looking at videos (which you can see for yourself at other pages of this web site) the disk coordinator noted that no site seemed to be dealing with the setup necessary for an Israeli dance session. This lack is also evident on Ballroom dance sites. Yet, anyone who has watched leaders prep for their session or had the opportunity to sub for a leader knows that there is much effort and work necessary to pull off a productive session.
With this in mind, the disk coordinator, armed with his trusty Olympus Evolt 420, decided to document the preps that occur in the Philadelphia area during a recent week. Starting with the Sunday night Klein JCC class when it was still administered by Rob Markowitz, moving next to Naomi Marmorstein's class on Tuesday, followed by Don Schillinger's Thursday session and ending on the Sunday that he was substituting for Grant Schuman at the Germantown session, he snapped the pictures shown below. Subsequently, he was able to document prep for Sharon Kleban's Wilmington class as well as Sharon Polsky's class at Beth Sholom. Below is a pictorial record of the setups necessary for these sessions and special events as they occurred generally early in 2009.
Rob's session was somewhat known for its food as it was derived from Cafe Israel, which was active during the late '80s and through the '90s, and provided all sorts of food for its dancers. From way back, fruit salad had been a favorite of both sessions. When Don took over the administration, the food turned more into snacks as is done at his Thursday session. However, at the time this script was being developed, two dancers handled this fruit salad preparation and the Sunday that the disk coordinator was taking pictures was Caryle Feldman's turn. Below are some pictures of her getting the salad ready for the dancers
Below is the table as it was being set. Caryle is not the only one in preparation. Rob, who we did not photograph that Sunday, was readying his computer and Rich Averett was getting ready to collect admissions. Rich continues to provide this service since Don has taken over. Below is Rich as he is setting up and as he collects money from Marek Milbar, who did some of the translation work for the G12 package
Now, let's switch to Naomi's Tuesday class. Her preparations involve her computer and speakers and getting the refreshments ready. While we did not get pictures of her setup - maybe some other time - we did get a setup sequence of the nighttime janitor, John, as he cleared chairs and tables for the room that was designed for dancing. We should note that John at present is recuperating from a hospital stay and temporarily is not working at Temple Beth Sholom and we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to his future presence there. So below, you see the room with the furnishings and then you also see John as he clears first the linens and placards and then the tables and chairs
Onto Thursday. It seems as if Don has the most advanced equipment with 2 portable computers at times, a receiver and large speakers. You can see some of this laid out in this first picture below. The next 2 pictures show him working to set up the software and pre-arrange the selections. Anybody who deals with operating systems and software, the disk coordinator included, knows that these machines require, if not demand, the user's attention and this is not a time, as the disk coordinator has learned, to be asking questions of Don.
Don also brings in a lot of food as you can see in the center. As opposed to the Sunday night class where fruit salad and nuts rule the day, cookies and drinks are the normal staple for Thursday night. However, there is a tradition of adding ice cream, cake and toppings to this menu for special events - which seem to occur most weeks. Of recent memory, Beth and Yochi's birthday party provided the appropriate ice cream, cake and beer for the occasion, not to mention the belly dancer who showed up to strut her stuff. If memory serves, the disk coordiantor celebrated the Ian Fleming centennial with the appropriate cake and ice cream at Don's Thursday session. Anyway, below is a picture of the food table with a picture of Davida as she collects money and hands out brochures to the likes of dancers and teachers such as Rob Markowitz who is pictured with her.
And that takes us to Sunday at Germantown. On that Sunday, the disk coordinator subbed for Grant in terms of music selection. The Germantown group uses an Ipod mounted on an Ipod speaker. Below are some shots taken when the disk coordinator brought this equipment to the home that he shares with 3 cats to make notes for the upcoming session. The Ipod is somewhat tough mentally to deal with for a PC person as its controls are somewhat counter intuitive (and one can guess that an Ipod person would say the same about a PC) so one needs some practice to get the hang of its operations. Further, the directness of its menus, which lack search functions, forces the user to rely on memory and/or notes as to where music selections reside. Nevertheless, by Saturday afternoon Israeli dance music was coming out of the Ipod somewhat to the consternation of other residents as evidenced below. (or at least to Pi who interrupted one shot and insisted in being in the other) Note: The disk coordinator can tell you from experience that computer equipment is of interest to cats for two reasons: first they emit heat and second: by jumping on the equipment while it is being used, it's possible that they will be fed at an earlier time.
Anyway, on Sunday morning the Ipod and speaker are positioned in the Marcus auditorium for the Sunday morning session. Notes pertaining to music and where these are to be found are at hand and ready to go. The Marcus had been used the night before for an event with lots of flowers and the pictures below show both a massive floral arrangement and the Ipod in position, both of which greeted the dancers as they arrived. If you want to see the play list for that Sunday, click here.
A few weeks later, the disk coordinator attended a Wilmington session and decided to document their setup. Before even discussing the equipment, etc, you should understand that Wilmington was dancing at a substitute location, called Buzzware, that evening. Below, the first shot you see was the room that the dancing was to take place. Sharon Kleban, who is the session leader, takes the most copious notes of any of the the leaders in the area. She keeps a notebook that details the dance protocols done for each session and how well each protocol is tolerated by her group (We use the medical verbiage here given that Sharon programs hospitals systems. If you need a translation, contact this web site). We have had the occasion to copy her notebook and publicize it on this web site in session playlists. The remaining pictures below show the set up of her equipment - a Toshiba Satellite laptop to a woofer (low frequency and low maintenance receiver) into low level speakers. Once up, Sharon utilizes Windows Media Player to make her selections. Below is the setup for the April 29th session.
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Recently, the disk coordinator attended consecutive sessions of Sharon Polsky's Tuesday night session at Beth Sholom on the Old York Road corridor. The Beth Sholom staff is familiar with Israeli dance programs as this synagogue plays host to two weekly sessions, so as far as preparation is concerned, the synagoguue maintenance crew handles the facility preparation with ease, so Sharon spends her time getting her HP laptop ready for the dance repertoire. In the first picture, you can see Sharon wiring her setup on the table provided. The staff has already made containers of water available for the dance participants. For those who wonder what is the dress code at Israeli dance sessions, we believe Sharon has modelled this well. This is not ballroom dance where men are dressed in jackets and slacks and women are dressed accordingly. Israeli dance can be used as an exercise regimen and therefore comfortable clothes and sneaks are the norm as shown here. The second picture is unique to Sharon, her sign says it all about what the upcoming session will entail. The next picture is taken after the wiring is done as Sharon prepares her playlist for the session that will start in several minutes. You can see this playlist by clicking here. Anybody who has dealt with computers in any way knows that things don't always go to plan and the fourth picture (first picture on the next row) shows some sence of bewilderment as to what the computer thinks it's going to do as to play selection and this is subsequently resolved by the time the session started. The next two pictures (fifth and sixth of the series) show the next's week setup as Sharon again prepares her playlist for that session on her computer. And speaking of computers, and the software that's needed, you might wonder as to what programs each of the session leaders are using and someday there will be a pictorial for this. But, some, like Germantown and Wilmington, are using the programs inherent to their respective computers, some are usng DJ power and others experiment with different programs.
