Tisha'ari Od Ktzat

Tisha'ari Od Ktzat
Stay a Bit Longer
2006
Mali Lipson & Moshe
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5221105508966440790#

Chagigah, A Weekend Of Israeli Dance

Philip B. Moss sent a message to the members of Chagigah, A Weekend Of Israeli Dance.

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Subject: Chagigat Hilulim II - The excitement builds!

Please help us out by passing this on to your friends and mailing lists. If you need flyers, please email Philip_b_moss@hotmail.com
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Subject: Chagigat Hilulim II - The excitement builds!

Hi everyone and Shana Tova!

Well, now that the Chagim have begun, it means that camp cannot be far away. So if you haven't done so already, please register to
join us for the Chagigat Hilulim II, the Israeli dance camp of the year!!! Don't miss this weekend!!!

Let's remind you of the basics and then we'll give you some more news.

The Basics
October 16-19, 2009
Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, Oconomowoc Wisconsin (near Milwaukee)

with a fabulous faculty consisting of some of the best markidim and yotzrim on the planet:

Ofer Alfasi
Gadi Bitton
Yaron Carmel
Victor Gabbay
Shmulik Gov-Ari

directed by:

Yossi Almani
Etty Dolgin
Karen Kaplan
Phil Moss

and staffed by:

William Harvey (awesome late night DJ)

Further info and the application can be found at http://www.facebook.com/l/ecc89;www.orsrui.org under "year round." Or contact our
wonderful Chagigah Registrar, Barbara Gordon: osruiprograms@urj.org or 1 847 509 0990 x3

Program/Housing Update
This year, Hilulim joins Chagigah to celebrate Chagigah's Chai (18th) year. This combination of two great camps is sure to lead to
a most memorable Israeli dance weekend. In addition to tons of dancing, we will have numerous special programs, surprises and
events including a tribute to Tel Aviv's 100th birthday. You can count on this wonderful faculty to create a lot of fun and
excitement on and off the dance floor throughout the weekend.

Regarding housing, there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we still have a few semi-private rooms
available on campus in a lovely facility called Nerenberg. It is a new building with nice rooms, a spacious common area, and nice
communal bathrooms down the hall. The bad news is that our semi-private rooms with en-suite bathrooms are now wait listed. But
wait, there is more good news. We still have plenty of space in our dorms/cabins. And, we have opened up a room block at the Lake
Country Inn of Oconomowoc! For those who still want to join us but weren't able to get their preferred accommodation on campus, we
have negotiated a deal at this close-by (5 minute drive), inexpensive motel. Follow this link for further information:
http://www.facebook.com/l/ecc89;www.theunionstation.com/lakecountry/. To make a reservation, call 262-569-9600 and say that you
would like to reserve a room in the Phil Moss/OSRUI room block. Please remember though that you still need to apply to OSRUI (per
the above) and be confirmed for off-site accommodation in advance. Walk-ins are not accepted.

Pre-Camp Party (Thursday, October 15)
We strongly encourage and invite everyone to join us for our traditional pre-camp dance party/workshop which takes place at our
Chicago Thursday night session. Faculty and staff will be with us for what is always a wonderful and exciting night. We will start
at 7:30PM with our usual teaching session for beginners. At 8PM we'll start the workshop with the teachers, followed by open
dancing. The location will be Temple Judea Mizpah, 8610 Niles Center Road, Skokie IL 60076. By the way, if you are coming from
out of town and need home hospitality for Thursday night and/or a ride to camp on Friday, please let Phil know.

Yaron Ben-Simchon
We recently found out that our friend Yaron will not be joining us at Chagigat Hilulim II. We hope he will be with us some time in
the future.

Further Information
For registration/OSRUI-related questions, please contact Barbara Gordon, per the above.

For questions related to the program, please contact:
- Yossi Almani: hilulimusa@gmail.com or 860-985-7550
- Phil Moss: Philip_b_moss@hotmail.com or 847-274-1809

We very much look forward to seeing you at the camp of the year, Chagigat Hilulim II

Yossi Almani
Etty Dolgin
Karen Kaplan
Phil Moss
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Unleadable Sequence in nachon sheat kan

Hi Jeff,

1. Some details of choreography will not be able
to be preserved because choreographers do not know
what we know about what is leadable. Some minor
adustments will need to be made to make some partner
dances work better. The idea is to preserve the
woman's choreography as much as possible and the
man makes the adjustments. This dance offers good
illustrations of this point.

2. The man and woman's footwork is optional and can
be syncopated as long as it does not affect their partner.

3. When separating, the woman's movement is optional
as long as she arrives back to where she is supposed
to be on time.

With these three points, we can address your questions.

>> Shortly after the do si do part that I spoke of above,
>> the woman turns and is facing out with the man behind her.
>> The hand hold is RR and LL. Last week, I perceived this as
>> both dancers doing the same steps as we sort of grapevine
>> to our own L. Now, I see that the footwork is
>> different for the man and the woman.

AW: See point 2 above

>> I see no way
>> to lead the woman's turn after the do si do

AW: You could lead the woman's turn easily enough by
modifying your own movement, making connection with the
hands and using your hand to signal the turn.
See point 1 above.

Another possibility is to say this follows point 3 above
and the woman's turn is optional. Then the man would also
have an optional turn at the same point.

>> What do you think? Is this really social dancing?

AW: The choreography cannot be signaled as done in this video.
Therefore if the choreography must be done as in this video,
it would be a performance dance. However the choreography
could be done close enough for my standards with minor
changes, so for me, this still is a social dance.

For me, a perfomance dance is going to have lifts, drops,
tricks, things that people do not maintain their own balance.
Performance dances will have separate parts for the man and
woman where the woman will not be looking at the man. For
example, she comes forward facing the audience on her own
and does some choreography with the man in the background
that he obviously cannot be leading.

If he can signal the choreography close enough, with only
minor changes to his part, for me that is still social dancing.

Thanks,
Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff.Su@SBCGlobal.net [mailto:Jeff.Su@SBCGlobal.net]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 5:07 AM
To: Andrew Weitzen
Subject: Re: Unleadable Sequence?

Andrew Weitzen wrote:
> Hi Jeff, see below - A
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff.Su@SBCGlobal.net [mailto:Jeff.Su@SBCGlobal.net]
> Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 5:56 PM
> To: Andy Weitzen
> Subject: Unleadable Sequence?
>
> Andy,
>
> This is the Carmiel-winning dancing of the year. I see two things in the
> begining that are problematic leading. The first may just be problematic
> because the woman in the video is not following, but the second is
> something that I think may be invalid choreography for social (v
> performance) dancing.
>
> 1. At the very beginning, at the word "Kan" in the lyrics, the woman
> turns to face the same way as the man. I think this can be led, but not
> the way it is danced in the video.
>
> AW: Agree. She is leading herself at that point,
> and he is just standing there waiting for her to show up.
> You can signal a woman to turn around.
>
> 2. This one is the real problem. Right after the words, "Nachon At
> Rotzah" and after the square-dancing move where the couple walks around
> each other (the name of the sequence escapes me),
>
> AW: do si do
>
> the woman turns while
> the man crosses. There is no physical contact, and the woman has to move
> in the opposite direction as she would if she mirrored him. The only way
> that I can see to lead this without touching is for the man to fake a
> turn for the woman to copy and then abort once it is too late for her to
> abort.
>
> AW: Agree, if she was following she would mirror what he is doing.
>
> Jeff
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUvLfBTi6MQ
>
>
>
Andy,

Last week I came late in the teach, so did not get all the nuances. This
week, Phil reviewed the dance, and there is yet another unleadable part.
Shortly after the do si do part that I spoke of above, the woman turns
and is facing out with the man behind her. The hand hold is RR and LL.
Last week, I perceived this as both dancers doing the same steps as we
sort of grapevine to our own L. Now, I see that the footwork is
different for the man and the woman.

I believe that this is a performance dance. I see no way to lead the
woman's turn after the do si do and the woman's steps as the couple
grapevines to the left as I describe above.

The way that Phil taught this, based on his own video of the
choreographer Marco Ben Shimon, is exactly like this video with one
slight excecption that I do not like. The differene is that Phil taught
the wrap-unwrap sequence releasing his L and her R hand during the
unwrap (so that the woman unwraps herself), whereas I prefer the way it
is done in this video where the hand comes above the woman's head to
unwrap her. That difference is not important, but everything else in
this video is consistant with what Phil taught. So, I don't think that
the dancer is being lazy anywhere.

What do you think? Is this really social dancing?

Jeff

Israeli Partner Dance Session with Partner Rotation

Contributed this to the Israeli Partner Dance group on Yahoo.

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Hello All,

If you are going to rotate partners, you must have clear rules. Otherwise you are going to have battles.

You do not have to use my rules, but you must have rules that everyone who rotates agrees to follow. The big rules you must address
are:

A. Are women to follow the men or not. (My rule is follow.)

B. Use of force or no force. (My rule is no force.)

Anyone who is unwilling to follow your rules should not be rotating. The teacher needs to enforce your rules to avoid conflict
between dance partners.

Last night I ran a small Israeli Partner Dance session in someone's house. We had five couples, gender balanced. The session went
real well.

Here is the experience makeup.

- Myself : experienced IPD
- One woman, Erin : experienced IPD
- One woman : intermediate Israeli circle dancing
- One man : beginner Israeli circle dancing
- Other six : beginner to intermediate Contra dancers and some other stuff, minimal or no Israeli dancing

All but one person had been to at least one of my Swing or Israeli classes, so they knew my style.

We took our time and taught three easy dances, taking about a half hour per dance. Here are some things I think were important that
worked well for us.

1. Partner rotation was optional. Everyone choose to rotate, even one couple that does not usually rotate.

2. When we got started, I clearly explained the rule that the choreography was for the men. The woman were to follow their man. It
was invaluable to have Erin there, who completely supports this approach. When a woman asked a question about the choreography,
before I could answer, Erin jumped in and said, "whatever your man leads". I told her the choreography, of course, but also
reinforced that she is to do what her man leads.

3. The first and most important reason for the woman to follow the man is to help the man through the dance. When the woman follows
the man, he can focus on the teacher. He feels less pressure, because he does not have to worry that his partner thinks he is
messing up.

When she does not follow, she distracts him. In our experience this overloads his brain and makes it difficult for him to
concentrate. He also feels pressure from his partner to perform at a level he is not ready for. I believe that if the women were not
following, all the men would have quit after the first dance. I would not try partner rotation without the requirement that women
are to follow.

Only once did I notice a woman looking around and I nicely told her to pay attention to her partner.

4. The second important reason for women to follow is make the couple dance as one.

As the women learn the dances, there is a tendency for them to take the step they know that is coming before the man intiates it.
Even when they wait for the step to be intiated, they may complete the step before the man settles his weight and completes his
step. Although these things may not be obvious to someone looking on, they are unmistakable to a partner. When I noticed this
happening, I reinforced to the women that their role is to take each step with their partner.

I also pointed out to the women how much they have to work on irrespective of the choreography, such as balance, a lovely posture,
walking beautifully, gesturing, and expressing themselves through their movement. There is a lifetime of things for them to improve.

5. Since almost everyone had been to my classes, they knew enough not to use force. People still pull and push a little out of habit
and get tense, so I frequently reinforced the need for them to maintain their own balance, relax and have soft hands and arms.

6. Sprinkled throughout the teaching of the choreography, I slipped in tips on communication and technique.

7. During the teaching, I started by calling out every step, so they learn the exact choreography. When the music is playing, I
mainly only called parts, like in a contra dance, so they know where to go. I want them to listen to the music. I would rather take
more time during teaching so I do not need to call as much when the music is playing. Remember the calls are for the men. For
example, in Stav Lavan part 1b, with music I might say "Forward, back, men behind," whereas during teaching it might have been
"Forward, two, three, back, two, three, men behind, two, three, men behind, two, three".

With regular Israeli dancers, during the music, I call much less, often not at all, because I want them to learn to follow visually,
rely on their balance and listening the music.

8. We rotated partners pretty much every time I taught a new element (roughly one to four measures of music). Mostly we rotated at
least three times for each element. We grouped elements into sub-parts (ie. part 1a) and did those with at least three different
partners. When we had enough material, we practiced with the music, again with at least three partners. When we finished teaching a
dance, we did the dance to music twice, rotating partners. Later on, we did the dance again, with yet another partner. The point
being we switched partners a lot, about as often as possible, and it worked well.

Am sure lots of other methods would work too.

Conclusion: As long as you give people clear rules, most people are happy and partner rotation should not be a big deal.