Special Mention: Starting next month, the newsletter
will only be mailed / emailed to those who have renewed their membership for
2005-2006. If you haven’t renewed already, it’s only $15 and you can mail a
check to Pat Henderson (address here).
PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
by Terry Abrahams <terry.abrahams@verizon.net>
Boker Tov (Hebrew for Good morning)!
I speak in Hebrew because I just returned
from Orlando, where Debbie Meiten ran her usual very fine Israeli
Dance workshop, her 18th believe it or not, with ISRAEL YAKOVEE. What a
treat! He is still extremely good looking (I know, what does that have to
do with dancing...), an excellent teacher, taught with such humor, and of
course, some of his really really good dances. I was happy to finally
learn the Yemenite Rap, which has been around (I think) since 2002, and I kept
missing any teaches of it. There were more attending on Saturday night
than ever before - it was crowded - I was glad a few didn't show on Sunday -
it's so much easier to learn when you aren't crowded in the circle. And
yet, we love seeing scads of people at these things. Lots of
out-ot-staters - Debbie has a good reputation. And as per usual - I love
to see all my friends. BTW, the Sunday dinner was Excellent! I
assume many of you will travel to either Melbourne or Gainesville (or both) for Dany Benshalom in two weeks.
It's not often we have a chance to have good teachers right in our area - even
though the timing is a little off. We truly have abounded, thanks to John's
birthday, the Greek scene, and now the Israeli stuff.
Don'tcha just love it?
Did you enjoy the return of Mark
Your Calendar in the last issue? I think it's the most important part of
each newsletter (aside from my bon mots). Please make sure if you know of a
coming event that you send it to Dan. We can be all inclusive - well not
ALL, but all kinds of dance, perhaps music events, performances - if you are
interested in, we might be too.
Disappointing news: John
Lulius (Greek teacher in Tarpon Springs) is not able to do camp next
year. I had mentioned him at the meeting and you all were excited about
having him. Sorry! So I'm starting from scratch.
So, no one said this column has to be
long. So it's not. If you're not using your feet, you're wasting
your time!
------------------------------
REFLECTIONS ON DANCE
by
Dan
Lampert, Editor
This month, I offer some thoughtful words on dance.
A jazz dancer and choreographer in Orlando, Dario Moore, recently wrote an
article with this quote: “Dance is movement that occurs during a specific time
(most commonly marked by sound) in a given space.” I was struck by its
simplicity and the way in which it expressed the concept of dance. So, I looked
around on the Internet and found the following.
Rudolf Laban (1879-1958),
a notable European dancer and dance theorist, was fascinated with the
relationship between the moving human form and the space which surrounds it.
His biggest contribution to dance was his 1928 publication of “Kinetographie Laban”,
a dance notation system that came to be called “Labanotation” and is still used
as one of the primary movement notation systems in dance.
You can read about this
notation system here: http://www.indopedia.org/Labanotation.html
There's also a web page on
Laban movement analysis: http://www.indopedia.org/Laban_Movement_Analysis.html
Enjoy! I hope to have
something “different” next month as well!
------------------------------
SPRING FLING
Saturday 30
April 2005
11 am – 11 pm
The
Port Orange Folk Dance Club will hold its annual Spring Fling from 11 am to 11 pm on Saturday 30 April 2005 at the Port Orange Adult Activity Center, 4790
South Ridgewood Avenue (US-1) Port Orange (South of Daytona Beach). Turn East off I-95 at Old
Exit 85 (The Port Orange Exit) onto Dunlawton Ave., Turn right onto Ridgewood Ave (US-1) just before the bridge. The center will be
about six blocks south of Dunlawton Ave. on the right. Corner of White Street. Parking behind the building. Sorry – no wood floor.
Air conditioned building.
Contact: Julius
Horvath, Phone: 386-252-5738, email: julhorvath@aol.com, website: www.folkdance.org
------------------------------
FROM TURKEY AND HAWAII
by Raluca Ioana Rosca
<rarosca@ufl.edu>
These
pictures were taken at the March 11 workshop called 'And the Goddess danced'.
Margaret
Tolbert in a Turkish costume
Yang Mu performing the Hawaiian dance 'The little grass
shack'
everybody lining up behind Margaret and me to do 'Neda Voda
Nalivala'.
------------------------------
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
April 30, Spring Fling, 11am-11pm. Port Orange Adult Activities Center, 4790 South Ridgewood Ave., Port Orange.
May 14-24, Norway Tour with Lee Otterholt and Jim
Gold. www.jimgold.com
June 10-19, Dance on the Water Croatia /Adriatic Sea Cruise. www.folkdanceonthewater.org
July 2-9, Norwegian and Swedish Music and
Dance at Buffalo Gap Camp.
www.nordicfiddlesandfeet.org
July
4-13, French Canada
with Yves Moreau and Jim Gold. www.jimgold.com
August
1-13, Bulgaria
– Koprivshtitsa Folk Festival. www.jimgold.com
August
13-September 5, Mainewoods Dance Camp.
September 9-12, Israeli Dance Camp, Dany Ben Shalom, Ruthy Slann
------------------------------
ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCING
in St. Cloud in May 2005
by Catie Condran Geist
The Central Florida English Dancers
present The Mayfair Ball on May 14th and 15th, 2005, at the Saint Cloud Senior
Center in Saint Cloud, Florida (from highway 192, drive south on Budinger
Street, then drive west on 17th Street).
Afternoon English Country Dance workshops
on Saturday May 14th with music by Spur of the Moment (John Daly, Sheila
Cootes, Bill Possi, Val Vonheeder, and Jean Murray) and teaching by Catie
Condran Geist, Colette Moore, and Pam Russo from 12:30 until 4:30PM.
The Mayfair Ball will be held from 7:00 until 10:30PM, with music by Full Circle (Veronica
Lane, Ben
Bolker, Ted
Lane, and
Sandee Rose Arozqueta) and calling by Diane DePuydt, Charlie Dyer, and George
and Onie Senyk.
There will be brunch and more dancing on
Sunday, May 15th, from 10:00AM until 2:00PM with all of
the Florida callers participating and the music will be provided
by Spur of the Moment.
The cost for this lovely weekend of
dancing is $20 if sent by April 15, $25 after that date. Make checks out to
Curtis Stulting and mail them to:
9950
Lake Elmhurst Lane #114
Oviedo, FL 32765
For more information, call 407-923-3559 or
look at the Full
Circle
website
http://home.earthlink.net/~full_circle_band/ where you
will find information about motels.
I hope to see you all on the dance floor!
(How many of you noticed that five FFDC members are listed as either callers or
musicians?)
------------------------------
GRAPEVINE INT’L FOLK DANCERS SARASOTA
by Marie Millett, gvduurn@earthlink.net
Although this scribe has been negligent in
reporting, the Grapeviners have been
dancing up a storm every Wednesday night.
Due to Ann Kessler's busy schedule she has made her way to Sarasota only the first two Wednesdays of the month. All is not lost because we have Nancy Wilusz
and Andi Kapplin to teach and lead the other two Wednesdays.
We have missed Ursula Tison this last
month and hope her health will improve soon.
Great visitors have come our way---Don and
Phyllis from Chicago, Ron and Kathy who dance in Wisconsin but actually live in Illinois and Jim and Sara from Georgia. We look forward to their return.
------------------------------
PICTURES FROM GAINESVILLE
- Raluca Ioana Rosca
Here are some pictures from the visit of Bruce Sagan in Gainesville, taken at the party at Julieta's house. John, Linda and Jack can be seen dancing
.
------------------------------
TAMPA TUNES
by Terry Abrahams <terry.abrahams@verizon.net>
It's hard to believe you have to
read two columns by me. But I seem to be the one that sends stuff from Tampa, so....
I did my fencing in Denver. I have expanded to all three weapons
now, and in spite of knowing nothing about epee (the answer in the crossword
puzzles), I came in 15th out of 49! One of my more exciting
moments. I did o.k. in the others, my goal being to gather points in
order to make the US team for Labor Day World Championships to be held in Tampa and that mission was accomplished. One
more biggie tournament in Sacramento and that phase will be finished. I've been to
a number of Florida tournaments, fencing so-so (I have some major flaws
that I can't get rid of), and have a good time in spite of my faults. Saturday I
fenced from 9 to 6 before going on to the workshop in Maitland. And I
never lose any weight - go figure. I had looked up the dancing in and
around Denver, but the one time I was truly free (and not
shmoozing with other fencers) there was 4" of snow, and I was afraid to
drive to Fort Collins.
Our
little tiny group keeps trying. Judith, Ernesto, Kevin and I did a
performance at SPIFFS in Maria (the saleslady from camp) Kaloy's Bulgarian
booth. No one was there to watch, but we had fun rehearsing and got in
free, and got free food and got to dance too. What more can you
ask? I was supposed to teach at a middle school, but the
event got cancelled. The Israeli group is doing a demo this week at a
grade school. Andy is very busy with his swing dancing, helping organize
events, attending workshops, dancing many times a week. Bill, who still
Israeli dances but has dropped out of our International group (years ago),
still dashing around winning Bridge tournaments and going to Country Western and
other ballroom dances. He does quite a lot of out-of-town
workshops. Judith had a wonderful time at a Scan workshop in Denver (a week before my trip). We all still hit the
contra scene, Andi still goes to Sarasota - with or without Ursula, who is still working on
making her body better. She is helping teach when Ann isn't there.
Has cards, will travel! She's due to leave for Vancouver next month. Sob! Our Israeli group
really suffers when she is gone, but she doesn't care - she just leaves us
alone to fend for ourselves. Well, she leaves her cards. We've had
some new people coming, but they aren't ensconced enough to be regulars - but
we're hoping! And I'm hoping you haven't gotten tired of my monthly
comments. See you at Spring Fling!
------------------------------
RENEW OR BECOME A MEMBER
OF THE FLORIDA FOLK DANCE COUNCIL, INC.
Dues for membership are $15 a year
single, and $20 for family and are renewable by March 1. Please
send check made payable to FFDC to the treasurer:
Pat Henderson
9859 Berry
Dease Rd
Orlando, FL 32825
In addition, please state whether you want the newsletter by email or regular
mail.
------------------------------
DANCING IN SEATTLE
Last Friday night (March 19) I was dancing
with the Seattle folkdance group. How did I found them? I did a web
search in the (not always updated but still the best around) National
directory(www.folkdancing.org), find
the phone numbers for the local organizers, once in Seattle I've called Jana
Rickel to confirm the meeting time and place and ...there I went: 7220 Woodlawn
Ave NE, Seattle. One can join every Friday from 8 30 for the dance($5) or come
at 7 30 for the class ($7, includes dance afterwards). In terms of 'good floor'
and 'nice feeling to it', the Veterans of Foreign War Hall has plenty of places
for improvement: the floor was plastic on cement, and the large dance space was
bordered by lockers, mattresses, 'Attention, wet floor' signs and a
general work-in-progress atmosphere. However, the group was surely making the
best from what they had: lamps with colored bulbs were clipped to the windows,
and the 30+ people in there were filling in the place with dance and
conversations (the front stage of the hall was used to deposit bags and to sit
people in between dances). The payment was on the honor system, with a recycled
cookie jar in which one can put the money and a sign posted on the table
by the door.
All their music was on mini-disks,
grouped by countries. They didn't have a music catalog per se, just a
Rolodex-like system, with each dance name written in big upper case characters
on a pieces of cardboard (approximately 4 by 12 inches) and a wood-board with
pockets in which the name cards were inserted. There was no official teaching
from 8 30 on, just request, and anyone who wanted a dance would go up front,
look for the name card, and put it on the board. The card with the name of the
dance 'playing now' was slid out from the board a few inches, so it was no
confusion on what is playing. Nobody came to me to say 'hey, I haven't
seen you around, is it your first time?' but they've been friendly when
approached, and at the end invited me to come back . I knew and danced
about 1/3 of their repertory--early in the night they preferred low impact
dances, while toward 11 I've witnessed some pretty impressive sborinkas
(several members of the group were in an Yves Moreau workshop a little ago, so
the repertory was leaning toward Bulgarian that night).
I've talked a little more to one of the
organizers (Liliana) and she was telling me that the group was ready to close
about 1 year ago, because the attendance was dropping and they weren't able to
cover the 180/night rent for the hall. The got out of the crisis by aggressively
advertising in the 'Cultural Scene' supplements of the town newspaper, calling
former members and, more interesting, by reforming the teaching segment! The
present system, that seems to work fine, is to have 6 weeks long session
covering 4-6 dances. All that is taught during such a cycle are the predefined
4-6 dance, with one more complicated dance being worked for all 6 weeks, while
the other dances are taught once and then reviewed periodically during the
cycle. I didn't get there in time to see the teaching, but I can testify that
when dances from the teaching part were played later during the night, most
everyone got up to dance them. I thought that the cycle of sessions was a great
idea and it might be something we'll want to experiment with in Gainesville. I took pictures with my disposable
camera, and if they came out good, I'll make sure
to send them
to the
FFDC newsletter!
See you all dancing (in Florida) -Raluca
------------------------------
DANCING
DOWN UNDER
An email by Martin Williams
of the Perth
International Folk Dance Group in Australia
Martin.Williams@westernpower.com.au
Saw your email on Florida Folk Dancer site… Liked you digital pictures. I've attached some taken at our
special night this Monday with the Gypsy Group Xenos. We had over 70
dancers. Folk dance is alive and well!
We live in
Perth in a very isolated corner of Western Australia (WA).
Our nearest big city neighbor is in Singapore, so it's not even in the
same country and is a 4-hour flight! WA is about 4-times the size of Texas, and about 70% the size of
the USA, with about one
two-hundredth of the population!!
Good to hear from you. -- Martin
------------------------------
TAP DANCING AT FAIRWAYS
by Joy <hrndj4@aol.com>
"DANCING
DOWN BROADWAY" The dance show, presented by Pat Bryant and the "Class
Act Dancers” on March 18-20, played to a full house at each performance. If you
had a chance to see the show, you realized the time and effort it took to make
it memorable for all that attended..The International Dancers added a touch of
traditional dancing to the show. I truly love it..also Phillis Dammer was in
our group too..she is in the Orlando group..our show lasted 3 days (Friday evening,
Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon). Pat & Bobby / Palmira & Manual
were both there Sunday. Thanks to everyone who helped put the program together
and make it successful and special thanks to Pat Bryant for her endless
patience and dedication.
Joy tap dancing
Juanita and daughter and others
doing Fiddler on the Roof
------------------------------
FFD Camp
Lost and Found Update
Carol
McGinn has written to me that her Mom's scarf, which was thought to be lost at
camp, was found on April 10 -- rolled up in a pair of shorts. She explained to
me that she has not worn these shorts since camp -- or even taken a look at
them -- because she’s in Albuquerque and it's snowing there right now. And she thanks all who went looking
for the elusive scarf.
FLORIDA FOLK
DANCER
Florida Folk Dancer is a
monthly publication of the Florida Folk Dance Council, Inc., a non-profit
corporation whose purpose is to further knowledge, performance, and
recreational enjoyment of International Folk Dance.
2005 FFDC OFFICERS:
President: Terry Abrahams
813-324-1231
terry.abrahams@verizon.net
VP: John Daley
321-951-9623
jbdaley@compuserve.com
Treasurer: Pat Henderson
407-275-6247
henderp@bellsouth.net
-
Return
Address
FFDC
Newsletter Editor
Post
Office Box 151719
Altamonte Springs, FL 32715-1719
USA
FIRST
CLASS
Secretary: Jean Murray
321-952-7025
mmurray9496@cfl.rr.com
Editor / Dan Lampert
Historian: PO Box 151719
Altamonte Spgs., FL 32715
dan@webuniv.com
Send all submissions to the
Editor during the last week of the month, to be published the first week of the
next month.
Copyright: articles in the
Florida Folk Dancer are copyright by the Florida Folk Dance Council, Inc., or
by their individual authors.
Subscriptions are $15 per
year and include membership in the Florida Folk Dance Council. The membership year runs from one Annual Camp
(usually February) to the next. Members
can receive the newsletter electronically if desired.
For more info: www.folkdance.org
