MAY 2006
CONTENTS
Event Reports and Reviews
RANG TANG ISRAELI WORKSHOP SUCCESSFUL HIGH FIVES FOR BOULDER!
Columns
PREZ SEZ NEW LIFETIME MEMBER FROM THE EDITOR LETTERS
Club Reports
GRAPEVINE INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCERS OF SARASOTA TAMPA TRIVIA
NEWS FROM GAINESVILLE ORLANDO INTERNATIONAL FOLK DANCE CLUB
Follow-up
CAMP STATISTICS EPIPHANY CELEBRATION IN TARPON SPRINGS – PICTURES
Future
PREZ SEZ
by Terry Abrahams
The months are flying by. I would have sworn we just sent you an issue, and here it is – time again. This month I’m just giving dribs and drabs of thoughts. First, I can’t say it enough times - Caroline is doing a fabulous job as our new editor, and I hope you are sending her personal kudos (as well as articles and pictures). I’m still helping with the snail mail, and along with Pat, we are trying hard to get everyone paid up as a member. In theory the “or elses” won’t be getting notification of this issue, so they won’t know they’re missing it, unless they realize it’s the first of the month, and they haven’t heard from us.
I’m hoping a lot of you go to G’ville for Daniel Sandu – it’s our Israeli night, so I can’t, but it should be fun seeing him again and doing his very different dances! Saw a lot of you at Debbie’s Meitin’s workshop with Ruth Goodman. We all keep busy!
I received my 14th
annual Folk Dance Phone Book and Group Directory for 2006 last week. If
you are not a member of the Society of Folk Dance Historians, you should
consider it. Just your support alone is important, but they also send
good information – it’s useful for traveling, teachers, data, etc. Ron
Houston in
Kay Demos had a knee replacement and the knee is doing well, but there seem to be other little problems, get well wishes might make her feel better. Well, this is enough dribs and drabs – more next month – and….a Mayim is a terrible thing to waste!
NEW LIFETIME MEMBER
Did you know we have two life-time members? Julius Horvath and Cubby/Jeanie Whitehead. The Board feels there should be one more person added to this tiny club – Judith Baizan. Did you know that Judith was instrumental in starting FFDC, ran the first camp, wrote the by-laws? Without her, we are not! So Judith (and Ernesto), we offer you a life-time membership for your life time of giving to folk dancing! Thank you for all you have done for us. - Terry
Julius
Horvath Cubby
Whitehead
Judith and Ernesto Baizan
Early history of
FFDC is chronicled in a special edition newsletter June 2004, which can be
viewed in the archives on the website, www.folkdance.org.
Judith, Cubby and Julius are mentioned in it a lot. Among other things,
it relates that the first official FFDC event, in September 1972, was a
workshop in
Judith
and Ernesto have done so much for folk dancing over the years! Judith is usually the doer, with tremendous support
from Ernesto. They started doing
International Folk Dancing in
The Baizans
moved to
Several years ago they became interested in Scandinavian dance and started attending workshops all over the country. In order to have a place to dance those dances regularly, Judith started teaching classes. Her weekly Scandi class and semi-regular monthly workshops are a great way to learn that challenging dance genre.
Judith and
Ernesto have been supportive as
Thank you so much for everything, Judith and Ernesto. We hope you keep dancing forever. – Caroline
Rang Tang
David Digby e-mailed:
I have attached [a picture] of the Armenian (and more) band, and another taken when some of us went to dinner at our favorite Turkish restaurant. You might not consider this as a Rang Tang picture, but some of the faces should be familiar to FFDC camp attendees.
We liked most of the dances, have done some of them, and expect to do more of them once we get the video (expected this coming week).
by Arleen Kaufmann
Thank you
Seven Floridians attended along with many from all over the Southeast. Shawn Donaldson worked on theme and a bunch of variations rather than fifteen different Bulgarian dances. I liked the approach. The Armenian segments were dances they would do at a night club rather than the Tom Bozigian type dances. (He was asked to do this.) Frankly, I would have preferred the Bozigian dances, but I have to remember nobody consulted me.
I would like to ask two things of workshop organizers. For those of us who live in smaller cities with fewer advanced dancers, it is very nice to do more complex dances that we can only do on rare occasions. Flagler has twelve women, no men, in the group, so we don’t do many couple dances, either.
The second request is that the men not dance with the same woman twice (even if you are married). That would give some of us a chance to learn the couple dances as a female, and not do the man’s part so often. How about it, guys?
ISRAELI WORKSHOP SUCCESSFUL
by Terry Abrahams
Debbie Meitin, Israeli dance teacher in
The next morning, after a wonderful spread
of bagels, juice, etc., she carefully reviewed all of those dances and taught
more. We broke for lunch, many of us finding one fabulous really truly
Jewish deli in the area, and upon return, Ruth taught more dances, for a
total of 7 on Sunday. The local group provided a wonderful covered dish
dinner for us and dancing continued afterwards until about
HIGH FIVES
FOR BOULDER
by Judith Baizan
If
The amazing part is that members of the
The recent Boulder Spring Scandinavian Dance Workshop with
Swedes Anneli and Stefan Wiklund was one of the first events to be held at
Avalon, and those of us who were there are still raving about the hall. For once, we could polska around our circle
without a thought for other flying elbows or errant heels. They introduced us to a raft of good dances,
from the unpretentious little Schottis fran Loos to the soaring Nigpolska. And, oh, the dancing was wonderful on that
gorgeous floor!
FROM THE EDITOR
The newsletter has a new look! This month, it’s designed primarily for our web viewers. Previous newsletters were formatted for printing, and the web page (HTML) version was an afterthought. The formatting of the March newsletter didn’t translate into HTML easily and the April newsletter was not translatable at all, so there is not an HTML version of April. One reader complained, pointing out that the PDF version (which looks great in print) is hard to scroll through on line. We agree.
Since a small number of you now get the printed version mailed to you and most of the rest read the newsletter on line, doesn’t it make sense to design the newsletter primarily for on-line viewing? We thought so.
So, you will notice a few differences, e.g. a contents menu at the top with links to the articles and sections. If you’re viewing on line, just click and jump to the article you want. In the HTML version, return points are provided at about one page intervals, as well. The newsletter already had hypertext links to web addresses, so you can click and bring up the referenced web page.
We’ll continue to create a PDF version for printing, both for members who receive a paper copy by mail and for those of you who want to print your own copy (in color) from the web. But the printed version may not have all the bells and whistles we put into the web version. Let us know how you like the new format. We may not have all the kinks worked out in this edition. - Caroline Lanker
GRAPEVINE INTERNATIONAL FOLK
DANCERS OF SARASOTA
by Marie Millett
Andi has been
away 2 Wednesdays gallivanting to
I'm sorry to report that Eva Stunkel was involved in a car accident that resulted in an injury to her sternum. We hope she heals fast for we miss her.
TAMPA
by Terry Abrahams
Seems a lot of us are always on the move. Andy P. went all the way to CA for an exciting swing convention, hopped up to G’ville to dance one evening; Andi K. went to Key West with her husband for a convention, was in Chicago to see her daughter and leaves us soon for Vancouver for her summer hiatus.
Charlene
(center) and Friends
Charlene has
been to an interview in
Ursula, who is
recovering from a plethora of physical things, including successful eye
surgery, is going to
Coming up is Israel Independence Day on May 7, and I’ve been working hard on choreography, costumes and rehearsals for our group, and am being joined by a few of the Largo group too, which is tres cool. I’m also helping out in general on the committee, so have been to many more meetings than I care to go to, handing out flyers, trying to find raffle prizes, etc. etc.
I had my own 20 person Passover Seder and was on a committee to do a “fun” Seder for the second night – we wrote songs, re-arranged the Seder – brought it “up-to-date” and had a great time. It was held in a restaurant, and was very successful; we’re already working on next year’s.
Our dance groups are still alive, our Israeli group actually has two new people which is a mechia (that means blessing – pronounced like the wind Mariah, the ch is a guttural one.) That’s your Yiddish lesson for this month. I’m actually working on my Chinese (getting ready for my trip this summer) and not doing too badly. OK – genug (enough – ok – that’s 2 Yiddish words today). Bye…
NEWS FROM GAINESVILLE
by Jack Seltzer
And
the dancing just keeps....... going and going and going..........up here in the
town of
Now-a-days, we're
readying ourselves for a big night this Tuesday – the Daniel Sandu
workshop. Margaret & Stefan have
really spent some time and energy getting it all together for Daniel to be able
to stop here on his way to
The Friday night dance scene at 308 is hunky-dory as we do almost 40-45 dances a night after teaching 1.5 hours at the start of the evening. Joyce is getting over her toe issues and teaching again; John is always ready to rock and roll and does a great job of it; Margaret is consistently on her toes and heels (in Hutulca- one of Daniel's phenomenal dances from camp 2005); June, Gary & Peggy inspire us with their determination to keep up with it all, all of the time; Stefan squeezes us in between all his studies, soccer and other stuff. Julieta is just a trip – literally. She seems to always be somewhere or another and there she is on Friday night, as usual. Her position as an entomologist for the gov't keeps her happily active and on the move.
Some
other new ladies who have consistently been coming are Arlene Abargad and
Melissa Ferguson. We're hoping for
Arlene to introduce us to some new Israeli dances this coming month. And Linda & I just keep a-truckin’. The teaching school scene goes well for us
and with Simon moving to
ORLANDO
by Pat Henderson
On March 30, we had a party for Ann
Robinson's "big" birthday. That makes four members in the last
nine months whose birthday was on our dance night. Three of them were
"big" birthdays.
Bobby and I closed the sale on our front
piece of property on April 6 and we completed the new road to our house shortly
thereafter.
Travel in April included: Eva Gaber
and her daughters to the San Francisco area to be with family for Passover, Eva
Meyer to England, Juanita Schockey to Arizona to visit family and friends, and
Bobby and I to Longboat Key to celebrate our 30th anniversary. We stopped
in Frostproof to dance with the Lankers' group on our way over there. After
all, it was fitting that we danced since we met at folk dancing in
Kelly Fagan performed in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
Forum in Eustis for three weekends in April.
Many of our dancers attended and it was a very funny show. Remember that
we dance every Wednesday during May and June and are on hiatus during July and
August.
LETTERS
Greetings
from
I
cannot report too much on the
Thanks
to various email lists, I'm still in touch with dancing news in
See you all dancing,
Raluca Rosca
[If you want to see the original e-mail and questionnaire, e-mail the editor or Raluca at rarosca @ ufl.edu. – Ed ]
EPIPHANY CELEBRATION IN TARPON SPRINGS – PICTURES
Dancers
from
Future
Greek Dancers
John Lulius in Parade
Ready to Dive for the Cross Terry with Budweiser
Horses
EVENTS
AND TOURS
MAY
May
26 – 28
Place:
Cost (adults, in advance): $15 for one day,
$35 for three days
Enjoy performances by musicians,
singers, dancers and storytellers; check out the many booths of arts and crafts
exhibitors and many varieties of food; and visit the Seminole Indian Camp and
Get more information at www.floridastateparks.org/folkfest/;
purchase advance tickets at 1-877-6FL-FOLK (1-877-635-3655) or
JUNE
Saturday, June10,
2006 Colin Hume – English Dance
Time:
Dance sessions
Place:
Cost: $25 if post-marked on or before May 30th.
Live
music- with
Colin is a fantastic English dance choreographer and teacher; he will be in the States for only a limited time so don't miss this event. Registration is now open - registration form may be found at a link on: http://www.danceflorida.com/
PS Although all
dances will be taught and called as needed, knowledge of the basic patterns,
steps and formations of English dance will be assumed.
June 17th - June 29th Vasilescu
2006 Romanian Tour
“We have been on three similar tours, and they are very good.” -Jim Osborn.
Place: Begins June
17th at
Cost: $1500 per
person, not including airfare to/from
Highlights: Stay two days
each in four towns; attend dance performances, go sightseeing, learn regional
dances and visit local villages. Meet, dance and dine with rural
villagers. Last three days in
Contact: Ping Chun,
JULY - AUGUST
July
25 - August 16 Czech Pleasure in the Heart of
Highlights: Choose
parts you want from: a tour of the
August 11-13 Mountain Playshop 2006
“It's a very cool camp - I've been there!” – Terry Abrahams
Place:
4-H Camp,
This camp is a
casual weekend party/workshop just outside of
More information and registration form on web site: www.mountainplayshop.org. The final registration form will be there toward the end of May. New campers get a discount - contact Beth Zweigoron at zcat@ix.netcom.com.
August
11-19: Folklore and Heritage Tour in
Slovak dance classes,
meetings with village groups, museums, historical sites.
Organizers: 3ART, Inc.,