Combating this cold winter The Cherry Hill Israeli Dancers Present Lionsgate 2010 This is done in powerpoint using embedded music. You are listening to Mamriim (to soar). Music and lyrics: Mosh Ben Ari

The Lions gate complex showed the effect of Winter’10 when the Cherry Hill Israeli dancers arrived for two performances on Feb 21 This powerpoint presentation is the work of Marc Rauer to be used in his CIS 103 classes at Community College Of Phila. There are absolutely no copy rights attributed to it.

The dancers arrived one by one bundled up against the cold Dancers from across the Greater Philadelphia area (and beyond) participated in the event at Lionsgate on Feb 21. To many, this is an added event to an already busy dance schedule. For one dancer, this made 3 dance events that day. Yet they came! The photos here show dancers and participants from the Ft Dix (Central New Jersey are), Lower Merion, Princeton and Vineland area. Other dancers not shown came from the Ft Lee, New Jersey and the Valley Forge, Pa area

Lots of prep work is needed to accomplish this Type of Performance This includes rehearsals of the dances presented. To the right you can some pictures of one such rehearsal

Another Prep: The programs Above, you see a recent addition to the Cherry Hill Israeli dance program. Created by Jennie’s kids, Allison, 8 and Andrew, 4, this is a Word document. To the right and left, you can see the artists Alison and Andrew as they hand these out to the audience

Finally, here’s the leader To the left is Naomi. She has been the leader of the Cherry Hill Israeli dance session meeting on Tuesday nights since During that time she has instituted these field trips to various senior citizen homes around the Delaware Valley. She deserves great credit for this as it is not an easy job in administering or executing. Naomi takes pains to invite others in the Israeli dance community in the Philadelphia area to join her group in doing these Sunday afternoon demonstrations. As the leader, she also has to deal with these retirement homes’ administration which is not an easy matter. She is also responsible for bringing in the equipment as we see her doing here. And, finally, she takes the lead in introducing the dances to audience as the performance progresses.

Bring in the Audience We all are destined to grow old. In earlier times seniors resided with their family, which could create problems both for them and for the household. Today, there are plenty of retirement homes available. These homes are supposed to be checked by the State to determine if the institution is accommodating their residents. One thing the State looks at is whether activities are available for the residents. One such activity is outside entertainment. So from the institution’s standpoint, these performances are a plus. How about from the resident’s point of view? Sunday afternoon at a retirement home is generally movie time. Any live performance beats this prospect. And, so, even from the residents point of view, these performances are to be looked forward to. In these pictures, these residents who are part of skilled nursing care, gather prior to the show. They engage the performers with questions as to what they will see. To your instructor, it’s a very satisfying feeling knowing that you are “making a senior’s day.” Not to mention, could you date their granddaughter?

The performance is about to start The atmosphere is about to get warmer. The cold winter is about to be forgotten, even if it’s only for a few hours Just a few little procedures before the peformance starts as we can see to the right  Naomi gives her group final instructions  Some talk among themselves about the coming performance  Others primp as they await the start.  Still others stand and stare.

The Performance Begins Naomi takes charge! Here’s what she needs to do to make this performance a success.  Introduces the group to the audience.  Explains to the audience that they will be seeing 13 different dances  Explains the meaning behind each dance – either from the composer/lyricist view or the choreographer’s view  For several dances she has devised a way of getting the audience to participate and needs to demonstrate this.  Finally, she is responsible for the laptop, the speakers and the music

Let the Dancing Begin Isreali dancers like to dance. Many of them deal with multiple forms of dancing – your instructor also ballroom dances. We don’t need much of an excuse to do this, and the fact that we are entertaining an audience is just an added plus. These pictures show the group as it starts the performance in the uniform of the day – black tops and blue jeans.

A carousal of shots

Congratulations to All who participated