Stacy Rose, Dance Instructor
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The Cell Phone Hoe Down

5/8/2014

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What exactly is a hoe down, anyway? And why must we decorate with bales of hay? 



The PTA generously sponsored the dance tonight, hiring me as the caller and a 4-person band. 

Holy smokes. I called a barn dance tonight at a local elementary school. Kindergarten through 4th grade. At any one time, we had up to 75 kids and adults dancing. It was a huge group! What a success to entice SO MANY folks out on a stormy night! The ratio of adults to kids was probably around 1:3. 
It felt much more like 1 :75. They were a noisy, talkative bunch. 

I keep asking myself what I could have done differently to better command the attention of the crowd. But truly - it wasn't the kids who were disruptive, it was adults who were not modeling good listening skills. The adults wanted to socialize. Some parents participated. One parent was dancing -- circling to the left, circling back to the right - while texting! Another woman was talking on her phone. Others were not dancing, but were out on the dance floor taking pictures of their kids with their cell phones. 

Before we ever started the dance, I thanked the parents in advance for their participation. I encouraged more to join in throughout the evening. But many, far too many adults never did join in. I have to figure this out. I have to find the words, the motivation - a way to get the parents involved with their kids and make it a truly family participatory event. We're going to do it again, and it will be better next time. 

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Yom Ha'Atzmaut Celebration

5/5/2014

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Once a year, a local group celebrates Israeli Independence Day with an event called, "Standing With Israel". The program varies - over the years we've had speakers telling of their travels to Israel, a lecture about diversity in Israel, a discussion about the miracle of Israel's re-birth, the blowing of the shofar, children singing... but every year since 2009, my folk dance class is invited to demonstrate Israeli folk dances and engage the audience with dances. 
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This year, all of the advanced dancers in my class participated! Scott, Jan, Louise, Charlotte, and Paul each took turns introducing a dance. (If Kay hadn't been out of town, she would have introduced one, too - fortunately she got back in time to join in!) As a group, we demonstrated:
Banu Le Ha'Ir Et Ha'Ir
Turkish Kiss
Adama Ve Shamayim
Hineh Ma Tov
Then we invited the audience to join in for these beginning level dances:
Zemer Atik
Mayim
Ma Na'Avu
I taught these three dances to as many as would join the circle; Sharon Rogers played accordion and sang for these dances. Men and women joined us! There were three middle/high school-aged girls who jumped in on the audience participation portion of the program, and really did well! 
As it turns out -- one of the three girls, Veronica, is an exchange student from Slovakia. After the festivities, a handful of us did Horehronsky Csardas, while Veronica sang along -- it was the sweetest, most beautiful unexpected delight to a wonderful evening. 
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