Yom Ha'Atzmaut Celebration

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. 

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.