January 2005
January 2005
FROM THE
PRESIDENT'S DESK ///
My dear Fellow Folkdancers -
The registration forms for Camp (as of
And speaking of Camp - we
need workers and scholarship students (all your expenses on campus are paid).
So teachers - any student you think worthy, drop me a line and let me know -OR-
you may plead your own case. Don't be bashful! Workers must register for at
least two full days (6 meals) but scholarship students, for as little or as
much as they so desire. The light housekeeping duties are the same for both -
cleaning tables after meals, and possibly sweeping a couple of floors, and to
help make sure that cabins, at departure time, are left clean. So far, I have
only 1 full time worker, and there is room for one more and for 2/3 scholarship
students. I have also been getting requests from some who specifically wish to
room with certain other people. Although the cabin sign-up sheets are put out
on the day of registration for Camp, I have honored all requests and have made
temporary sheets to make sure all your desires are met.
Geez! I'm still speaking about
Camp, but I have some new, exciting information to share with you. I was
contacted by Stephen Spinder from
In March, and in the first
Newsletter right after Camp, a full membership list will be published, and if
you are not on it, it means you have not paid your dues and will not receive a
Newsletter in the future. We are contemplating, however, of just having a
mailing list for those who live a distance and don't care to receive a
Newsletter, but want to be kept informed about Camp.
We still need a president to
list on our slate - will it be you? If so, contact Terry Abrahams who is our
nominating chairperson. Don't forget your tap shoes; your copy of FFDC's Bylaws
(no extra copies handed out at Camp) and - your happy face!
REALLY see you soon now
- Ann Kessler,
President/Treasurer
REFLECTIONS
ON DANCE
by Dan Lampert <dan@webuniv.com>
On
The floor was stable and good.
Dancing was easy and we all had a good time. Since we're not used to performing
in public, we talked amongst ourselves prior to the show. We were a little
nervous, but we resolved: "if a problem or mistake happens, just smile and
continue as best as you can." This is a good motto for performers.
Besides, each performer should be smiling so the audience can see your
enthusiasm.
After the performance, one of
the arrangers of the event took a moment and photographed us using my Canon T50
camera. Nice old camera! Great picture!!
Back
row, from left to right: Andrea Habitz, Debbie Meitin, Sharon Kalter, Pat
Henderson, Bobby Quibodeau. Front row, from left to right: Nashielly Aguilar,
Melisa Carmona, Shimrit Barkai, and Dan Lampert.
I look at this group picture,
and I remember an inscription from a little book at the end of a famous movie.
The inscription reads "no man is a failure who has friends." Do you
remember which movie this comes from? The movie was “It's a Wonderful Life” by
Frank Capra. At the end of the movie, Jimmy Stewart (playing the lead character
George Bailey) has faced great obstacles, including possible public disgrace
and financial ruin. However, his friends declare him "the richest man in
town". He realizes how important his friends are when a friend gives him a
book with this inscription: “no man is a failure who has friends.” And although
the movie has nothing to do with folk dancing, think of how many dancing
friends and students we have influenced! We are passing on knowledge. We are
making this world brighter. We are doing something whose importance reaches
farther than we can comprehend.
- Dan Lampert
.........................
KLEZMER HOP in
From Lisa Johnson <klezmom@yahoo.com>
The
.........................
NEWS ABOUT
HAL SCHMETTERLING
from Jan <amarjan@bestnetpc.com>
Hal Schmetterling was
diagnosed with pneumonia recently and has been hospitalized in
His home address is
.........................
SOME ADVICE
FROM
THE DELAND
DANCERS
by Joan Washington wjwread@hotmail.com
We had our Christmas party this year and thanks to Myriam LeMay we chose the theme "socks". Dancers were
invited to wear Christmas socks or ethnic socks or any socks that they just
thought were special. Let me give you some advice. It's fun to have a theme for
the Christmas party and "socks" was a good theme. Now let me give you
some more advice. Don't decide to give three prizes for the socks. We had 12
dancers with socks and every one was a winner. What was I thinking? How could I
select just three winners? I finally chose Bobby Quibodeaux - Christmas socks
with Santa on a motorcycle - Myriam LeMay - Christmas
socks with ruffles and bells - and Ava Zamora - Christmas socks with a very
interesting design. All three were recipients of the fuzzy sock award. We had a
lot of fun dancing, a lot of good food, and a lot of fun admiring all the
socks. Happy new year!
--Joan Washington
.........................
By: Pat Henderson
It is hard to believe that
2005 is here when it seems like two years ago, we were preparing for Y2K!
Anyway, to catch everyone up on the news of the
In January, for the Epiphany,
Deane Jordan and Kelly Fagan attended the Diving for the Cross and the Greek
Festival afterward in Tarpon Springs. Manuel and Palmira Mora-Valls also
attended. Then, in mid January, the Washingtons and Bobby and I traveled to
.........................
DANCE YOUR
WAY THROUGH
THE
This year, there seems to be
plethora of folk dancing seminars on the Greek islands. Attending one or more
of these seminars is quite an experience, since, in many cases, the lessons are
taught in a foreign language. This usually doesn't present a problem to most
experienced folk dancers, since watching the teacher and listening to snippets
of English translations seem to be sufficient to learn the dances.
What is so wonderful about a
foreign-based seminar is that you will be dancing with people from all over the
world. There are large numbers of French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Israeli, and
Australian travelers, just to name a few, that frequent these seminars. You
realize very quickly how folk dancing itself is an international language! No
matter where you are dancing in this world, you will be communicating with the
person(s) standing next to you. You will learn that there are no strangers when
you are holding hands and dancing.
Below are just a few of the
folk dance seminars being held in
Ikaria, Greece april 28 - may 6
Contact: Christiana Katsarou (french, english),
Christiana_katsarou@hotmail.com
Kalymnos, Greece july 24 - july 31
Contact: Hélène and Jean Maris (french, greek),
kalymnos1@wanadoo.fr
A week in Paros, Greece may 28 - june 4
Contact: Kathryn Penny, Kath.penny@tesco.net
Andros, Greece july 12 -
Contact: panagiothsp@hotmail.com (greek,
english)
Contact: Athan Karras tel (818) 609-1386, e-mail: mazoxi@prodigy.net
EPIPHANY
DANCE EVENT
by Manuel Mora-Valls ctismm1@ocnjcc.org
We (me and wife) went to
Tarpon Springs for "Epiphany", on Jan 6th. Kelly and Deanne were
already there. They came the night before.
Nikos, the old guy from
As we had a little trouble
with my car getting to Tarpon, we were not on time to see the "diving for
the Cross", but Kelly and Deanne
saw the show.
We got there on time to dance
for a little less than three hours, no interruption. Performers danced at the
beginning, and the band
was not interrupted afterwards. The whole
festival ended at around
the event also had pricey food and wine, and the
dance floor was concrete. Overall, the music was the best part of the event.
.........................
SCANDINAVIAN
WORKSHOP
from jdaly@palmnet.net
The South Brevard Dancers are
busy preparing for the Scandinavian dance workshop in honor of John Daly's
birthday (we won't mention which one). We've arranged for Roo Lester and Larry
Harding to come down from
The workshop will be on the
wood floor in the Historic Community of Melbourne Village, Florida. This is the
same location as the last Fall Fling and close to the Village Hall where we
have held Fall Fling and our January parties for many years. So if you've ever
come to one of our happenings, you'll know how to find us. If not, there are
driving directions on the flyer included in this issue and on the website
(www.folkdance.org).
The floor is not as large as
we'd like, so for this workshop we're limiting attendance to about 30 people.
To insure a space, please register in advance. We'll try to accommodate more if
they show up, but people with reservations will get priority if the floor gets
too crowded. Call John and Barbara Daly (321-951-9623) or Jean Murray (321-952-7025)
or email jdaly@palmnet.net. to register or get more
information.
There will be no admission fee
as such. Contributions will be accepted and if enough people choose to
contribute about $10 per session we may do more Scandinavian events. But it is
a party, no one will be counting. We're just going to have a good time learning
lots of great dances.
.........................
INT’L FOLK
DANCERS OF COLLIER CTY
by Helen Marks
We would like to invite FFD
Members to visit our group. Please see
the included flyer for our dance schedule.
On February 12 & 13, the Greek Orthodox Church will have a
festival which, in the past, has been terrific! Over 1,000 people attend. There
has been a fine live greek band from
The Festival
will be held at: St. Katherine Orthodox Church,
GREETINGS FROM
by Raluca rarosca@ufl.edu
Somebody asked why I am not
sending news to the newsletter anymore. Well, what can I say in my defense if
not 'my work/life is interfering with my dancing'? Plus, my present appointment
is ending in May, so I'm looking for a new position, etc, etc.
However, since I've last
wrote, the folkdance in GNV has been doing reasonably well. We had a very good
performance on Nov 14, as part of the International Potluck ,
thanks to Max& Diane, Jack and Linda, John, Becky& Alex, Stefan, Josan,
Jenneine, Julieta, Tina and Misha, Mary-Jean and Bill who come and helped with
the demonstration. After a few dances wasted on the audience (80 people or so),
we put on Pata-Pata and voila! we had a few people
dancing w. us. We finished triumphally performing Rustemul--that was after
we've joined in the Lebanese Debka (once a dancer, always a dancer--the guy
leading the line was too good for us, but we followed very well his friend, the
second in the line).
Around Halloween we've moved
our music cabinet in Weaver Hall, so we have now in there all our tapes, CDs
and MP3s. We are back to the Norman Hall routine of pushing the cabinet around
(this time is out of the office, in the elevator, out of the elevator and
toward the rec room) but things are going pretty smoothly. We've seen some new
dancers toward the end of the year, thanks mostly to Radha Sylvester, a fan of
Israeli dance in her youth years and a Girl Scout Team leader in her present
ones.
Let me see, what else? We had
a 'Romanian Folkdance' impromptu moment for December 1st, the National Day of
Roania. Margaret joined Raluca and
Stefan (our student/treasurer and a faithful recruit) at the exposition
organized by the Romanian Student Association at Reitz Union, and you can see
the results in the picture!( Ciuleandra and Hora Spoitorilor were two of the 10
or so dances tried that day).
Other news from people who
keep me in the news loop: Yang Mu defended her Ph. D. dissertation; Josan is
visiting his parents in Punjab for the holidays; Shelley sends her regards from
Washington, where she now lives/works and reports seeing Nicole, once our club
president; Margaret had her painting installed in the new Orthopedic center
open in GNV and of course, yours sincerely is a first time aunt.
I was ready to wish you happy
holidays and go caroling, but I have to mention 3 more parties: 2 past
successes (Lake Wauburg Cypress Lodge on Dec 12, Julieta's house on Dec
19--thanks Bob and Pat for joining) and a future one (Julieta's house on Dec
31st). If you are on our
Well, this being said, I wish
you all the best in the New Year and I'll see you dancing!
Raluca
TACOS for
TERRY
Ola everyone! I'm back from
Mexico. As you remember from last month, I went with Ginger that used to dance
with us and she and her new husband were perfect "hosts", and the
guide was beyond great (he is the official National Geographic guide - what
does that tell you? - and an old old old friend of Ginger's); there were only 9
of us, counting Ginger and Nick and the bus driver and Juan the guide. So we
tootled around in a van, saw 10 different sites of pyramids, etc. including the
obvious Chicha Nitza, spent a night in a village, eating tortillas from their
little fires and sleeping in hammocks, and I even convinced Juan and Ginger
that if I didn't see folk dancing I would die, so they found a restaurant that
had a folkloric show, which was very very nice, and I was very very happy. We
ate great meals at all times, and even though Mexican isn't my favorite, it got
to be really good! Much better than in the states. The
group was very gregarious and on NY's Eve we sat around our table, drank
margaritas and champagne and had a good time - for once I wasn't at a contra
dance, and loved it!
Enough about
me. What about YOU? Are you going to be the next president of the
Florida Folk Dance Council? Have you forgotten to call me? I'm waiting....camp
is coming soon....
Our club is per usual. Ursula
back from a trip, ready for another, but she has to write her own, and since
she doesn't, guess you don't get those details. Many of us are gearing up for
the Snowball next weekend. I'm having printing trouble, so way behind on the
buttons. Some of us are also looking forward to John's big weekend. Should be
great! It would appear I don't have anything to say this month, so I'll say
Adios and see you at camp! --Terry
Abrahams
Terry
in restaurant watching dancers with "guest" sombrero
Folk
Dance performance
Terry
and Ginger in taxi in village
Pyramid
at Chichen Itza
Native
weaving hammock - children watching
Terry
getting ready to spend the night in
Ginger
and new hubby Nick at Temple of 1000 columns at Chichen Itza
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.
President: Ann Kessler
3295 Gorse
Court
Palm
Harbor, FL 34684
Phone (727)
789-6480
annie8@aol.com
Editor / Dan Lampert
Historian: PO Box 151719
Altamonte
Spgs., FL 32715
dan@webuniv.com
VP/Sec: Nancy Wilusz
3880 El
Poinier Court
Sarasota FL
34232
edwardnan@webtv.net
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Return
Address
FFDC
Newsletter Editor
Post
Office Box 151719
Altamonte
Springs, FL 32715-1719
USA
Please
circle your calendar for our camp’s weekend ... February 25-28th, 2005
FIRST
CLASS
Committees: Advisors to the Board:
Pat
Henderson; 407-275-6247
henderp@bellsouth.net
Terry
Abrahams; 813-234-1231
terry.abrahams@verizon.net
John Daly;
321-951-9623
jbdaley@compuserve.com
Nominating Committee:
Terry
Abrahams
Send all submissions to the
Editor when requested by email reminders.
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