I’m missing you all a lot but hearing great things about the session! Thanks for your encouragement and support of Harel and Liatt and of my travels. Feel free to send along any feedback you want to share!
I’ve been dancing a lot here – 14 times so far, at 13 different sessions (with 13 different markidim)…and there are still so many dancing friends I haven’t gotten to see yet! This place is pretty amazing. If you have recommendations for favorite sessions here that I should check out, please send those along too. My next few weeks will be busy with work and not so much dancing, but then I’ll have more time again before I come home to you!
You recently learned Gaguai, the new dance by Nona Malki. I’d like to mention that of those FOURTEEN HARKADOT that I have attended so far, they do partner dances at thirteen of them… which means I have gotten to do Nona’s Kol Mila THIRTEEN TIMES. It is incredibly popular here, along with Bocha Beseter and Yoreket Esh, topping the charts. Other partner dances I’ve seen very frequently are Kshe’at Ito and Lu Hayiti Yachol.
Here’s the video of Gaguai. Enjoy that and have fun tonight!!
PS It IS my birthday this week, so if you want to do Rachavat Harikudim in my honor, my usual birthday dance, feel free 🙂 xoxox
Erica Goldman began Israeli dancing in New York as a child alongside her father, another folk dance fanatic. After many years performing with several New England area Israeli dance troupes, she branched out into other kinds of folk dance as a member of the Mandala Folkdance Ensemble and then the Collage Dance Ensemble, with whom she competed at the Golden Karagöz Folk Dance Competition in Turkey in 2003. In 2004, Erica spent the summer as the Dance Director of Camp Alonim (at the then Brandeis-Bardin Institute), a Jewish overnight camp where Israeli dancing is truly an obsession among the campers. She was hooked; after working for nearly eight years for a software company in Boston, she quit her job and moved to L.A. and has been teaching Israeli dance nearly full-time ever since, both in the US and abroad. Erica was the Israeli dance teacher at New Community Jewish High School in Los Angeles and also coordinated their Israel exchange programs with three high schools in Tel Aviv until 2014 when she returned to the East Coast for grad school. A grateful Wexner Fellow, Erica earned her MBA from the Heller School and her MA in the Hornstein Program for Jewish Professional Leadership at Brandeis University, and now is Director of Program and Operations at JPRO Network. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Erica teaches workshops and classes to all ages! She's also available for "Teach the Teachers" style workshops for your school or can consult on improving the Israeli dancing at your camp - email Erica to inquire about any of these!
Dance With Erica 