The Virtual Dance Beat Goes On

 We’re still dancing virtually in the North Bay, certainly through the end of this year, and likely beyond. And we’re still having fun. I’m teaching Israeli on Sunday mornings, and Balkan/International on Monday nights.

 

My latest new favorite dance is Furla, a lively contemporary Bulgarian dance introduced by Gergana Panova. I saw this at one of the Peninsula Folk Dance Parties.I also stumbled on an interesting version of Sa Cocek– this one is from Albania and is called Sa Gjijile (also spelled Xhinxhile). It has a similar structure (10-counts), but a subtly different pattern and geography.

 

By request, I did a virtual Balkan session with a focus on Pontic dances, I’m digging into my own repertoire and also looking at videos online. We danced Dipat and Samson, both Greek dances that I originally learned when I participated in Yannis Constantinou’s annual folk dance seminar in Prespa. I also included included Tamzara (Armenia), Tik (Greece), Urdu (Turkey), and Omal Kars (Greece).

 

In my Israeli class, I’ve been bringing back old favorite line dances including Zodiak and Naomi,plus some top hits from the Gadi Bitton repertoire (Salamati, Ya Raya, and Or Chadash).

 

I invite any of you who are looking for more opportunities to dance to contact me at 415-663-9512 or cjay@horizoncable.comif you’d like to join us.