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It is expected that this script will be modified and become a part of the index page in the future as we add features. In the interim there are two other lists that include video that you may be interested in. Gary Rosenberg has created a local repertoire list which you can access by clicking here. Additionally, this website has tried to recreate Don's 2011 dance list and you can access this at by clicking here.

This video section originated with one of the fans of this web site, Elana Tenenzapf, (and that's Elana on the left with her daughter) who was nice enough to share information about videos that were on the internet for some of the dances that appear on the TDC series of CDs or at other locations of this web site. This list, therefore, pertains to videos of dances and music that are part of the TDC disks occasionally released to the various Israeli sessions in the Philadelphia area in addition to dances that are part of these sessions' play lists. The list is continually being updated and this script continues to progress with new features being put in place. So below, at minimum, is a table indicating the dance, one or several links to video(s) of that dance on Youtube and some info about where the video is shot and who's involved. Additional controls have been added which should be self explanatory (especially once clicked).

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Gadi Bitton is one of the most prolific Israeli dance choreographers. Besides being the main attraction of many dance camps, he runs several weekly dance sessions in Israeli including a very large Thursday evening session in Tel Aviv. You can reference his web site at http://www.gadibitton.co.il/?CategoryID=35

Nissim Ben Ami is an instructor (and has done some choreography) who was based in Miami where he led at least one weekly dance session. Several years ago he returned to Israel. Locally, you saw Nissim most Memorial day weekends at Hora Aviv where he was one of the dance instructors. Below is a list of the dances he has produced and the link to see the video. This list is by no means complete and you can, if you wish use the following link, https://www.youtube.com/user/DanceNissim/videos to see a more complete list.

The beautiful Che (pronounced 'shay' and with only a first name to go on, she's mysterious as well to the disk coordinator) has a series of videos of Israeli dances on YouTube. These dances videos take place in Santa Barbara, Cal apparently where there is a specific park that Che has appropriated for dancing alone to this music (but with a video photographer in tow). If you have more information about Che, please send this to the disk coordinator at thediskcoordinator@thediskcoordinator.com and we'll include it in this page although we can tell you that Che has a youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/shemlapaka/videos. Below are the links to watch Che's interpretation of Israeli dances.
Note: The disk coordinator, being a leading advocate of skateboarding through museums and who limits his art appreciation to centerfolds, does not in any way consider himself a critic of art and/or style. But, you should look at Isha al hachof as it is done at night on the beach with Che silhouetted as she dances into the evening. very sensual!

Unit-E is a group of teenagers from Gainesville Florida who do dance routines around the United States and in Israel. While Nissim and Che are informal performances, there is nothing informal about Unit-E. Unit-E is a very planned production. You can see documentations about and by them by linking to their web site, http://www.kolsimcha.org/unit-E. On that web site are links for Quick Time videos which we have not included in this list (but feel free to watch on your own.) Below are generic Internet videos of Unit-E. Keep in mind that the production requirements mean that this group is not as prolific as the two above.
Note: Some of these videos have long intros and set pieces before the dance demonstation begins. If you lack patience, fast forward the video.

The Polish group, Snunit, has a set of videos some of which take place at cultural festivals. Choreography is entailed as they do not do these dances in circles when appearing in the open air. However, you can see traditional circle dances in the videos filmed at a Hanakah party in 2007. If you understand Polish, you can visit them at their web site http://www.snunit.pl/ or see their videos on their youtube channel, snunitwarsaw

This is embarrassing. What we have been calling 'The Japanese man in the subway' has it's origins in a Taiwan dance class, it would seem. You can see all the videos on Youtube channel sychou814. This individual is quite good, at least to our eyes, and he moves great distances on beat to the music which is not easy to hear and even harder when commuters are asking him questions about which train to board as he is dancing, generally, in some subway system (or concourse as a few of these videos seem to take place in a concourse underneath some buildings). He demonstrates plenty of partner dances but, to be fair, his partner is not up to his level but he leads her quite well. Click on any of the following links to see these videos or you can see all the videos at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=sychou814#g/u. Please note that this channel includes videos from the class itself

A group of young dancers from Latin America - we think they go by the name of Danzas Tentral although it seems as it there has been at least one name change and we have our own internal designation of 'white gowns' - provide a stylized version of some of the Israeli dances. The closest internet site found is on youtube, the america1781 channel. We have provided several links to their dances below and note that some of the spellings of the dance names as displayed on the videos have a decided latin bent

Mirjam Zach is an Israeli dance teacher in Berlin, Germany. Many of her videos are done in costume. Many of the videos take place at the Mother Earth festival in 2006 in Berlin, Germany. You can see her entire collection of videos (which include choreographers dancing their work) at the Hageulah channel using this link http://www.youtube.com/user/Hageulah

Israeli dance, although done worldwide, has its roots in Israel. Every week, large sessions are held and PDNY (and we have no other hint as to identity) during March, 2007 photographed these dances in real time during the afternoon and evening hours. You must understand that this is amateur video, and by that we mean that the lighting and posing are what they are, but the videos give the viewer a feel for what these sessions entail if you have not (and the disk coordinator is also in this position) attended these yourself. You can find all this video on the PDNY channel of youtube.

Well this was a shocker. On Youtube, you will find performances of the Wilmington session, led by Sharon Kleban, as it performed at the Arden Fairs of 2008 and 2009. The 2009 performance marked the 5th consecutive year that the group has performed at this fair and this performance has been extensively covered by this web site, being included in the A Saturday to Remember section and by a section dedicated only to the fair itself in 2009. Since that time the Arden fair performances and the WIlmington dance session has been given its own menu on our index script. The latest script on this annual performance can be accessed by clicking here. Note:It would have been tough covering the 2008 fair in as much depth as this web site did not exist at the time although on this web site at various locations are some stills taken from videos pertaining to the Wilmington session's 2008 performance. Those videos of 2008 as well as the videos from the 2009 Arden fair are now on Youtube. This provided a shock to at least one of the participants of this web site when he first saw them. The disk coordinator website did not expect to show a body of video work from a group that it usually covers, but here it is. We hope you enjoy these presentations on video of the Wilmington session's demonstration of Israeli dance at the various Arden Fairs. The videos that show the group on stage were taken at the fair in 2009 and you can hear for yourself that the audience was very appreciative of the demo.

Ohad Atia is a choreographer of Israeli dance and leads at least one session in the Haifa area. On the Internet, through Youtube, he has a series of videos which describe dances in detail in Hebrew. You can see his site on google where he lists his accomplishments at http://www.ohadatia.co.il/. His videos can be found on youtube channel FreeIFD or this link http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=FreeIFD and click the uploads button.

The instructor who may be named Tami Dvir (although she uses the handle 'Tamidvir') apparently is well known in Israeli dance circles. We think she looks like one of the well-known Philadelphia area dancers, Iris, so we have so dubbed her the Iris Segal lookalike. Besides youtube, you can see her dance videos at www.tamidvir.com.

We do a lot of Tuvia Tishler dances locally although he is not as well known as other choreographers. He is very finessed in terms of steps which you can see on the following videos which have him in the lead of a circle of dancers performing one of his choreograhies (except for a partner dance at Hora Keff where he is in the center.

In speaking with an Ofra (Marek's wife), the disk coordinator understands that this name is very common in Israel but as far as music circles, it can only pertain to the iconoclastic Ofra Haza who died in 2000 at the age of 42. Haza attained superstar status worldwide through her voice and her personality both of which readily come across in music videos. With an almost pixieish face, it is fun even now to discover her music videos on Youtube and the like. It was at the Eurovision song contest in 1983, where she represented Israel and came in a close second, that her popularity skyrocketed beyond Israel. She sang the song 'Chai', which can be translated both as life or alive, in Munich, Germany where the contest was held that year. The song title, and the location that this was sung, was highly symbolic on many levels. As far as our dancing locally, beginning Israeli dancers are familiar with her voice given that one of the first dances taught to most who are beginning the study of Israeli dance is the version of Behar Hagiboa (choreography by Sefi Aviv) where she is the singer although apparently she was not the first to record this song.

She may be best remembered for her rendition of Jerusalem of Gold done at the 50th Anniversary Independence day celebrations in Israel although she again was not the original singer of this work composed by Naomi Shemer in 1967. You can see Ofra Haza's rendition of this by clicking here. On a lower and more local level to be sure, another song that israeli dancers would recognize would be Tfila, which used to be a stable of the Cherry Hill Israeli dance session. It's disco beat makes the dance very toe tapping and this song was a part of her second album, Bo Nedaber. Below, you can see the videos that we have found where she is the singer of the music we dance to locally.

Sarit Hadad (her real last name it is reported is Hudadatov) was born in 1978 and was a child prodigy in a variety of musical talents which included singing. At 16, she was discovered by Avi Gueta, who became and remains her manager. The song, Ata Totach (you are a cannon) is directed to and celebrates his influence on her and his belief that she would become a star.

Like many of the musicians whose songs we dance to, Sarit represented Israel in the Eurovision song contest in 2002 but was somewhat unsuccessful. It is said that Madanna is a fan and Sarit has performed around the world including the US. Besides Ata Totach, locally we dance to Ahava Acheret, Bachom Shel Tel Aviv (a favorite of Cherry Hill), Miss Music and the partner dance of Yesh Chagiga. Below are the songs and dances we deal with locally that have been sung by Sarit Hadad

Since Jody and Naomi (and now only Naomi) have administered the Cherry Hill class, the class has ended with a rendition of Kvar Acharei Chatsot which has also been used to end many Israeli dance marathons. The participants of the Cherry Hill class probably don't realize that there is a link between this dance and a dance on the Initial I1 disk, Ha'shoter Azulai (The policeman Azulai). Both of these pieces of music have been touched by the genius of Nurit Hirsh, one of Israel's leading music composers and arrangers. Her web site, www.nurit-hirsh.com claims over a thousand pieces of music have been created by her and the table below lists some these songs that choreographers have used for Israeli dances. Further, if you go through the significant pieces of music, whether choreographed or not, you run into a whos-who of the most prominent Israeli singers including Sarit Hadad, Ofra Haza, Shlomo Artzi, Uri Fineman and Boaz Sharabi.

Let's concentrate on the Policeman Azulai. At the time that she was composing this song for that movie, the composer would have been given timing points for changes in the music to correlate with title changes on the screen. Computer graphics weren't available at the time and the screen took priority (today, it's very different as the graphic artists can keep up and anticipate changes in the music.) This made it very difficult at that time for screen compositions to be used as dance music because the yimings did not allow for this and music editing can only take a piece of music so far. This is probably why the James Bond Theme, which appears very prominently on this web site, has never been used as a basis of Israeli dance or any dancing for that matter. It's a great achievement to create a piece of music that can meet both situations and Nurit Hirsh is one of the few artists to have done this as she did with the Policeman Azulai theme.

For her career, she has garnered almost every conceivable award both in Israel and internationally starting from a young age and several years ago was given a liftime achievement award from what would be the equivalent of ASCAP in the United States. As indicated, below is a table documenting her songs that Israeli dancers would be familiar with. Below are the songs 9and dances) that Nurit Hirsh has composed which are part of the israeli Dance repertoire.

We all experienced the magic of Aura Levin-Lipski when she visited Don's Thursday session on March 24th. Normally, a 30 hour plane ride that deposits you at a city in the early morning hours of that day stifles one's enthusiasm and verve for that evening. But not Aura! A few hours later, she took over that session when she arrived a little after 8PM. The pictures, right and left, show Aura's new CD and holding one of these on the left is Jani Rosen.

In her home country of Australia, Aura is a well known as a Jewish activist and you can see on YouTube videos a former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, talking about Aura's activities pertaining to the plight of Russian Jews during the 1970's and 80's. Aura is equally well known in Australia as a folk singer and recently has received much acclaim for her composition (song, lyrics and vocal) of Nirkod LaShalom.

However, for this web site, it is Aura's aussie database, found at www.israelidances.com, that stands out per her accomplishments. No other web site has the infomation that Aura has been collecting since 1996 and apparently she has created this site on her own. In terms of the diskcoordinator CDs, much of the credit for the additional information supplied with the disks are a result of her data base.