Dancers from the Galim Dance Group, on their debut trip to the United States in Westchester, where they were serving as unofficial cultural ambassadors from Israel.
by Merri Rosenberg Special To The Jewish Week
In bare feet, with precise footwork and graceful gesture, the 14 girls on stage confidently interpreted several Israeli songs, ranging from upbeat and up-tempo klezmer-inflected tunes to quieter, more somber pieces. Never mind that the young dancers, age 13-17, had just flown in that morning from Florida, where they had spent a few days performing at Miami synagogues and day schools. Their performance here was spirited and lively, and had the audience of third and fourth graders at the culturally diverse William B. Ward elementary school in New Rochelle swaying in their seats to the infectious rhythms. The young students gazed raptly at the dancers in their colorful costumes, gasping in admiration as some dancers performed flips and other acrobatic moves.
The visit of
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the Galim Dance Group to the school here was part of a two-week tour for the group, designed to coincide with local observances of Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut. Besides Ward, the group also performed at Beth El Synagogue in New Rochelle, the Solomon Schechter School in White Plains, the Kinneret Day School in Riverdale, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan and various schools and synagogues in New Jersey.
“This is their debut trip to the United States,” said Miri Polachek, who founded the group Westchester Israelis a few years ago to bring together Israeli and Hebrew-speaking families for social, cultural and educational programs. “They’re coming for a cultural exchange, as ambassadors of Israel.” And the Ward school was receptive to that message, since part of its educational mission is celebrating the cultural diversity of its school community.
“This is a jump-start to May, when we celebrate the culture of Israel and Jewish-American culture,” said Kenneth Regan, principal of Ward school. “We’re celebrating the art of Israel, and today it’s dance.” Polachek, whose older son attends Ward, introduced each piece to the audience and kept the focus on the Israeli connection.
“We’re very excited to share a little bit of Israel culture with you,” she said. “It’s a very, very tiny country and a very beautiful one, with deserts and mountains and the sea.”
Local families hosted the dancers, who are high school students from Israel’s Jordan Valley. Founded in 1970, the Galim Dance Group focuses on choreographing and performing original dances that reflect Israel’s multicultural traditions and ethnic groups.
The Israeli population in Westchester, and neighboring Riverdale, has increased in recent years, said Polachek. “There is a large Israeli presence in Westchester, but families are spread out throughout the county, unlike communities like Tenafly [in New Jersey] or Great Neck [on Long Island] where they are much more concentrated in one town,” she said in an e-mail. A few years ago, Polachek launched a mailing list targeting Israelis in Westchester, and there is now a Yahoo listserv group for this community. Besides Polachek’s efforts with the Westchester Israelis group, later this fall there will be an “Israeli Connections Club” hosted by the JCC in Scarsdale.
Such connections are also emphasized at Riverdale’s Kinneret Day School, said Principal Asher Abramovitz. “My Judaic and Hebrew studies staff are Israeli,” he said. “They bring in Israeli spirit and language into the school. We have an emphasis on Hebrew, and there’s a wonderful ability on the part of the children to speak Hebrew like native Israelis. We are very much involved in bringing Israel to the school.”
At Kinneret, the Galim Dance Group was one of many Israeli groups that visit the school throughout the year, and it received a warm welcome. “The moment they walked in, the entire school sang along,” said Abramovitz. “The entire school got up and danced with them. You could imagine you were in a kibbutz in Israel.”
And that was definitely part of Galim’s mission during this trip.
“This is about a message of peace,” said Galim’s founder and artistic director, Dorit Porat. “This is the most important subject for Israel, which struggles to make peace with its neighbors. We’re bringing Israeli culture, with beautiful music and dancing, to show the positive side of Israel.”
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