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The Charlotte Jewish News - August 2011 - Page 27 Shalom Lake Norman Festival Shalom Lake Norman returns for a third year, Sunday, September 18, from Noon-4 PM, at Ramsey Creek Park in Cornelius. The erowd of last year has been anxiously awaiting a repeat of the festival sponsored by The Baal Shem Tones the Jewish Couneil of Lake Norman. Mueh more has been added to this year’s festival. More entertainment for both adults and ehildren, whieh will require that you eome early and stay till the end. More venders and more food. It’s a day of fun for the entire family. Featured entertainers this year: The Baal Shem Tones, Helene & Michael Kates. A Baal Shem Tones eoneert is more than great musie; for many it is a spiritual event that stays with them for years. Helene and her husband Miehael, the duo’s produeer, eo- wrote most of their material, a tightly erafter style of pop-influ- eneed Amerieana whieh has been deseribed ast “100% Ameriean and 100% Jewish,” with a power ful spiritual puneh that stands out. Batsheva is a singer, song writer, musieian, and eomedy writer. She sings in Ladino, Yiddish, Hebrew and English. She is an award winning songwriter and has performed in Israel, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Her “Song of Rememberanee” is part of the offieial arehives of Yad Va-Shem. She is a elassieally trained musi eian, studying piano and eello at the Royal Conservatory of Musie in Toronto. She aeeompanies her self in guitar. Batsheva holds a degree in Theater from York University in Toronto. In addition to these great per formers, there will be a fun ehil- dren’s area with performanees, magie shows, and erafts. For the shopper, you must stroll through the shuk area. Vendors will be selling Judaiea from speeialty food to art. Come hungry, beeause the food will be mouth watering, the eater- er promises a Jewish gastronomi- eal experienee. If you ean’t park at the park, off sight parking is available with bus transportation provided. Follow the signs and hosts will be there to guide you. Sunday, September 18 Noon to 4 PM Ramsey Creek Park, Cornelius Please note: we are still seeking vendor for art, jewelry, and Judaiea. For more information on vendors and general information on the festival, please go to www.shalomlakenorman.eom. ^ Tisha B’Av begins at sundown August 8 and ends at sundown August 9. Film Festival (Continued from page 24) val direetor. Jeff assumes this position from Jodi Werner- Greenwald who is stepping down after sueeessfully leading the Festival for the last seven years. Jeff has been greatly involved in the Charlotte Jewish eommunity in the past and looks forward to eontinuing the great work started by Jodi. Please join us in weleom- ing Jeff and thanking Jodi for a job well-done. The Charlotte Jewish Film Festival is brought to you by the Levine JCC and the Charlotte Chapter of Hadassah, and is made possible, in part, with funding by the Arts & Seienee Couneil and the North Carolina Arts Couneil, an ageney of the Department of Cultural Resourees, and the National Endowment for the Arts, whieh believes that a great nation deserves great art. ^ Meshugah for Zumba By Deborah Hirsch Philadelphia (Jewish Exponent) — At age 54, Esther Goldberg has daneed in front of 46,000 people at a sold-out Phillies game and behind a easino bar wearing little more than a see-through mesh shirt over a sparkly bra. This is what Zumba ean do to an otherwise mild-mannered masseuse and yoga instruetor from Northeast Philadelphia. If you haven’t heard about Zumba yet, Goldberg and more than 500 other eertified instmetors loeated within 25 miles of Philadelphia’s Center City will elamor to tell you how the Latin- inspired danee fitness phenome non ean not only get you in shape but truly ehange your life. As Goldberg put it, “You never know where it will take you.” Sound a little eultish? It is. 1 ean say that beeause 1, too, fell prey to the Zumba addietion and have been teaehing it sinee February 2010. Sinee there’s nothing inherently Jewish about Zumba, 1 hadn’t eon- sidered it newsworthy for the Jewish Exponent until a fellow instruetor began tieking off names of members of the tribe among our ranks. Her point was eonfirmed a few months later when 1 posted a query for Jewish instruetors on our Philly Zumba Instruetor Network Faeebook group. Fifteen people responded, generating a string of more than 40 eomments that ineluded lots of “oys” and a sug gestion to form a Jewish burlesque group. Short of these aneedotes, there’s no data to indieate whether Jews eomprise an unusually high share of Zumba enthusiasts. But there’s also no denying how mueh this fitness frenzy has reaehed into our loeal Jewish eommunity. Aside from Jews who have made Zumba part of their weekly routine, at least six area syna gogues have added elasses to their lineup of eommunity programs. A few teaehers have even given it a Jewish twist, infusing Israeli musie, Yiddish humor and their baekground in folk daneing to guide partieipants through the moves. Although Zumba seems to be a relatively reeent fad in the Northeast, it’s been around in other parts of the eountry for years. A erowd of more than 6,000 instruetors will mark its 10th anniversary at a sold-out eonven- tion this weekend in Orlando, FL. The Levine JCC has been offer ing a Zumba elass sinee 2007. Taught by Lyn Addy, who is a eer tified instuetor, it has very loyal following. Goldberg found Zumba, with its loud, quiek, “out there” moves, a perfeet eounterbalanee to the other forms of danee and yoga she’d been teaehing sinee she was a teenager. What started as one elass at Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, PA, quiekly expanded to four, not eounting the yoga she was already teaehing there. “People like to move their bod ies but often feel like they ean’t danee sinee they didn’t have train ing or they feel self-eonseious,” Goldberg said. With eatehy musie and repetitive steps, “Zumba elim inates that.” Beeause of the Jewish setting, Goldberg eontinued, it’s easy to throw in “Hava Nagila” or other Jewish songs, talk about upeom- ing holidays or joke about how mueh everyone ate at Chanukah. “My name is so Jewish, it’s like I’m more eomfortable fitting in,” Goldberg explained. “It’s like heimisehe. Espeeially if they are members of the synagogue, it’s like, ‘Wow, I ean eome to my syn agogue and work out, it’s here.’” Growing up, instruetor Donna Harris just wanted to danee on Broadway. “My Jewish mother wouldn’t hear of it,” said Harris, 62. So instead, she attended Temple University and beeame a teaeher. After retiring in 2008, the “frus trated daneer” finally got her ehanee to eut loose. “While many of my friends went to Hadassah meetings, knit ting eireles and mah jongg games, I was Zumba-ing like there was no tomorrow,” said Harris, of Northeast Philadelphia. The best part, she said, was see ing the older population she tar geted eoming out of their shells during elass. “WTiatever is going on in their lives,” Harris said, “Zumba helps them deal with it.” She ean relate to that. Instead of dwelling on ailments that threat ened to slow her down — eervieal eaneer, depression, a non-malig- nant brain tumor, emphysema and severe hearing loss — she eoneen- trated on daneing. Darey Silvers, a eopywriter and instruetor from Holland, PA, said she wouldn’t be surprised if the faet that she grew up listening and daneing to Hebrew songs made her quieker to hop on the Zumba bandwagon. Plus, she said, the format is similar to Israeli dane ing — both assoeiate eaeh part of a song with a unique movement. “To me it’s like perfeet beeause I get paid to exereise,” Silvers said, adding that it’s also a great way for women approaehing menopause like her to help stave off weight gain and other side effeets that eome with that stage of life. Silvers, 52, ineorporates Israeli musie in all of her elasses — ineluding those at three Curves gyms — but she saves expressions like “No sehleppers allowed!” and “Shake your tushies!” for her syn agogue group. Around Chanukah last year, she ehoreographed a rou tine to the Yeshiva University a eappella group Maeeabeats’ “Candlelight.” As mueh as she loves Zumba, Silvers said, it troubles her that synagogues seem more interested in starting Zumba programs than Israeli folk daneing. She’s not the only avid folk daneer among the Philly Zumba elan. Silvers and another instrue tor, Beth Ladenheim, also 52, still frequent folk daneing almost every week, and a handful of their fel low daneers attend Zumba elasses, too. In folk daneing, Ladenheim said, the ehoreography tends to be more intrieate and less athletie. She wanted to sweat, and Zumba eertainly made that happen. “As someone who loves to danee but not exereise, it seemed like a god send to me during a time when I was desperately trying to lose weight.” Though Zumba elasses tend to attraet mostly women, men are speeifieally banned from the ses sions Ladenheim holds at Lower Merion Synagogue and Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, two Orthodox synagogues. For Orthodox women who don’t belong to eoed gyms for modesty reasons, “they would never do this anywhere else,” Ladenheim explained. “I kind of feel like I’m doing a serviee by going into the synagogue and giv ing them an opportunity to do something that everybody else is doing.” Student Beth Gottfried said the elass probably played a role in her losing ten pounds sinee last fall. Aside from the faet that she ean’t attend other elasses where men might show up, Gottfried, 52, said it was just eonvenient to have an option at her shul, where she eould see friends and meet other Jewish women. “There was no pressure to be perfeet, you eould mess up and nobody would judge you,” she said. Students point out that the syn agogue elasses tend to attraet an over-40 erowd, whieh makes it less intimidating than a gym full of young, athletie exereisers. But there are plenty of younger Jews in the mix, too, like myself and 27-year-old Nieole MaeDonald, an instruetor from Willow Grove. Lyn Addy teaehes a Zumba elass at the Levine JCC. “Zumba doesn’t judge based on age, weight, gender,” MaeDonald said. “It’s for everyone.” Ellen Goldstein, regional diree tor of BBYO in Charlotte, has been taking Zumba at the Levine JCC for three years. “Zumba eombines exereise, great musie, and danee,” she says. “Zumba will make you sweat, put a smile on your faee, and is a great stress reliever.” Kate Nolt, a fitness eonsultant seeking a doetorate in kinesiology at Temple University, said she expeets interest in Zumba will eventually die down like other fit ness trends. Still, she agreed with Goldberg, who insisted that “there’s too many people who love it and instruetors who love it” for it to disappear soon. Zumba seems to have reaehed a new level of fun eompared with other workouts, Nolt said. “It really does toueh to the eore of a lot of people,” Nolt said. “Some people may not go onto a danee floor at a bar mitzvah or even a wedding, but in Zumba they’re in a room with a whole buneh of people exereising and it feels really good. They’re dane ing, but it doesn’t even feel like a workout.” Not only does Zumba improve posture and figure, Ladenheim says, the soeial nature of it “leaves you feeling happy and wanting more movement instead of more eake.” Or, in my ease, more movement and more eake. ^ Amy Krakovitz contributed to this story.
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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