My Ships take me wherever they want

I am looking at a world map and playing a mind game.."Can I remember all the places I've been to?"
I am trying to pin them with different colors..and suddenly I realized that "my dancing ships" have taken me to far more places than I ever thought !

I started dancing in Buenos Aires long ago when the mind could not even picture "Israeli folk dancers" across the sea; and like a dream, the swings and turns lifted me..the waves rolled me and I got an offer to teach at a Jewish Summer Camp in Pennsylvania..BBYO put me in touch with such wonderful programs and experience..I kept going East from my home town year after year..for more than 10!

A new set of ships took me to California many years later..this time for good.
Dance Camps all over the country were now a true opportunity to meet those "phantom names" I grew up with and learned to admire from my first dancing steps: Shlomo Maman, Shmulik Gov Ari, Israel Yaakovee, Tuvia Tishler...and the list was long!
Am I really going to see them in person?? :-)

My vessel stopped at several ports: New York, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Malibu, Ojai, London and  Israel.. Each site a new chance to learn; to observe; to internalize styles; to dream of what was behind each creative piece; to connect with people sharing the same love; to look at each other with those feelings of complicity and fulfillment at the opposite side of the circle. To find out that there are very many interesting lives behind those dancing feet.

And one day...knock knock..a new sailboat at my door.."Are you willing to go teach folk dancing in Lithuania"? Mm..wait! I have to go check my world map!!  Did you know there are Jewish Summer Camps over there as well? And they LOVE Israeli Dances! They say experience is the best teacher..I am so grateful for it !!

I know mine is not the only dancing ship that sailed and doesn't stop, I'm sure many of you, my friends, have been sailing as well..

She is not telling what happened to her by the sea
She hides the smile and her eyes glow
The imagination sails free.. is all she says
My ships take me where ever they want
( from the song Sfinoteha- Her Ships ) 

The tide that carried me to NY :)