The Markid’s Responsibility
I run a weekly Israeli folkdance session near Boston. I’ve run sessions where-ever I’ve lived for the past 20-something years. I’m the markid (DJ, teacher, leader) at many large and small Israeli folkdance weekends around the country, and I’m good at it. Why? Because I understand my responsibility to the sessions and to the dancers. Here are my 4 basic points of how I see that responsibility, and what I think you should expect (and require) of me or of any markid:
And the 5th of my 4 points,
1. The evening is for the dancers, not the markid.
Take requests for what to play and what to teach. Too many markidim play only the songs they know or like. I think this is wrong. If I wanted to do only what I like and ignore others’ preferences, I could do it at home. Do you go to a session to see the markid have a good time or to enjoy the evening yourself?
When I look at the request list (and there’s always a request list at my sessions), my job is to see what you’ve asked for and to play them, subtracting the songs you’ve asked for because you wrote the name but don’t really want to do the dance, and adding the songs you would have asked for had you remembered to ask for them. The last 2 parts take a bit of mind reading, but that comes with experience (and some skill). There are dances that I will or won’t choose to teach, partly that comes from my judgement of what’s a good dance and partly from reasons in the next section, but I’ll play (almost) any dance anyone asks for in the open session. Not every dance fits in at every point in every evening, so I may say that I won’t play a particular dance now, but I will play it when it fits better.
I can only say I know a dance if I can teach it, and it’s my job as a markid to know a lot of dances. Which means that if you ask me to teach something, usually the answer is "Sure, OK, start with your right foot and …", not, "Well, let me think about it and maybe in a few weeks or so …". (Unless it’s one of the few dances I don’t know :) and I’ll tell you so. I don’t bluff my way through a dance or settle for "something like this; it’s close enough". It isn’t.)
2. Recognize that the dance world extends beyond any one session.
I look at this both in terms of the immediate dance community and the larger dance world. I don’t always need to teach a particular dance at my session if I know that it’s being taught at a session across town a few days later. On a related note, it is very much my responsibility to know what the other local sessions are teaching and dancing, since I’ll certainly want to include that material in my evening’s program. (Go back to Rule 1 – The evening is for the dancers. There aren’t "my" dances and "their" dances; there are just dances. If the folks who come to my session know them and want to dance them, it’s my job to accommodate them.)
On a larger scale, I need to know what’s being done elsewhere in the US and in the world and incorporate it into my session so that the people who dance with me will be able to participate when they go elsewhere (and visitors from out of town can enjoy my session). I need to know what’s being taught at all the workshops. I need to have all the music, whether I know the dances or not, so I can play it when you ask for it. You need to expect this of me.
One nice compliment I often get is from "regulars" who’ve traveled and danced elsewhere, then come back and said, "Thanks – we were able to dance so much when we went away because we do all those dances with you." It’s a judgement call how much to introduce dances because I like them and hope others will teach them too, and to teach what others are already teaching, to lead or to follow. I keep in touch with other markidim and hear about what they’re doing, as well as getting out to other places personally and seeing for myself (and, coincidentally, getting to dance while someone else does the work!). Even if you know all the dances done at your regular session, if you can’t dance most of the night at any other session you walk into, you’ve been done a disservice.
You should expect professional sounding music professionally played. You should expect from me what you’d expect from any DJ in a nightclub. No 5-minute gaps between songs. No ten minute breaks for announcements. High quality music at volumes and speeds appropriate to dance to. If you’d complain to the management about it in a nightclub, complain to the markid at the session.
(This said, I realize that there are many groups that are run on a volunteer basis and/or there’s simply not the budget for a professional sound system. If this is the case at your session, talk to me and I’ll give you some suggestions for good sounding, low $$$ systems.)
But the way the system is used should be no different. If you’re playing music from tapes/records/CDs/MDs etc that aren’t pre-programmed (that is, the next 4 dances you’re doing are all in a row on the tape), you need to get to the tape player before the song ends (exiting the circle or leaving your partner gracefully) and have the next tape ready to go. Ideally you’ll have 2 tape players and can get the next song started without waiting. When you’re running the session, you don’t get to finish dances – you need to make sure the other dancers can keep dancing.
I mentioned the teaching part of the evening above, and it belongs here as well. Yes, I need to know the dances I'm teaching, and I also need to teach in a professional manner, taking into account the skills and abilities of the dancers and the time of the evening. I need to present the material in an understandable way, being appropropriately cognizant of dancers' differing needs. I need to be polite, and to accommodate those who need some extra help in getting the dance. Whenever I'm learning a dance, I'm also watching the teacher for how s/he teaches, so that maybe I can pick up some pointers for some teaching techniques to use (or avoid). However long any of us have been doing this, we can all always get better, and we need to always work towards that goal.
4. You come to my session to have a good time.
I’m there for you. If you’re a regular at the session, I’ll try to say Hi. If you’re new, I’ll especially try to say Hi, welcome you to the session or to town, and see what I can play for you that evening. I’ll try to make a nice atmosphere by being energetic, accommodating, and polite (how many times have you been yelled at at a session? enjoy it? didn’t think so). If I’ve had a bad day, I won’t take it out on you.
I need to create and enforce a pleasant atmosphere at the session, one where people feel welcome and can have fun. Where it’s OK to be silly or make a mistake or dance with your true love all night. Where you’ll want to come back to because of, and not in spite of, the markid: me.
Too many markidim like to close by saying, "Keep dancing". I think this is a bit too self-serving and it misses the point.
I like to close by saying "Keep enjoying dancing". Better, yes?