Dance workshop at the JCC, in a dystopia

[sonia]

I went to a Joy of Yiddish/Klezmer Music and Dance workshop today, at the JCC East Bay in North Berkeley. First time I'd been there, although apparently it's been there since 1978. Too bad I didn't know about it when I lived a few blocks away as a grad student.

It was a fun dance session taught by Bruce Bierman, including information about Yemenite and Hassidic Jewish dance, and some improvisational dance around the letter Aleph א.

The reason I'm posting about it, though, is because there was a friendly Black woman officially standing guard at the door to let us in. At the end I left a little bit ahead of the rush, and the door was locked from the inside, too. She kindly let me out.

As I unlocked my bike nearby, I told her, "I understand the reasons for it, but your having to be here fully creeps me out. Thank you for standing guard." I paused, and said, "The world we live in!" She said she was going to say the same thing. I burst into tears as I biked away. That one detail bringing into sharp focus how terrifying the world is these days.

It reminds me of my response to the metal detectors at the entrances to the Smithsonian museums in DC when I visited 10 years ago. I grew up wandering in and out of those museums, and they felt welcoming and open. Having armed guards pawing through my stuff felt like the opposite of that. Most visitors who encounter the guards don't even know what has been lost.

Speaking of dystopian elements, the local 7-Eleven has a solar-powered machine with a bright flashing light on a pole in the parking lot. I got close enough to read the small print on the side, and it's a surveillance camera. I guess I'm being filmed every time I walk by. I saw one in another business parking lot too. Bad enough that there are Teslas everywhere here with their cameras that don't turn off when they're supposed to.

Comments

[batdina]

Dystopia indeed. I say thank you to to the guard at shul every time I'm there. And I hate that I have to. He's a nice guy, and he knows me so we chat. But it still sucks.

I miss that JCC. I used it for everything Jewish outside of Hillel for almost a decade. Three degrees, so I got to know the place fairly well.

[zdenka]

That sounds like a great dance class!

*nod* I understand what you mean. My temple hired a security guard to stand watch whenever the building is in use, and we're only supposed to enter or leave by certain doors. I 100% understand why they felt this was needed, I just hate that this stuff is necessary. It makes me sick to think that anyone would attack the kids' classes, but thinking about what's happened in some other places, you can't assume it won't happen, so . . . The guard seems nice; I say hello and goodnight to him when entering/leaving the building, and he lets me in when I forget the door code (another thing I wish we didn't need).

[sonia]

Good to be reminded that the guards are a shared experience, even if we'd all rather it weren't.

And lovely that the JCC is a shared experience!

[sonia]

Like I said to batdina, good to be reminded it's a shared experience.

It was a great dance class! One of the musicians is in my choir and gently nudged me to go. It's part of a monthly series, so I might go to some of the others, although very few people were wearing masks, and a women who occasionally coughed kept ending up next to me.

[azurelunatic]

Oh, those blue-blinking things are the worst.

[sonia]

Creepy as hell.