Tap-Dancing To A Bronze

After last year's JCC Maccabi Games in Detroit, dance coach Joyce
Serri planted the idea of dancing this year into Ian Mondrow's
head.
Last week, after a year of work, he returned from Houston as
not only the first-ever male dancer in the JCC Maccabi Games,
but a medal winner as well, taking bronze in the tap dance divi-
sion.
"I think a lot of people were interested in him being the only
boy," said Linda Mondrow, Ian's mother. "There was a lot of
cheering for him because of that and I think the girls enjoyed hav-
ing him around."
For Mondrow, it took a little while to adjust to the idea. "I
finally got used to it around the second day," said the eighth grad-
er at Abbott Middle School in West Bloomfield. "I was creating a
change in the program and everyone there was different than me."
Mondrow heard plenty of comments. It was mostly, 'Wow, he's
gutsy,'" he said. "I took it to be a good thing, but some were won-
dering why a boy would want to dance."
He started dancing eight years ago and enjoys it because it is
different from the traditional male sports. "I'll play basketball at
Ian Mondrow practices.
school, but I don't play team sports in leagues," he said.
Mondrow may be looking at a return trip to Maccabi next year,
but needs a little help from some friends before he goes to defend his medal.
"If I could get someone I knew to do it with me, I'd do it," he said, adding the gender of a
dancer doesn't.matter: "It gets kind of lonely."
— Lonny Goldsmith

Swimmer Sarah
Connor, 14, of
Farmington
Hills, with coach
Deena Bernstein
in practice.

a near-brawl. But there was no such trouble
this year, said Beth Kellman, Detroit's Cherry
Hill delegation head, noting, "There was
nothing to fight about."
Said hockey coach Steve Friedman, "This
team not only showed off their skills but did
it with tremendous discipline, even when

other teams got physical."
Friedman and co-coach Rick ZusSman
attributed much of the team's success to cap-
tains Adam Zussman, Brandon Pomish and
Matt Glen, all of whom have played the three
years the sport has been offered by Maccabi.
Kellman said the experience of the six

coaches that went to Cherry Hill made her
job as delegation head considerably easier.
"Between Joel Kashdan (track coach) and
Herb Bernstein (swimming coach), there is 30
years of Maccabi experience," said Kellman,
who added that Bernstein's daughter and co-
coach, Deena, has coached for nine years and

S/27
1999

Detroit Jewish News

121