Edy Greenblatt

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Israeli
Israeli, international

Edy Greenblatt

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Edy Greenblatt arrived in Los Angeles at the age of 17 to pursue her passion for international folk dance, study ethnology at UCLA, and teach dance all over the city.

She had started dancing as a child at a Jewish Community Center. As she went through school, folk dancing was introduced into the curriculum from time to time. By the time she had reached fifth or sixth grade, she was already a folk dancer. Those teachers, and the way they presented their material, had made her want to stop folk dancing. It embarassed her that she even danced, because most kids were turned off to folk dance at that point. But she persevered and has earned, according to a Chagigah Camp brochure, a "reputation as a teacher par excellance and a unique individual to add to the spirit of any camp." She is well known to many in Israel.

She received an MA in Dance Ethnology but in search of a more stable career, she studied organizational behavior at the Harvard Business School, in a joint doctoral program involving Harvard's graduate schools of psychology and sociology. Her doctoral research on stress in the workplace took her to a string of Club Meds -- the better to investigate worker burnout.

In high school, she sold peanuts and Cokes when Ringling Brothers came to town. When they moved on, she was sorely tempted to go with them. At a Club Med in Florida, she first caught glimpse of a flying trapeze. It was love at first flight. Now, as president and "chief flying officer" of Execu-Care Coaching and Consulting, she helps corporate managers hone communication and leadership skills by teaching them the knee-hang and the back-flip dismount from a bar swinging thirty feet off the ground. Everyone wears a safety harness, and there's a net below. Greenblatt's staffers, who do the actual catching each time you fly through the air, have logged 10,000 hours of training and coaching time. The trapeze requires intense collaboration, so the corporate execs build trust and self-confidence, which makes them more effective at work.

She has taught at Chagigah, a weekend of Israeli dance at Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; Machol Pacifica's New Zealand's National Israeli Dance Camp in Thornton, Wellington; Hora Israeli Dancing in Melbourne, Australia; and Nirkoda in Melbourne, Australia.

In the 1980s, she did fieldwork in Macedonia.

Edy presented "Recreational Israeli Dance and America: Nearly Inseparable" at the 1992 Society of Dance History Scholars Conference in Riverside, California. She completed her doctoral work in 1993, submitting as her master's thesis "Recreational Israeli Dance as a Modern Particapatory Art Form."

Along with Michael Allan Kirk and Erin V. Lehman, Edy authored a book titled Restore Yourself: The antidote for professional exhaustion, published on March 1, 2009, which translates years of thoughtful social scientific research into actionable strategies for bringing positive energy back into our work and lives. Along the same lines, she leads Restore Yourself workshops through Mobius Executive Leadership competency training.

Dances Dr. Greenblatt has taught include An'im Z/Mirot, Chassidic Mood, Cholef Bein Hayamim, Eizo Rakdanit, El Elokai Shamyim, Enchat Ha'adama, Hachayim Ha'acherim, Hana'ava Babanot, Israel Hayafa, Lo Eten Laga'at, Macarena, Mikdash Ha'ahava, Nitzotz Ha'ahava, Purim Blues, Sa'ana, Saeynu, Shedemati, Shir Al Etz, Ud Biraz, Yaldati, and Vraho Vraho.


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Edy Greenblatt flyer

1983

Edy Greenblatt flyer

1983

Edy Greenblatt flyer

1985