Esteemed Israeli Dance Teacher Returns Home

 

By Eileen Wingard

SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s eminent Israeli folk dancer teacher, Yoni Carr, will be going back to Israel as a returning citizen, a toshav hozer.

After 37 years of teaching Israeli Dance in San Diego, Yoni was feted by two events. Following her final dance session at the Champion Ballroom on September 29, the large throng of participants met on the parking lot to toast their beloved instructor and present her with a farewell gift, a necklace  inscribed with the words, “Never Miss A Chance To Dance.”

The following Sunday, at a private home, sixty people gathered from all areas where Yoni has taught, to honor her once again.

Yoni was born in Rohovot, Israel, the fifth of the eight Owami children. Her parents immigrated from Yemen, her father, a tile maker, working long hours to earn enough to feed his family, her mother, taking care of the children and the household tasks. Before her marriage, Yoni’s mother was selected as Queen Esther for a Purim Carnival in Tel Aviv and her photo hangs in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Yoni inherited her mother’s sparkle and beauty.

Yoni’s elementary education was in an all-girls religious school. Her parents were very orthodox. The next level of schooling was also at an all-girls school. Only at the third level, high school, did she attend a coed institution. During their recesses, they would pipe in Israeli dance music. That music caught her fancy, and she realized how much she enjoyed singing and dancing.

Her oldest brother, Rehavia, recognized Yoni’s interest and talent and arranged for her to spend the next few years on a kibbutz, Maagan Michael, between Haifa and Hadera. A married couple took her under their wings as surrogate parents. The kibbutz sent her to Hadera for classical ballet lessons and she received instrumental instruction, first on clarinet, then on mandolin.

After over three years on the kibbutz, Rehavia noticed an ad for the INBAL Dance Company and encouraged his sister to audition. Yoni was accepted and was enrolled in intensive dance sessions in classical ballet with Anna Sokoloff, and in modern dance with a disciple of Martha Graham.  She also took voice lessons. Within eight months, Yoni took her place as a professional member of the company, often filling solo roles as in the 1965 production of Vered Bar (Wild Rose).

She remained in the INBAL Dance Company for seven years, touring in the United States and Europe and participating in the Hollywood film, The Greatest Story Ever Told with Charlton Heston. The dancers portrayed harem girls. They remained filming in Hollywood for nine months, enough for Yoni to become enamored with Southern California.

While being part of INBAL, Yoni also took part in Israeli productions of  musicals such as The King and I, Hello Dolly and My Fair Lady. 

Jonathan Karmon invited her to become his lead dance soloist in his Israeli Folk Dance Group, after watching her perform with INBAL in Tel Aviv’s Allenby Theater. Yoni decided it was time for a change and joined Karmon’s troupe. He featured some of Israel’s most famous singers such as Shoshana Damari and Yaffa Yarkoni, both now deceased.

In 1973, Karmon invited Aliza Kashi to sing in The Grand Musical of Israel, which had a successful nine month run on Broadway in New York City.  Kashi brought along her own drummer and it is that drummer with whom Yoni developed a relationship. After the show’s run, he returned to his work in the Catskill mountains’ resort hotels and she returned with him. Four years later, they were married. Yoni found work teaching fitness and ballroom dancing at the Concord Hotel. Yoni became certified by the Dance Educators of America, specializing in the Fred Astaire method of ballroom dancing. The pair had a daughter, Tiffany, who now lives with her family in Jerusalem, another reason Yoni is returning to her homeland.

After 13 years, Yoni divorced and decided to find work in Southern California. Not only did she remember her experience from her Hollywood filming, but three of her siblings were then living there. She was hired as an exercise instructor at the La Costa Spa. She also began teaching Israeli dancing  at the Jewish Community Center in Irvine, where she worked for 34 years.

When she decided to leave La Costa Spa, she applied to teach ballroom dancing at the Arthur Murray studio in the Hillcrest area of San Diego. The charming owner, Chuck Caricato, trained her. Four years later, they were married.  They not only had their dancing in common, but both had daughters named Tiffany. Yoni soon began teaching Israeli dancing as well.

In San Diego, over a 37-year span, Yoni developed a large following. Her dance sessions moved around, from Caleope’s to the Infinity Ballroom, the Folk Dance Center, Temple Beth El, the Jewish Academy, and, most recently, the Champion Ballroom. From an original class of seven, her sessions grew to over 70 attendees on any given night.

When Yoni lost Chuck in 2019, she began thinking of retiring and returning to Israel. In her homeland, she will be joining three of her siblings.  She plans to reside in her native Rehovoth, where her beloved brother, Rehavia, once again lives.

She will be sorely missed in San Diego. As one of her devoted fans, Shira Wiseman, once described her, saying, “Yoni is full of beaming personality, fabulous dance ability, and patient, clear teaching instruction;  she is the icon of Israeli Folk Dance.”

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Eileen Wingard, former violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com