Guest Blog – Tara Stepenberg: First visit to Jacob’s Pillow – l953 – I am 10 years old

I am pleased to welcome Tara Stepenberg as a guest blogger.  Tara responded enthusiastically to my last blog about Jacob’s Pillow, when I invited anyone who had a memorable experience at the Pillow to contact me about doing a guest blog.  Thank you, Tara, for sharing your experience.  JoAnne

One evening in August of 1953, my mother and I went to Jacob’s Pillow for a performance.  It was before dusk when we arrived. What first struck me were the rustic wooden cabins where students were staying. As we walked on the path by the cabins, the open windows allowed one to see inside.  The rooms had lights on, and I could peer in, seeing pointe shoes hanging in the rooms (perhaps hanging down from rafters).  I loved the look of that; it has stayed with me all these years and was experienced like some kind of “touchstone” for the future.

As was mentioned in a previous post, the place where the performances occurred was the “barn” and the program had different dance styles: classical ballet, modern and “ethnic” dance. (Each style was given equal weight. This was an important vision of Ted Shawn’s and was not lost on me).   The performances were by the best representatives of these styles.  I believe I saw Alicia Markova and perhaps one other ballet performer.  For the “ethnic” portion, I saw the dynamic Jean Leon Destine (1918-2013) and his Afro-Haitian company.   (For more information, google danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org to see photographs of this company.) He performed with Katherine Dunham and established his own company emphasizing dances/rituals from Haiti.

What I remember most about the performance is Giselle’s Revenge by Myra Kinch.  I had seen the ballet Giselle in Rochester, but this Giselle was hilarious, dressed in all black, looking like the Addams Family, and there was a coffin and a hammer! (Giselle seduces her Albrecht into the coffin and nails it shut.) For photographs, google “Myra Kinch Giselle’s Revenge,” and photographs from Getty Images appear. (I could not find videos). Myra Kinch (1904-1981) was a modern dancer born in LA who trained with La Meri. She was known for her humor and satire – the focus of her choreographic output.  She was head of the Modern Dance program at Jacob’s Pillow for 25 years beginning in l948.

The trip to Jacob’s Pillow was particularly memorable because it solidified for me what I wanted to do with my life.  The affirmation occurred at dinnertime a day after the Jacob’s Pillow performance during our summer’s visit to a “farm” in Great Barrington. For several years, my family went to the Berkshires to spend a week on the “farm” of a family who were friends of my parents’ from their days with the American Labor Party.  This lovely “farm” in Great Barrington, MA, was a beautiful place with many blackberry bushes, a nearby brook, and a run-down one-room schoolhouse filled with “old” books.  The primary family also housed refugees from time to time and during this summer I noticed a person, a woman who had numbers on her forearm, and I learned that this woman had been in Auschwitz. (This was my first encounter with a survivor from the camps.)

I can see myself standing at the dinner table with many people around it.  Someone asked me what I wanted to do or be when I grew up (I don’t remember the exact question).  My response was, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a dancer, graduate high school early and go to New York.”  And in fact I graduated high school just after turning 16, went to the Boston Conservatory of Music for a year, then Juilliard, and after graduating, performed with Anna Sokolow for a year.

Bio. Tara Stepenberg (ne. Francia Roxin)  Tara (M.Ed., CMA, RMT) a former Education Director of LIMS, has been deeply engaged with movement for over 50 years, as a performing, creative artist, university professor, reconstructor from Labanotation, movement coach, somatic and authentic movement practitioner. She founded & directed the Dance Department at Hampshire College, taught at SUNY Brockport, The Naropa Institute, Antioch New England, Wesleyan Summer Program and Southwestern College. She currently is on the conditioning staff of Pacific Northwest Ballet, has a private practice Somatic Resonance, and in January (2022) completed the Ways of Seeing program with Suzi Tortora. Tara loves the places and spaces that engagement with the bodymind reveals.

[print_link]