Author: JoAnne Tucker

Thoughts After Seeing Sweet Mambo: An Informal Review

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Personal Life

During dinner with Ernesta and Andra in Paris, I asked them for suggestions to help me watch that evening’s performance of Pina Bausch’s Sweet Mambo. Years ago, I had seen the Pina Bausch company at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and while I had found the piece interesting and some of the movement exciting to watch, overall I was puzzled by it.  I welcomed some guidance on how to view the night’s performance.

They suggested I view it as a series of vignettes where the performer is sharing a moment of importance to him/her/them.  The piece premiered in 2008, and six of the original cast members would be among the nine current performers.  It was also pointed out to me that the six original cast members had been working with Pina for a number of years.  Some quick math and I realized I would be seeing mature performers, some possibly in their 50’s or 60’s.  They also had helped in the creation of the piece by improvising, with Pina drawing the choreography from their improvisations.

Having some of this background information was very helpful.  When Ernesta picked up our tickets for the evening, we were all very pleased to be third row center.  As I sank into the chair, I felt an excitement that I had often had in New York City when going to a dance event or Broadway show.  With great seats (I wouldn’t have to shift around to see), and knowing that I would be seeing accomplished performers, I was ready!

The piece opened with an elegant performer, Naomi Brito, holding a Tibetan singing bowl and gently circling the rim with a mallet, making a rich singing song that called us to attention.  As someone who likes to meditate and responds well to such sounds, it immediately brought my full concentration to the stage and the moment.  When Naomi began to move, I was in awe of her beautiful lines and the way she filled the stage with grace and strength at the same time. Watching the power of her movement sent chills down my body!  While Naomi was not a member of the original cast, Andra shared that she very much captured the quality of the dancer who had created the part.

As the piece progressed, I was impressed with how technically strong the six original cast members were.  Their years of seasoned performing captured the audience and immediately brought us into the vignette they were dancing.  Sometimes the women spoke and sang, and while it was in French and I do not have any experience speaking French, it didn’t matter as their intent and focus were so strong I stayed intrigued with the action.

The first half introduced the characters; the mood was light, teasing and playful between the men and women, with the women clearly having the upper hand.  Toward the end of the first half the feeling changed.  One of the original cast members, Julie Shanahan, threw herself over and over to be caught by two men, while lightning was projected onto the white fabric background!  It was intense and powerful and a good example of the strength of the diagonal line.  It was followed by another dancer, Julie Anne Stanzak, being led by different men in a repeated circle.

Following the intermission, the second half showed a darker side of each of the women characters, and in this section each of the men had a solo.  For me the piece was a powerful statement of relationships, with the women ultimately being in charge – truly a feminist piece.

The set and lighting were elegant and simple.  Fabric was used in different ways.  Film and images were often projected on back panels, which were also used for entrances and exits.  At one point, a cloud-like, billowing fabric served as a backdrop and then also provided a poignant moment for Naomi to dance inside it, creating an eerie solo. At another time, panels were flown in at different places on the stage and used in different ways.  Among the most striking such use was when the three men were behind the panels, and the three women sat on them like couches and were rocked.

As I walked back to my hotel room, I felt very grateful to have had the opportunity to see a powerful concert performed by a very gifted company.  Thank you Ernesta for making it possible, and Andra for your insight, and bravo to Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

Photo of the program cover

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The Corvino Family, Pina Bausch and a Special Evening

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Dance Education, Dance History, Personal Life

Sometimes when I check Facebook each day, I scold myself for wasting time as I look at pictures, read posts and even post myself.  Occasionally I discover something important, and that is what happened about 10 days before I was to leave for Paris on April 29.  Ernesta Corvino posted that she and her sister were in Paris with the Pina Bausch Dance Company. Ernesta was there teaching company classes and warming the company up before performances.  I was filled with wonderful Corvino memories and thought how special it would be to connect with Ernesta and Andra and maybe, just maybe they could help me get a ticket to see the Pina Bausch Company, as its online tickets were sold out.

I messengered and we agreed to be in touch once I was in Paris.  Ernesta thought it might be possible to get me a ticket, and we could certainly meet up.  Before I get to the specifics of our evening together, I want to share some history of my relationship with the Corvinos and some background about Alfredo Corvino, his daughters and Pina Bausch.

Alfredo Corvino (1916 – 2005) was my favorite ballet teacher at Juilliard.  As a “modern dancer,” I found his classes challenging, and I always felt a wisdom from him as he taught us how to align our bodies.  Elizabeth McPherson, a dancer who performed with both Ernesta’s company and mine, wrote a beautiful article that expressed Mr. Corvino’s important role and that of his daughters in training dancers.  I quote from the article, which appeared in Attitude Magazine in Fall 2009:

He started class in the same way each day: “First position, finger tips to the shoulders.” We would stand feeling our centers, and the music would begin. . .

Hearing Mr. Corvino’s corrections and directions through the voices of his daughters, I began to understand even more clearly what Mr. Corvino was teaching. As I came to understand it, the Corvino approach was about simplicity, using gravity as a helper, finding the most economical ways muscularly to perform certain movements. It was also about building a body through the use of a system of exercises Mr. Corvino had developed. . . .

Mr. Corvino was a fundamental force in the global world of dance for more than sixty years. His tradition lives on through the grand legacy of his students.

Here’s a link to the article.  On the same website page are several other excellent articles that explain Corvino’s approach to teaching.

In McPherson’s same article she summarizes the key events in Corvino’s life:

Alfredo Corvino was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on February 2, 1916. He studied ballet there, eventually joining the Uruguay National Ballet. He later danced with The Jooss Ballet, The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet of which he became ballet master. He taught at The Juilliard School for more than forty years and at The Metropolitan Opera Ballet School for almost twenty. Corvino also traveled the world teaching, in his later years as ballet master for Pina Bausch/Tanztheatre Wuppertal.

To learn more about Mr. Corvino’s life I strongly encourage you to go to a beautiful tribute that Ernesta put together for his induction into The National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame in 2018.  I loved watching it, learning so many new things about a teacher that I so strongly respected.  Here’s a link to watch the 53-minute film.

During the years 1976 – 2004 when I directed the Avodah Dance Ensemble in New York City, many of the company dancers were Juilliard graduates who had studied with either Alfredo (who taught at Juilliard until 1994) or his daughter Andra (who taught after he retired).  Some also studied with him at The Dance Circle.  The Dance Circle was known for providing excellent training in a kind, safe, sane environment.

In 1981 when Ernesta formed her own company, we shared some dancers.  In the summer of 1976, I attended some classes at The Dance Circle and posted an audition notice for my company’s very first New York performance.  One of the dancers responding to the notice was Lynn Elliot.  Lynn joined the company and was an important part of the early history of the Avodah Dance Ensemble.  When Ernesta formed her company, Lynn danced with her.  Later, Elizabeth McPherson played an important role in both of our companies.  Dina McDermott also performed with both of our companies, although not at the same time and only briefly for Ernesta’s company.

I have always had a deep respect for the Corvinos and was thrilled to be able to link up with Ernesta and Andra in Paris.  Before describing our evening together I want to convey the history between the Corvinos and Pina Bausch.  Alfredo first met Pina when he was teaching in Germany for Kurt Jooss in the late 1950’s. Pina had been dancing with Jooss since she was 14, and perhaps Corvino encouraged her to come to NYC.

In 1958 or 1959 Pina became a special student at Juilliard where she studied with Anthony Tudor, Alfredo Corvino, Jose Limon, and Martha Graham.  During the next two years she worked with choreographers such as Paul Sanasardo and Paul Taylor.  According to an article that Wendy Perron wrote, she feels that Pina’s time at Juilliard and in New York City from 1959 – 1961 “contributed more to her development than most Bausch scholars have acknowledged.”  In particular, Perron points out that Pina was exposed to a ‘wide diversity of styles, ethnicities and music genres that populated New York at the time.”  Here’s a link to Wendy Perron’s article to learn more about Pina’s time in New York.  For Pina’s full biography visit her page on the company’s website.

When Mr. Corvino retired from Juilliard in 1994, Pina asked him to become the Ballet Master for her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, and he continued in this role until he passed in August of 2005.

Ernesta took over his role in 2007 and now she was in Paris teaching morning classes for the company and leading the warmup before performances.  Andra, Ernesta and I met for an early dinner so Ernesta would be free to teach the evening’s warmup.  What a joy and delight it was for me to catch up with these two beautiful women.  Ernie and I had last seen each other when she was teaching at Perry-Mansfield, maybe 13 or 14 years ago, and Andra and I had only met on occasion when I attended a Juilliard concert with my good friend Linda Kent, again well over 15 years ago.  Nevertheless, our connection felt strong as we caught up on recent happenings in each other’s lives and commented on the current dance scene.

Our waiter kindly took our picture.  From left: me, Ernesta and Andra.

In the next blog I will write about the outstanding performance of “Sweet Mambo.”

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An Artist’s Week in Paris

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Personal Life

My daughter Julie introduced me to Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way.   I think she took a course from Cameron at The Open Center in NYC around 1992 when the book first came out.  I’ve been a fan of The Artist’s Way and Cameron’s recommended steps since then.  While I love living in Costa Rica, sometimes I miss the regular, ongoing stimulation that I experienced when I lived in New York City and in Santa Fe, NM.  About two months ago, as I was waiting for a passenger to arrive at the San Jose, Costa Rica airport, I was looking at where different flights originated and saw that there was a direct flight from Paris. I had never been to Paris. Later that evening I began researching and thinking of how to make the trip possible.

Now that I have returned from a wonderful week in Paris, I realize that the gift I gave myself was Julia Cameron’s recommended “Artist Date,” in an extended version.  In case you are not familiar:

Hailed by the New York Times as “The Queen of Change,” Julia Cameron is credited with starting a movement in 1992 that has brought creativity into the mainstream conversation—in the arts, in business and in everyday life. She is the best-selling author of more than forty books, fiction and nonfiction; a poet, songwriter, filmmaker and playwright. Commonly referred to as “The Godmother” or “High Priestess” of creativity, her tools are based in practice, not theory and she considers herself “the floor sample of her own toolkit.” The Artist’s Way has been translated into forty languages and sold over five million copies to date.  https://www.opencenter.org/julia-cameron/

In The Artist’s Way, the two main practices are (1) Morning Pages, daily three pages of free-form writing, and (2) Artist Dates, weekly fun and inspirational solo outings.  In Julia Cameron’s own words, “The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you.” https://juliacameronlive.com/tag/artist-date/

For me, the key element is that the Artist Date is “a dedicated block to nurture your inner artist.”  A quick google of the phrase “artist dates” comes up with lots of suggestions.  Here’s a page that lists  101 artist date ideas.

When I returned from Paris I realized how stimulated and inspired my creative voice was.  Now it will be important for me to continue to give myself Artist Dates on a regular basis.  Of course, they will be simpler, local, and much less expensive.  The elements remain the same.

It is something you do alone. That is the underlying factor of why the Paris trip was indeed an Artist Date.  From the beginning I knew it was something I wanted to do alone.  I have loved trips I took in the past with my husband Murray. They were extremely memorable and lots of fun.  Since Murray passed in October of 2020, I had not thought of doing a trip on my own until this spring when I knew it was time.  I asked lots of questions particularly of my daughters and grandchildren who had been to Paris.  They were super helpful and encouraging. I researched and found the key places that were extremely important to me and figured out the best way to visit them.  Paris has tons to offer but six things stood out as essential for me:

             A visit to Monet’s Garden

             Drawing at the Louvre Museum

            A dance event

            A boat ride on the Seine

            A stay in a neighborhood where I could enjoy walking the streets

            Meals at some plant-based restaurants

I knew that taking a tour where I had to keep up with a group would not work for me.  I am a slow walker, only recently getting used to walking two miles a day, and I did not want to be rushed at all.

For Monet’s Garden I found lots of options and settled for one that provided: transportation from Paris to the Garden and back; admission paid for the garden and the impressionist museum in Giverny; a self-guiding app for your phone; and a full day’s visit. The day exceeded my expectations.  The garden was wonderful, and even though it was crowded, people respected each other by not blocking each other’s pictures.  The gardens are beautifully cared for and it doesn’t take much imagination to see Claude Monet painting in different places.  While the famous water lilies were not yet in bloom, there were plenty of other flowers, and what struck me most was the huge variety and blend of wildflowers and cultivated flowers.  The irises were spectacular.

I’m grateful to a stranger who offered to take my picture
when she saw I was there alone.

The website for the Louvre provides a place to buy tickets in advance and gives information for artists/art students on their policy of drawing while visiting.  They are specific about the maximum size of a sketch pad, only allow work to be done in pencil, and provide lightweight portable stools upon request.  I decided to go on a Friday because the museum stays open late until 9:45 P.M. I bought a 9:30 A.M. ticket.  It is important to buy a ticket in advance.  The line was several hours long for those who did not.  By 10 A.M. I had my stool and had found my way into one of numerous sculpture rooms.  I found a corner out of the way and got busy sketching. Occasionally someone would pass by or stop to look, and usually we just exchanged smiles. Sometimes I was aware that people took pictures of me sketching.  I didn’t care; I just stayed focused on drawing.  Twice during the day people asked if they could take my picture, and then I asked if they could use my phone and take a picture of me sketching.  In both cases they happily agreed.  In all I did 4 different drawings, taking breaks for food when I was hungry.  Each drawing took about 2 hours.  I saw several other artists drawing, and we smiled and nodded at each other.

Happily drawing at the Louvre
My sketch of a marble statue dated 1710-1714 and titled “A Companion of Diana”

The boat ride, walking around my neighborhood, and finding some great vegan restaurants were all positive experiences but not as extraordinary as my day at the Louvre and Giverny.  Both of those days were target Artist Dates.  Now, back in Costa Rica, I am figuring out Artist Dates to do here.

Dear readers… stay tuned!  The dance event was amazing, and I will be writing about it in the next two blogs.

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The Pioneers of Modern Dance: My Firsthand Experience

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Personal Life

Recently I was talking about the different teachers I had studied with as a young dancer between the ages of 15 and 21.  I hadn’t thought of it before in quite these terms, but I am old enough to have had firsthand experience with most of the shapers of modern dance.  These were amazing pioneers forging new traditions in dance from the 1920’s into the 1960’s and some beyond.  Here is a list of these pioneers and a few sentences describing my experience with them, in the order I met them.

Ted Shawn  (1891-1972) of Denishawn – He and Ruth St. Denis founded a company where a number of the pioneers got their first experience and opportunity to build long-term collaborations.  I heard Ted Shawn speak at Jacob’s Pillow when he introduced the program that I went to see when I was a camper at a nearby camp.  Jacob’s Pillow’s history goes back to 1933 when Shawn and his group of men did their first performance in a barn that still exists and is used for classes and performances today.  Here’s a link to learn more about the founding of Jacob’s Pillow.  The camp I attended was called Belgian Village and was located in Cummington, MA .  I was there on a scholarship teaching dance to the younger campers.  I can remember sitting in the Jacob’s Pillow theatre and being awed by both Ted Shawn’s inspiring words and an amazing performance that included modern dance, ballet and ethnic dance.

Martha Graham  (1894 -1991) – I first met her at the age of 15 when she came to Pittsburgh for the premiere of her movie  A Dancer’s World, which you can watch on YouTube.  It is a wonderful introduction to her and her technique.  Jeanne Beaman, my modern dance teacher in Pittsburgh, hosted a reception for Martha following a private showing of the film.  I have a clear memory of being introduced to her and her encouraging me to come to NYC and take the Xmas course even though I was very young. I did go a year later, and from that time on, Graham technique was my favorite way to train. That was not the only time I had classes directly with her.  She taught a week of classes at the six-week summer program at the American Dance Festival which I attended twice. There were also occasions when she taught at the New York studio.  She, the technique she developed, and how she choreographed her pieces were a major influence on me!

Helen Tamiris  (1902-1966) – I auditioned for her in 1958 at Perry-Mansfield Camp and was accepted into a piece she choreographed during the three weeks she was there. Martha Clarke and I were the only two younger-than-college-age dancers who were part of her piece Dance for Walt Whitman. (I’ve written before about Tamiris and Dance for Walt Whitman; here is a link to that blog. The fact that Tamiris recognized my abilities reaffirmed my commitment to be a dancer. She also influenced significantly my understanding of choreographic elements.  Currently Elizabeth McPherson, a member of Avodah Dance Ensemble during seven of the years I directed the company, is working on a book about Tamiris.  When Elizabeth spent three weeks at the artist residency program  I hold at my home, we spent many hours talking about Tamiris, and it was great fun for me to learn new things about her life.  I was so glad that we were able to stage some of Tamiris’s choreography when Elizabeth set Tamiris’s piece Negro Spirituals for the Avodah Dance Ensemble.

Charles Weidman (1901-1975) – I was part of a class he taught in kinetic pantomime at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in 1960.  He staged a demonstration that we performed in a Festival program.  It was during one of his rehearsals that Martha Hill, the chairman of the dance department of Juilliard, saw me rehearsing and remembered me from an audition I had taken for Juilliard about six weeks before. She found me after class and asked me to reaudition.  I hadn’t made that first audition, but she felt I now would get into the school.

Photo from Connecticut College, 1960, of the Charles Weidman piece I was in. I am the dancer on the left. I do not know who the other two dancers are.

Martha Hill  (1900- 1995) – I mentioned in the last paragraph that she encouraged me to reaudition for Juilliard, which I did about a year later.  While I didn’t have a lot of direct contact with her while I was at Juilliard, the program that she developed at Juilliard and my two years as a student there shaped me as an artist.  The tools and ability to focus on my “art” carried over from dance to painting and filmmaking. I have tremendous respect for the role she played in the development of dance education in colleges.  Elizabeth McPherson has written an excellent book about her, and here is a link to a blog I wrote about the book.

 Louis Horst (1884 – 1964) – I took my first of three composition classes from him in the summer of 1961, at Connecticut College.  In Pre-Classic Dance Forms, he encouraged me to continue with him, even though I wasn’t yet a student at Juilliard. I did so (as a special student), continuing to take his second-year course, Modern Forms.  By mid-semester I had become a full-time student at Juilliard.  The following year I took his third and final formal course, Group Forms.  I loved his classes.  His demanding insistence that we follow the clear form of different musical dances instilled a discipline and focus on how I used movement in dance pieces. His second-year course began a long appreciation of art and how much we can learn from different periods of art history.  A good example of how this later influenced me can be found in how I used a painting as a basis for I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Here’s a link to a blog where I go into detail about this.  Last fall, Nancy Bannon was here on an artist residency working on a play about Louis Horst and Martha Graham, and I learned lots of interesting things about Louis’s life.  She shared with me a wonderful book by Janet Soares about Louis that I look forward to reviewing in an upcoming blog.

There are two pioneers from the period that I didn’t get to study with directly although I did study with their disciples.

Doris Humphrey (1895 -1958)  – Her name is associated with Charles Weidman (they formed together The Humphrey-Weidman Company) and with Jose Limon (she mentored him when he was her student, and when she retired from her own company, she became Artistic Director of his Limon Company).  I took classes in Limon technique at Juilliard and sometimes had a class directly from Limon.  Although I wasn’t fond of the technique, I loved Limon’s choreography as well as pieces that I saw of Humphrey’s.  In particular, Humphrey’s Water Study (1928), The Shakers (1931), and Passacaglia (to Bach’s Music) are among my favorites.  Passacaglia was revived at Juilliard during the time I was there.  I am so glad that I got to see Jose dance in The Moor’s Pavane along with Betty Jones, Lucas Hoving and Pauline Koner.  Some of his other pieces that have created a lasting memory are There Is a Time and Missa Brevis.

While I did not study directly with Humphrey, her philosophy and writing did have an influence on me, such as her movement exercises of fall and recovery.  “She called this the arc between two deaths.  At one extreme an individual surrenders to the nature of gravity; at the other, one attempts to achieve balance.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Humphrey).  Her book The Art of Making Dance (1958), which I read several years after it was published, was also helpful to me, and it was a regular reference book in my library.  I keep in mind to this very day her statement that the last seconds of a piece of choreography are most important.  For me, that reminder carries over to all art forms.

Hanya Holm (1893 – 1999) One of the dancers that she strongly influenced, Don Redlich, choreographed a piece that I was in while a teenager in Pittsburgh.  It was interesting working with him, but I don’t remember anything unique about the experience that I can trace back to Holm.  I do remember loving her choreography in My Fair Lady which I saw shortly after it opened with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in 1956.

Writing this blog has felt like a journey down memory lane.  I am grateful to have experienced firsthand so many of the modern dance pioneers.  I welcome readers who may have worked with some of them to share their experiences in the comment section.

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A Visit to a Costa Rican Art Museum Triggers a Fascination with Mascaradas

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

On February 17th Art House Atenas owners Anna Matteucci and Felipe Keta lead a small group of Expats to San Jose to visit two museums: The Jade Museum and the Museo de Arte Costarricense (MAC).  It was a delightful, interesting day.  My favorite exhibit was called Valle Oscuro (dark valley) by painter Adrian Arguedas Ruano at the MAC .

As one enters the museum, Arguedas’s bold colorful paintings greet you.  A few of his sculptures catch your immediate attention too.  The works fill a large gallery room and three smaller adjoining rooms, mostly picturing masked community members along with unmasked figures.  While some young children are painted wearing small masks of animals, others are wearing distorted, grotesque, large masks, and still others are depicted wearing large heads mounted on torsos making them look larger than life.

Felipe Keta talking about the artist in front of one of Arguedas’s paintings!
One of my favorite Arguedas paintings. I love the grandma in the center being surrounded by community participants, which captures the intergenerational life that is very important in Costa Rica.

All the paintings of Valle Oscuro were done between 2020 and 2022.  On the artist’s website I learned about his fascination with masks:

Arguedas is a native of Barva de Heredia, a small town known for keeping the traditions of making popular mask parades. In his childhood, he found artistic inspiration through the figure of his great-uncle, named Carlos Salas, who worked sculpting the clay to prepare the base that would later serve as a mold to create the original traditional masks, made with paper.  Salas had a powerful influence on the artist inspiration and artwork. https://www.adrianarguedas.com/bio.html

Doing more research, I learned that the mask tradition dates to pre-Hispanic time, when the aboriginal people made and used masks for various purposes. They were first used at funerals in two different ways: first, they were used by whoever led the mortuary procession so they appeared to have a higher power to lead the deceased to the other world, and second, they were given to the deceased to identify his role in the tribe.   Shamans and chiefs also made special use of the masks as part of their rituals.  These special masks are known as Mascaradas.

Today, in Costa Rica they are still part of community celebrations, and much to my delight I had an event in our town of Atenas where mascaradas were a highlight.

A friend on Facebook posted about a fundraising event on the full moon for a local church that included  food, music, dance and mascaradas. The evening was called “Lunada Bailable,” and I loved the poster.

 

I went with some cousins who were visiting from Pittsburgh, and we had a wonderful evening.  Music piped through a large sound system contributed to the festive quality of the event.  I was surprised to hear a Spanish version of “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. When it got dark and the moon was shining bright, six local dancers began the formal entertainment. While not professional, they put all their energy into their routines.  They waved their skirts and used scarfs as props.  It was fun to watch one youngster, about age 4, who pretended she had on a long skirt and delighted in following their movement.

This was my favorite dancer to watch. She always had a smile on her face, dancing with lots of enthusiasm.

The closing event was the Mascaradas, with children from ages toddler to maybe 5 or 6 years old, wearing masks and dancing, joined by older boys and teenagers with full body masks!  The older kids liked to come over to the tables of the audience that surrounded the performing space, and pretend to scare us.

It was a special evening for my cousins and me to be a part of this community event.  I think we were the only ExPats attending.

Three photos showing the Mascaradas in action.

 

 

All photos in this blog are by JoAnne!

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Thoughts after Streaming a Memorial for Dance Critic Jack Anderson

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, Current Dance Events, Dance History

Whenever The Avodah Dance Ensemble held a performance in New York City, we sent out a press release to the dance critics.  We were always hopeful that one of the three critics from The New York Times – Anna Kisselgoff, Jennifer Dunning, or Jack Anderson – would cover our event.  While we were not always covered, we often were, several times by Jennifer Dunning and once by Jack Anderson.

In early January I received an email inviting me to a memorial service for Jack Anderson. He had died in October at the age of 88. I am not sure what list I was on that resulted in my receiving the invitation, but I was fascinated by some of the information in the notice, particularly that he was a poet besides being a dance historian and critic. On January 27th at 4 in the afternoon I streamed the memorial held at St. Peter’s Church, Lexington Avenue, New York City.  His poetry was read by different people throughout the service. Among the speakers was Anna Kisselgoff, who in a feisty voice shared what he didn’t like and that he had often been asked to go on the staff of The New York Times but preferred to freelance.  Three dance pieces were woven into the service: a solo from Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies performed by a soloist from the New York Dance Theatre; a piece by Baroque Dance; and a lyrical trio of liturgical dances by Dance @ Saint Peter’s.

After the memorial I wanted to learn more about Jack Anderson, so I turned to the obituary in The New York Times which opens with, “He brought an all-embracing enthusiasm to about 4,000 articles for The New York Times on modern dance, tap, ballet and practically every other genre.”  His first article was written in 1978, and his last published piece was an obituary of Anna Halprin in 2021.  Here’s the link to the New York Times obituary if you want to know more about Jack Anderson.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/arts/dance/jack-anderson-dead.html

Next, I found myself going through my digital files to find the review he had written about the Avodah Dance Ensemble.  He reviewed a concert we gave at Hebrew Union College on May 31, 1997, which included pieces inspired by two poets: Primo Levi and Yehuda Amichai. Now that I know Anderson was a poet, I understand why he might have been assigned our concert to review. While it was a short review, it was a solid one, beginning with acknowledging the space we were performing in:

“The sanctuary of the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion, a high, wide hall with walls of light wood that help make it look radiant, is used for concerts as well as for religious services.  It was a fine setting for Avodah.”

A few other passages I liked and was able to use in publicity:

“Ms. Tucker choreographed clear patterns that could be adapted to performance spaces of many kinds.”

“ ‘Shema’ effectively contrasted relentless pacing, representing concentration camp regimentation with  outbursts, symbolizing the prisoners’ turbulent personal feelings.”

I was glad to get the coverage, although I wish he had commented on the dancers, as they gave an excellent performance.

In December of 2023 I had read a reference to the fact that there were no longer any full-time dance critics on the staff of major newspapers.  In fact, in 2015 an article appeared in The Atlantic entitled “The Death of the American Dance Critic.” At that time there were two full-time critics: Alastair Macaulay at The New York Times and Sarah Kaufman at The Washington Post. Neither of them is now on staff at either paper; now all reviewing is being done by freelance writers.

As I continued to explore options for reading dance reviews, I came across a Facebook page named “Dance Critics Association.”  It has 647 members with regular posts.  There used to be an active Dance Critics Association that was founded in 1973, but the last time it showed any life was around 2007-2008.  Perhaps the FB page is now their only outlet.  The good news is that it is very active, filled with lots of daily posts.

When I was director of The Avodah Dance Ensemble, getting good press and publicity was important for us.  To be able to have a good quote to use in a press release or on our website was important to build our audience and to get bookings. I am glad I could honor Jack Anderson by streaming his memorial and by writing this blog.  I want to honor and express gratitude for all the dance critics and writers who continue to review performances and write about dance.

Screenshot of scrapbook page.  Fun to see our review was directly under another review of the New York City Ballet by Jennifer Dunning.  Much easier to read the review by clipping on this link:

 

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Keeping Up With What is Happening in the Dance World

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Personal Life

It’s been nearly 20 years since I retired as director/choreographer of The Avodah Dance Ensemble and left New York City to begin a new chapter of my life.  I still very much want to know what is happening in the dance world.  At first, I made regular trips back to New York City, attending concerts and meeting with my dance friends.  Gradually the trips became less and less frequent, and since living in Costa Rica for four years, I have only made one trip back.  Even though I paint and write, my true passion is still dance and it is important for me to keep up with what is happening in the dance world.  For this blog I want to share with you a few ways I have been doing this, and welcome you to suggest other ways.

COVID proved to be helpful because various companies offered events online. Now there are less of those, although Jacob’s Pillow continues to have some.

A daily email I get Monday through Friday has been extremely helpful, and I want to highly recommend it.  It’s called The Dance Edit, and it announces “the news moving the dance world.” It is a publication of DanceMedia.com which includes Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher, Pointe and other monthly magazines. They have weekly newsletters along with The Dance Edit (which they call a petit daily newsletter).  I love The Dance Edit because in just a sentence it describes a news item in the world of dance, along with a link where you can read more about it.

Here’s a sample of some items that intrigued me:

Choreographer Christopher Gattelli taught Timothée Chalamet to tap for Wonka, and says Chalamet “worked his butt off.” (Dance Spirit)

The National Ballet of Ukraine is embarking on a 10-city Canadian tour, raising money to bring aid to Ukrainian families, and giving the dancers a chance to show their country’s resilience. (Pointe)

Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour dancer Kevin “Konkrete” Davis Jr. shares how he got the gig, his favorite part of the show, and more. (KQED)

Remembering Maurice Hines’ wide-reaching legacy as a song-and-dance man. Hines died last week at the age of 80. (The New York Times)

Misty Copeland hasn’t performed onstage in three years—and though she plans to return eventually, she’s looking towards the next chapter of her career. (BBC)

Sarah Kaufman, the Washington Post dance critic who was laid off in 2022, leaving just one full-time critic job in the U.S., on why dance criticism is important. (Maryland Theatre Guide)

 Dance Data Project’s 2023 U.S. Dance Festivals Report reveals that 50% of the works presented at dance festivals this year were choreographed by women. (Dance Data Project)

As you can see, there is huge diversity in the type of articles that The Dance Edit shares.  There are always one or two pieces from its sister publications Dance Magazine and Dance Teacher.  I am pleasantly surprised at the variety of sources that have published articles about dance, and The Dance Edit’s one-liners often motivate me to click on the link to learn more.

The Dance Edit and Facebook posts by friends are my main resources for keeping up with dance news.  I look forward to hearing suggestions from you.

Below is the screenshot of The Dance Edit home page.

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A Sijo Poem for the Winter Solstice

JoAnne Tucker / / movement rituals, Personal Life, Poetry

I was introduced to the Korean sijo in a recent poetry class I took.   The teacher mentioned it along with haiku and invited us to explore one of the forms.  Since I spent some time last year writing haiku and creating watercolors to accompany text, I was intrigued to delve into this new form I was hearing about for the first time.

What is sijo?  The Poetry Foundation provides a place to start:

A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five.

While the form is not as well-known as haiku, a little more research found some treasured classics translated into the English.  This one by Yun Seon Do (1587 – 1671) particularly caught my attention.

You ask how many friends I have? Water and stone, bamboo and pine,
The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade.
Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I ask?

There are regular writing contests for haiku and groups that meet in both the United States and Japan writing and sharing haiku.  There is not as much activity happening with sijo although I did discover that the Sejong Cultural Society has a writing competition.  The Sejong Cultural Society’s purpose is to “advance awareness and understanding of Korea’s cultural heritage among people in the United States by reaching out to the younger generation through contemporary creative and fine arts.”

In the past few weeks I have written several sijo.  I liked the fact that sijo were often shared as songs, sometimes with drum accompaniment.  Soon I was thinking of simple choreography that might fit one of the poems I had written.  Why not explore writing sijo and creating dance movements to accompany the words?  I had fun doing just that.

This sijo is for the winter solstice.

 December darkness descends: fewer hours of sunlight.

Energy emerges from friendships — reach out to each other —

Recognize your inner light: open your heart with joyful love!

And here is a link where you can see the movement.  I invite you to do the simple movement with me.  https://vimeo.com/895910726

When I shared my sijo and movement with the poetry class, one of the members asked if she might share it with her church group.  I was very touched by the request, and that was part of my motivation for figuring out how to video it to share with others.

When I was working with haiku, I created over thirty haiku with watercolor illustration and selected some to share online in this blog.  https://mostlydance.com/2023/03/24/an-experiment-writing-haiku-with-accompanying-watercolor/   While I haven’t decided yet whether to create a series of sijo with accompanying movement, I am intrigued by the idea.

In Costa Rica, being so close to the equator, we only experience a small change in the balance of light and dark each day.  This particular year I am feeling the darkness more.  Let’s light candles and call forth our inner light to remind ourselves that each day after the winter solstice there will be a bit more light. 

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Episode 33: The Universal Dancer Podcast – I’m Interviewed by Leslie Zehr

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, Childhood, Dance in Film, Dance Programs in Prison, Movement Workshops, Personal Life, Uncategorized

Leslie Zehr is a wonderful host and interviewer, and even though this was my first podcast, she immediately put me at ease. We had a delightful, fun conversation where I was able to share my journey from dancing as a toddler while my grandmother played the piano, through my dance education at the Graham Studio and The Juilliard School, to the creation of the Avodah Dance Ensemble.  Her questions enabled me to discuss the transformative power of dance, as we explored how dance is a method of empowerment and healing in women’s correctional institutions, and how it led to filmmaking and in particular the film Through the Door: Movement and Meditation as Part of Healing with domestic violence survivors.

Each month since January 31, 2021, Leslie has produced a different Podcast, all designed to inspire “a community of like-minded souls seeking to understand the cosmic dance of co-creation through the sacred arts.”   She wants to expand minds, ignite creativity and explore something new and something old.

Leslie is a sacred arts teacher, workshop leader, mentor and author of two books, The Alchemy of Dance and The Al-chemia Remedies.  While she was born in Peru and educated in the United States, she lives in Egypt, where for more than 30 years she has supported women “to reconnect to the Divine Feminine within through the mysteries of ancient Egypt.”

The Podcast series covers a range of subjects. Some examples are: Let Your Yoga Dance; Sacred Self Care Chakradance; A Roundtable Discussion of the Importance of Movement and Dance in Children’s Lives; and Japanese Butoh.

While the Podcast is not done live, Leslie does no editing, so I knew that I had to be as clear and focused as I could be.  When the interview was over, we had a few minutes to check in about how it went.  I expressed my gratitude to Leslie for her warmth, and we both agreed we had fun sharing together.  The interview is available to listen to as a podcast and to watch on YouTube.

Link to Podcast Platforms:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leslie-zehr/episodes/JoAnne-Tucker–Author-of-Torah-in-Motion-Creating-Dance-Midrash-and-the-Mostly-Dance-Blog-e2cdonl

Link to YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/7KP8B3mATwU

Screenshot from YouTube. I like this moment because you can see we are both having fun!

 

 

 

The National Symphony of Costa Rica

JoAnne Tucker / / Costa Rica, Personal Life

What a delight to open my email on September 26 and see a flyer of an upcoming event for Friday, October 20th in San Jose.  Democrats Abroad were inviting members to an open rehearsal of The National Symphony of Costa Rica in the National Theater.

I was excited because one of the challenges I have faced living in Costa Rica is finding stimulating cultural activities that are in English or at least don’t require knowing Spanish as a prerequisite to enjoyment.  I RSVPed, filling out the form with both my Passport Number and Temporary Residency number, which were required for attendance.  As the days grew closer to the event, the chance to be transported by beautiful music was indeed a very welcome relief in these difficult times.

I had never been in the National Theater and so the time spent waiting in the lobby before the doors opened was very special.  We were surrounded on three sides by beautiful classical sculpture.

Once the doors opened, we were escorted into the orchestra part of the auditorium.  My friend and I decided to sit as close as we could, in the fourth row just behind where the musicians had left their instrument cases.

Carl St. Clair, the Conductor and Orchestra Director, welcomed us while behind him musicians were still busy tuning their instruments.  St. Clair has an impressive background, having studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood.  He has conducted various symphonies throughout Europe and the United States.  Since 1990 he has been the Musical Director and Conductor of the Pacific Symphony located in Southern California with performing venues in Irvine and Costa Mesa, CA.  In 2013 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Costa Rican Symphony.

He conducts with his whole body, and as a choreographer I loved watching him.  I could sense the music flowing through his veins.  It was also very meaningful to be able to hear — in part Spanish and part English — his notes to the orchestra, and then to hear the improvement when they replayed a section of a piece.

The program was varied.  The first piece, which he carefully rehearsed, requiring repetition of quite a few sections, was by a Costa Rican composer, William Porras.  The piece, written 25 years ago, is called Rhapsody for Orchestra and is dynamic and dramatic.  The composer was at the rehearsal, and after the orchestra finished working on the piece, the musicians were given a break and St. Clair introduced us to Porras.

Although we were not aware of anything unusual during the rehearsal, I learned a few days after the two performances that the performance that evening had marked the first time in the 83-year history of the symphony that a woman, Rebecca Medrano Munoz, was the concertmaster during an official season concert. The Costaricatimes reviewed the Friday night performance:

The theatre’s air was thick with anticipation as Medrano, with a bow as her baton, led the orchestra through an unforgettable night. It was a performance she had dreamt of and practiced for all her life, a magnum opus that reverberated with hopes, dreams, and extraordinary talent. The audience, wrapped in the symphony’s grandeur, embraced the landmark moment with applause as stirring as the music itself.  https://www.costaricantimes.com/a-striking-crescendo-costa-ricas-national-symphony-sees-first-female-concertmaster-in-official-season/75460

The rehearsal continued with Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Opus 102 with soloists Fernando Munoz (violin) and Alvaro Gonzalez (cello).  St. Clair especially rehearsed the transitions between soloists and orchestra.  My heart soared listening to this beautiful piece.

St. Clair going over one of the transitions with Gonzalez, the cello soloist.

The program ended with two playful pieces by Ravel, Mother Goose Suite and Bolero.  In Bolero, it was particularly interesting to watch the drummer, whose chair was moved  directly in front of the conductor, and who keeps a continual beat throughout. St. Clair stopped the piece several times to check with an assistant in the back of the auditorium to make sure the drum and the orchestra were properly balanced.

Following the rehearsal, the 45 of us in attendance had lunch at the Alma de Café located in the National Theater.  We had preordered our lunches, and they did an amazing job getting each of us what we had individually ordered.

Thank you, Democrats Abroad in Costa Rica, for sponsoring this event.   It provided a wonderful break from the distressing world news.

All of photos by JoAnne.

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