Author: JoAnne Tucker

Dr. Barbara McIntyre – “An Inspiration and Mentor to Generations of Students”

JoAnne Tucker / / Arts in Education, Personal Life

I am one of those students and the above quote is from an obituary of Barbara McIntyre.   When I returned to Pittsburgh in 1962 and became a theatre major at the University of Pittsburgh following two years at Juilliard, one of the courses I took was Dr. McIntyre’s class on Creative Dramatics.  It was for both education and theatre students and gave us a good grounding in how to teach creative dramatics to children.  When I completed my undergraduate work and we stayed in Pittsburgh another year so my husband Murray could finish his Ph.D., I became Barbara’s teaching assistant as I worked towards a master’s degree in theatre.

Barbara had a wonderful way of encouraging creative potential in young children as well as in those who studied with her at the undergraduate or graduate level. While I was her teaching assistant she encouraged me to integrate creative movement into creative dramatic classes and suggested writing an article for teachers about how to use movement in creative dramatics.  It was an excellent assignment and experience for me as I researched and thought about movement and how best to express it for teachers. It gave me a fundamental understanding that served me well for the next thirty years. It did result in a publication, and the next year when we had moved to Madison, Wisconsin and I began graduate work for a Ph.D. in theatre, the University did not require me to finish my master’s since my work had been published.  I was allowed instead to enter the doctorate program directly.  I also became a teaching assistant in the theatre department, but those experiences will be for a later blog.

Barbara was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1916 and according to an interview by Ruth Beall Heinig, Ph.D., a former student, she wasn’t much of a student growing up.  She began to find her talents in theatre and voice especially when she went to Normal School which she attended after high school and where she was in a teacher training program. Upon graduating from the program she taught in a small rural school near Moose Jaw. That teaching experience with 11 students ranging in grades 1 to 9 instilled in her a love for children and teaching. In fact, her obituary (June 2005) mentions that “Barbara fell in love with children and with teaching did everything in her power to bring learning alive in her classroom. Early on Barbara incorporated drama into her classes and learned how powerful a force it could be in children’s learning.” (https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/timescolonist/name/barbara-mcintyre-obituary?n=barbara-mcintyre&pid=14252934)

In researching for this blog there was much I learned about Barbara’s life, including her earning her M.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1950 and then moving to Pittsburgh a few years later, first with a shared job between the University of Pittsburgh and the Children’s Theatre of Pittsburgh. The Arizona State University Library, Child Drama Collection, where Barbara’s papers from 1948-1991 are housed, provided an excellent write up of her time at Pitt.

As a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Barbara shared a job with the Children’s Theater of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Speech Department. This enabled her to develop a teacher education program where the college students could be involved with children from the first week of classes. When the Speech Department started sending children with hearing and speech problems to her classes, she realized the therapeutic value of creative drama. Her chairman encouraged her to go back to school and get a doctorate degree in speech and hearing. She studied with Eleanor Irwin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, who promoted the use of creative drama in drama therapy. McIntyre received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957. The title of her dissertation was, The Effect of a Program of Creative Activities Upon the Consonant Articulation Skills of Adolescent and Pre-Adolescent Children with Speech Disorders.  (http://azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/mcintyre.xml;query=;brand=default)

Besides the excellent experience of learning how to analyze and incorporate movement into creative dramatics, there were some other very important things I learned from Barbara.  First of all, she introduced me to literature on children’s theatre and creative dramatics and particularly Winifred Ward’s Stories to Dramatize. I am not sure if Caps for Sale was a part of this collection but this became one of my favorite stories that I used often in creative movement classes.  It is about a peddler who falls asleep under a tree and monkeys come down from the tree and steal all of his hats from his bag.  When he wakes up and sees what has happened he finds a clever way of tricking the monkeys to get his caps back.  Under Barbara’s guidance I learned how to use these stories to captivate a group of children and to engage them so that they could act or dance the stories.  And I learned how to ask questions following their acting/dancing so that the group could both see what worked and what might be improved upon in a positive and healthy way.

One of my responsibilities as Barbara’s teaching assistant was to observe (via a one-way mirror) children with speech and hearing problems working in creative dramatics, and to take notes about the sessions.  Both my observations with Barbara and my mother’s work with the visually handicapped encouraged me to see and sometimes work with children or adults with disabilities.

I am also very grateful for the seeds that were planted in working with Barbara of how dance and theatre can reinforce academics — and not just with young children.  Two of the projects of Avodah (the dance company I founded and directed), made good use of this.  “Let My People Go” received a number of grants that enabled us to go into the New York area public schools and present concerts and workshops with students which reinforced curriculum related to American history, slavery in the United States and figures like Harriet Tubman.  We also developed programs around the Holocaust and again received grants to bring them to students.

And of course, the roots of how I incorporated dance midrash into the Jewish educational classroom, especially for children, goes back to this time. As I reflect back on the different role models and mentors I had it is like looking at a good recipe with lots of different ingredients.  I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to study and work with Barbara McIntyre.

I especially want to thank Dr. Eleanor Irwin and Dr. Ruth Heinig for their help in “remembering Barbara.”  Both of them stayed very close to Barbara after she left Pittsburgh.

Picture from the personal collection of Eleanor Irwin, Ph.D.  Barbara is on the left, with her sister, niece and nephew.

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Celebrating Two Recent Dance Virtual Events

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Dance History

While we are all so eager to be at live events, I am so grateful to have been able to participate in two virtual Zoom gatherings from my home in Costa Rica. Without this option I would not have been able to be a part of either of them.  On Monday night, November 22nd, The Martha Hill Dance Fund’s Celebration honoring two dancers started with a film and panel discussion via Vimeo, followed by a social gathering via Zoom. On Saturday afternoon, November 20th, The Sacred Dance Guild had a panel discussion on Dance as Healing, and I was pleased to be one of the five panelists.  It is exciting to see how well events can now be organized and technically handled online.

Let me begin by sharing the first event, “A Panel Discussion on Healing,” which is part of a larger series called “Is This Sacred Dance?”  Back in the late 80’s and into the 90’s I was a member of the Sacred Dance Guild and occasionally led workshops at their conferences.  As Artistic Director of the Avodah Dance Ensemble I was often invited to represent a Jewish perspective, as the majority of the members were Christian.  I was really surprised to be contacted by the current President, Wendy Morrell, this past spring. She was reaching out to explore the possibility of my participating in one of their quarterly events featuring a panel. My name had come up at an organizational meeting, and they were able to find me via a Google search and my postings on this blog.  Wendy and I had a lively conversation and it was very interesting to hear how the organization was addressing the question “What is Sacred Dance?”  After hearing about my recent work with domestic violence survivors and my work in prisons she thought I would be an excellent fit for the fall panel on healing.

There would be five panelists and each of us would be given five minutes to introduce ourselves and the kind of work we did.  Then the moderator would ask three questions before opening it to any questions that had been submitted via “chat.”  I enjoyed preparing and refreshing my presenting skills.  Zoom is easy because you can have notes or read what you have prepared, with the camera still seeing your face and not what you are reading unless you do a screen share.  We were also asked to have a closing movement gesture.

When the day arrived I was prepared and ready to go.  And of course, the electricity went off 10 minutes before the program was to begin.  Losing electricity happens often in Costa Rica.  As my house is closest to the guard house in our community, I have a small generator to keep my internet and the guard house internet working during a blackout.  Wow, was I glad to have that!  So I let the moderator know that I didn’t think it would be a problem and she decided that I should go first just in case it was.  And so I presented mainly about my work in prisons and in making films with domestic violence survivors.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing each of the other four presenters, and I liked the variety of approaches that were shared.  Each of the presenters has a unique background, and presentations were well organized.  I strongly recommend going to this link to learn about the presenters: Alexia Jones, Priya Lakhi, Ilene Serlin and Carla Walter.  https://sacreddanceguild.org/event-details/?event=651

Screenshot of the publicity for the program

The recording of the event has now been posted along with two earlier panels.  Here’s a link to YouTube if you want to watch the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zlJsV44uHo&list=PL-1ZesdI7wMeVx_P2Gae9zGTOlYGVP78M&index=3

On Monday night, the Martha Hill Dance Fund honored Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Heidi Latsky.  The presentation on Vimeo began with film clips that I think are from the documentary made about Martha Hill.  What a wonderful way to open the evening, seeing Miss Hill and other dancers reminding us of the roots of modern dance!.  (I just discovered that Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter is available to rent or buy at iTunes and I look forward to getting it very soon.) Next were two short films summarizing each of the honorees.

I was particularly thrilled that Jawole was being honored.  I knew Jawole from the time she was a graduate student at Florida State University in Tallahassee in the late 1970’s when I was living there and often attending dance classes at FSU.  I have a very vivid memory of seeing an early piece of hers in an evening concert of student works and thinking, “Wow… that woman has something important to say.”  It stood out and stayed in my memory to this very day. Perhaps that piece for women provided a beginning for what has become one of her most well-known pieces, Shelter.  Shelter officially premiered in 1988 and is set for 6 women. It was first performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1992 and then revised in 2017.   The Ailey website describes it as “a passionate statement about the physical and emotional deprivation of homeless people . . .  the compelling message that the poverty of individuals will inevitably lead to the destitution of all humanity.”  It has been performed by both an all-female and all-male cast.

The other honoree was Heidi Latsky.  I was not familiar with her work at all and look forward to knowing more about her.  What was very fascinating was the video section showing her work with bilateral amputee Lisa Bufano.  She began doing this work in 2006 and refers to this time as an intensive period of creation.  To learn more about Heidi and Jawole I suggest going to the Martha Hill Dance Fund site that tells about the evening and gives full bios:  https://www.marthahilldance.org/martha-hill-virtual-celebration-2021

Danni Gee led an excellent discussion with Heidi and Jawole.   Then, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Jose Limon Dance Company, the Vimeo portion ended with a section from There is A Time, choreographed by Jose Limon in 1956.

Following the formal presentation, many of the 80 attendees from the Vimeo section stayed to visit with each other via Zoom.  There were four breakout rooms, and once one figured out the technology it was possible to move from room to room.  It was great fun to see faces that I haven’t seen for years and say a quick hello!  The main topic of conversation was about what live dance events people had attended.  The occasion was a delightful event in the true spirit of The Martha Hill Dance Fund, which was founded to honor, perpetuate and reward Martha Hill’s commitment to dance education and performance internationally.

Screen shot of invitation to the event.

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Second Spanish School – A Month in Antigua, Guatemala

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Personal Life

Six of us to share one bathroom and two of them were teenage girls.  Murray and I looked at each other and wondered how this was going to work out.  It certainly was a lot different than the experience we’d had with our host family in Costa Rica just a few days before, where we had our own private bath.  OK, we thought, let’s give it a try.  However, after a very sparse dinner and hardly a breakfast the next morning, when Murray was asked by his Spanish school about our host family, he had no hesitation in asking if we could be switched, as he didn’t think it would work out.  By the end of the morning class session, during which time I was enjoying painting in the school garden, the school administrator had arranged new housing for us.   Soon we were settling into a totally different situation with our lovely hostess, Lucretia, who had several bedrooms that opened to a beautiful atrium.  There was already another student there and while we didn’t have a private bathroom in our room there was one nearby which no one else was sharing at the time.  Dinner that evening was very lovely.  This was an excellent situation and we were so glad we had said something after just the first night in the other situation.

On one side of the atrium was a very large bird cage and quite a collection of tropical birds, and nearby was another large cage with several rabbits.  Occasionally I would stay at the house and just paint in the atrium.  I loved painting the birds and rabbits.

Pastel painting of Lucretia’s birds
Pastel painting of the three rabbits in the atrium with their lovely little blankets.

Antigua was a very different environment than the experience in Costa Rica had been.  While Antigua wasn’t very large it had a city feeling and we enjoyed walking in the streets and eating lunch out in the restaurants.  A large volcano was behind this colonial city and I love this picture Murray caught of a famous landmark with the volcano behind.

Photo by Murray Tucker

We were there during the month of Easter and learned a lot about how the holiday was celebrated.  Antigua is actually known for the beautiful floral carpets that adorn the street prior to Easter, and while I know Murray took pictures of them I haven’t been able to find them.  This article gives some pictures and explains how they are made! https://www.viaventure.com/easter-antigua-alfombra-carpet/

Among other highlights of our time in Guatemala was visiting one of our daughter’s friends, who was stationed there in the Peace Corps.  We visited her village and learned about the projects she was doing with the local community.

After Murray was finished with school we journeyed to Lake Atitlan and spent five relaxing days at a resort.  Sometimes we just hung out by the lake’s edge to watch local residents with their fishing boats or toured some of the towns surrounding the lake.  The best way to get around was by boat and one highlight was visiting the “hippie” town of San Marcos since many expats from the 60’s lived there.  There were a lot of yoga and meditation classes offered, although we didn’t take any.  Shopping in another village filled with local crafts was a lot of fun and we bought a large bed covering made up of woven ponchos sewn together.

Our first winter adventure of 2005, spending over two months in two Central America countries, was great fun and motivated us to begin planning for the next year.  Altogether we spent four winters in different places. Murray attended Spanish school for some of the time and I loved working in pastels.  Today quite a few of those paintings are on the walls in my home in Costa Rica.

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Spanish School in Costa Rica and a Time for me to Paint

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

On the top of my husband Murray’s wish list when he retired from his job as an economist was to spend time in a Spanish-speaking country, living with a host family and studying Spanish in a school.  At that time I had no interest in learning Spanish, as I am not good at learning languages and had had some Spanish in college.  In fact, it was one of my languages for my Ph.D.  All that meant was that we read a book in our field and took it into a professor and he opened it to a page and we translated.  That wasn’t hard, as those of us in the theatre department passed around a book on theater history in Latin America.  Anyway, I liked the idea for a different reason.  While Murray was in school I could spend the time working in pastels.

After much research we selected two schools for what was to be the first of five winters spent in different Spanish-speaking countries.  For our first month of our first year, 2005, we selected a school in Costa Rica in the Monteverdi rainforest area.  Then for the second month we would travel to Antigua, Guatemala.

I carefully researched the best way to travel with pastels and purchased a box to carry them in that fit in my backpack.  I also cut paper the size that would fit in my medium-size suitcase along with enough glassine paper to protect my paintings and bring them home.

Our departure to San Jose did not go smoothly.  Leaving from Tucson, Arizona we were supposed to make a connection in Los Angeles. The plane was late but the United ticket agent thought we would still have a chance to make it.  We had to transfer from one terminal to another for the international flight. I remember a crazy mad dash with a porter across the airport and by the time we got to the counter the airplane doors were closed.  They decided the best option was to fly us to Chicago where we could then get a flight early the next morning to San Jose.  While it was a long trip going north to then go south it ended up being relaxing from that point on.

I remember a very bumpy ride from San Jose to our host family in the town of Santa Elena.  Our host was a teacher in the school and we would be provided with breakfast and dinner each day.  The school was a short car ride away or about a 20-minute walk.  It was a very comfortable house and a lovely family. Our room with its own bath was small with a typical Costa Rican matrimonial bed (a double bed), which was a bit of a surprise for us as we were used to sleeping in a king-size bed.  Our motivation was high to enjoy this experience so we made up our minds to make it work… which we did.  While many of the family members knew English, the goal was to speak only Spanish around us.  That was a big challenge for Murray and me but somehow we managed to communicate what we needed.  While they pushed Murray to use correct grammar they were very forgiving with me, and if I came up with the right infinitive of a verb it was accepted.

Each morning we rode with the teacher to school.  Murray would go off to class for the next several hours and I would have a wonderful time painting in the school’s garden.  They also arranged a place for me to leave my easel, pastels and paper so I didn’t have to carry them with me each day.  At lunchtime when Murray was finished, we would walk to a place to have lunch.  There were quite a few choices along what was then a dirt road into town.  There were also some fun places to sightsee nearby and one of our favorites was the Monteverdi Butterfly Garden.  Murray took some wonderful pictures and when I got home I did a painting from one of his pictures which is still one of my favorites.

Pastel Painting from a photograph that Murray took at the Butterfly Garden.

One weekend day we hired a guide to take us through the famous Monteverdi Cloud Forest Biological Preserve.  Of course the highlight was getting to see the Quetzals.  Our guide knew where there was a nest and sure enough we saw both the female and the amazing resplendent male!  What a treat.  While pictures didn’t come out too well as they were high up in a tree, my memory is very clear of seeing them.  Following our time with the guide we wandered on some paths and were awed by the abundance of trees and flowers, including a huge number of orchids.   While waiting for our taxi back, we sat in an outdoor patio area where there were many hummingbird feeders and the most hummingbirds I have ever seen in one place, with a unique jewel-like appearance.

Photo taken by Murray Tucker while waiting for a taxi and admiring the hummingbirds!

Another weekend we left on a Friday afternoon and went with a small group to the hot springs and Arenal Volcano area where we spent two nights.  Although it was fun, the ride was much too long and we were happy to just keep exploring locally after that!

View of Arenal Volcano. Picture taken by Murray Tucker

By the end of the month our love for the country of Costa Rica had grown.  We had visited once before in the 90’s spending a week at Rara Avis, one of the first eco tourism lodges, and loved it.  At that small resort with individual cottages and communal dining we had met mostly tourists from Europe.  The long tractor ride up a muddy trail and back down was particularly challenging to Murray although we were both glad to have had the experience.  I remember so well the beautiful blue butterflies at a waterfall!!  We also had our first experience with learning about how clever ants are, as we watched various parades of ants carrying leaves to the queen ant!  Following the week at Rara Avis we traveled south to the Osa Peninsula and stayed in a resort with a beautiful view of the ocean, where we enjoyed hiking down to the beach below and being amused by the various antics of the monkeys.  From a very positive impression of the country during that first trip and then again during the month in Monteverdi it is no wonder that when we decided to move from Santa Fe in 2019 and strongly considered moving out of the United States, Costa Rica was at the top of our list.  And move we did, at the end of January 2020, to Atenas in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.  And that is where I now call home.

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Reminiscing – A Trip to Tazacorte, La Palma

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

In 2007 Murray (my husband who passed away in October 2020) and I spent a month in the small village of Tazacorte on La Palma Island, part of the Canary Islands.  In disbelief I have watched recent videos of the Cumbre Vieja volcano eruption which began on September 19.  The eruption continues and a recent BBC article describes what has happened:

Lava flowed down the mountain and through villages after the crack opened in the Cumbre Vieja volcano on 19 September, throwing jets of lava and ash into the air.

The red-hot liquid rock destroyed everything in its path – empty villages, schools and hundreds of homes – before reaching the sea 10 days later.

Farmers have been racing to save crops of bananas, avocados and grapes before the lava reaches plantations – which are rich with volcanic, fertile soil – on which many islanders depend for their livelihoods.

The Canary Islands Volcano Institute has suggested the eruption could last between 24 and 84 days.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58681233

It appears that over 1,100 buildings were destroyed and in the small village of Tazacorte, which we got to know and adore, a resident was quoted in one of the papers saying, “The lava ploughed through on its way to the sea, wrecking houses and farms.”

The black sand beach of Tazacorte makes a nice curve along the shoreline and along with the rocks, it let us know that volcanos created the island and eruptions had happened as recently as 1949 and  1971. We often walked alongside the beach which was really like walking three or four blocks in New York City and we would sit and watch the display of splashes as the waves hit the crop of rocks jutting out into the Atlantic. I don’t remember going swimming or even sitting on the sand nor seeing many people venture into the water.  It may have been because it was February or that it just wasn’t an ideal place to swim.  I do clearly remember many of us walking along  the beach.

We had rented a modestly furnished one-bedroom apartment in a bright blue three-story building about one block from the main street and just another block to the beach.  I spent a good deal of time doing pastel paintings while Murray reviewed Spanish for an upcoming few weeks in Spanish school in Granada.

Sometimes we would go sightseeing by picking up the nearby bus that made a circle of the island.  One time we took it to the overlook of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and wandered around the National Park before taking the bus back.  Another time we took the bus in the opposite direction and took a delightful hike that led us to a different bus stop for our return to Tazacorte.  (Before we had departed for what was becoming an annual two-and-a-half months spent in Spanish-speaking countries, I had discovered a wonderful book describing hikes on La Palma including how to begin and end using buses. It came in very handy!)

After reading about the recent volcanic eruption and deciding that I wanted to write a blog remembering our time on La Palma I wondered if I could find any of the pictures that Murray had taken while we were there.  Much to my delight when I went to a hard drive that he had prepared before leaving Santa Fe in January 2020, I discovered all of our trips neatly organized in folders with four folders featuring La Palma.  I also had kept one of the pastel paintings I did in the winter of 2007 and I just had it framed.  It is now hanging in one of the bedrooms here in Costa Rica.

As I end with photos I feel a deep gratitude for having shared this adventure with Murray, and appreciation that he so neatly organized the pictures so I could find them in just a few minutes.  And deep prayers to the citizens of La Palma and particularly Tazacorte that they may be able to rebuild their lives on this beautiful island.

Tazacorte from above. We slowly hiked up this hill, some of it through a banana plantation. Photo by Murray Tucker.
Tazacorte from a boat trip we took. Photo by Murray Tucker.
Waves splashing on the rocks and beach. Photo by Murray Tucker.
Banana flower. Pastel painting done in 2007.
Pastel painting, 2007, recently framed and decorating a bedroom here in Costa Rica.

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Dance Therapy, Permission Workshops and More

JoAnne Tucker / / Movement Workshops, Personal Life

During the time I was in New York City in the early 60’s I welcomed the opportunity to explore a variety of ways that one could have a profession in dance.  Of course, most of my energy was focused on performing and choreographing, especially when I was at Juilliard and studying at the Martha Graham Studio.  But I was curious about two other possible options. One was related to reconstructing and preserving dance using Labanotation (a system of dance notation recording movements, directions, timing, etc.) which we were required to take at Juilliard, and the other was the new field of dance therapy.  Most likely I learned about dance therapy through attending an American Dance Guild conference at the 92ndStreet YM&YWHA in NYC.  I particularly remember a workshop led by Anna Halpern, and while I didn’t relate to it very well I was fascinated with the use of dance to bring people together.  I also have a vague memory of being introduced to the work of Marian Chace perhaps at the same conference.

Marian Chace is considered the founder of dance therapy in the United States.  She began her dance career as a dancer, performer, and choreographer.  She opened a school in Washington, DC and it was while teaching that she noticed the benefits to her students.

The reported feelings of wellbeing from her students began to attract the attention of the medical community, and some local doctors began sending patients to her classes. She was soon asked to work at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. once psychiatrists too realized the benefits their patients were receiving from attending Chace’s dance classes.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_therapy

She began working at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in 1942. She developed a program called “Dance for Communication,” and that was really the start of a new mental health profession called dance/movement therapy. In 1947 she was employed full time at St. Elizabeth’s as a dance therapist.  In 1966 she was one of the founding members of the American Dance Therapy Association which continues to play an active role with a strong membership of dance therapists.  Here’s a link for more information about her life:  https://www.adta.org/marian-chace-biography.

I remember reading a book and some articles Chace wrote, and being totally fascinated.  I was also aware of the American Dance Therapy Association that she founded in 1966.  In the 1970’s, living in Tallahassee, Florida I found myself in need of therapy and sought out both individual and group therapy in the then popular Transactional Analysis.  The therapists that I worked with also offered training in Transactional Analysis and soon I was attending workshops and training to be a Permission Educator using movement as the main tool.  Some of these workshops were held at the Creative Dance Center Studio that I build in the mid-70’s.  At some point I also began leading movement workshops in the psychiatrist floor of Tallahassee’s main hospital.  At the same time, The Avodah Dance Ensemble was growing, and I realized that being a choreographer and director of the dance company was much more satisfying, so I eventually stopped leading workshops and focused on just the dance company.

When we began working with women in prison, some 15 years later, some of the training in Transactional Analysis came in handy but mainly in an indirect way. The concept of a nurturing parent giving permission to the creative child was at the core of what I had learned and begun practicing when leading workshops. However, as a dance company, and as myself as director, I clearly did not view what we were doing as therapy in any kind of traditional sense.  Instead we had a clear agreement with the women participating that the goal was for them to join the dance company in a performance and to share what they had learned and experienced with other inmates.  Feedback from teachers and the participants themselves indicate that they had a great sense of pride and accomplishment that they had stayed with the week-long workshops and followed through in the performance.  For many of them that was a major achievement.

Later when I worked with women from a domestic violence shelter I found that there were two different ways I approached the work.   When I went into group sessions it was to give permission to express one’s feelings through movement and to relate to another person in a safe non-verbal way (i.e. mirroring with a partner).  Alternatively, we offered the option for some of the women to participate in a more intense way and become part of a film project using movement and meditation for healing.  Each participant was required to sign an agreement that they would attend a certain number of rehearsals and that they would be performing for an invited audience, and that both rehearsals and performances would be filmed.  Again there was feedback from the women expressing satisfaction and enthusiasm for having followed through. And when the film was accepted into film festivals, there was additional pleasure.

While working with a therapist in a private setting or as part of a group is important in growing, healing and recovery, for some people the participation in being part of a performing group, when led with the right approach, can be very beneficial!  This was clearly apparent to me and, based on feedback, to the participants too. Observations included gaining new skills in teamwork, completing an agreed on task, having fun and as one woman remarked, “getting high in a legal way.”

When directing a performance piece with a group of non-dancers, particularly when they have experienced physical abuse in their lives, I am glad that I had the Transactional Analysis training as it guides me in how I lead.  I am aware that I am giving the participants permission to use their body in a new way, to be creative, to be part of a team and to share what they are learning with others.  I also strive to help them do their very best.  In leading groups with the assistance of well trained dancers we are able to guide them in a short amount of time to reach a pleasing performance level.  I have found this very rewarding work.  I have a lot of respect for those who go into dance therapy and a keen awareness that while I was glad to have had the training that I had, I needed to follow a different path.

Nine women from Esperanza Shelter join four dancers in the finale of “Through the Door,” an example of building a team and sharing for an invited performance.  Photo by Judy Naumburg.  Here’s a link to view the film: (https://vimeo.com/259920776).

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Thoughts after reading The Body Keeps Score

JoAnne Tucker / / Book Review, Movement Workshops

In my last blog, I shared that Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the team competition and some of the individual events in the Olympics increased our focus on mental health.  COVID, the challenges of staying at home for over a year and then returning to interactions with people, and the need to navigate a new normal are stressful for most of us.  Coping with these challenges certainly has been difficult for me, especially in the spring when I did not physically feel well.  During this time I came across a book which I found very meaningful.  The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind and the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk is currently #1 on The New York Times Best Sellers Paperback Nonfiction list and it has been on the list for 149 weeks.  It is #1 on Amazon for books related to Mental Illness.  It is also available as an audio book.

In a review by Concepcion de Leon on October 18, 2018 she clearly summarizes the three approaches that the book covers for people recovering from trauma: 1) top down by talking; 2) taking medicines and 3) bottom up – allowing the body to have experiences.  She then goes on to note:

Survivors usually need some combination of the three methods, writes Dr. van der Kolk, but the latter — the mind-body connection — is most neglected. His work is predicated on integrating body-focused treatments into trauma recovery work, like yoga, role-play, dance and meditation. Another method he suggests is writing and keeping a journal. Click here to read the full review.

What struck me as I listened to the book was the fact that van der Kolk, a very respected researcher and expert on trauma, gives credibility to what many of us have been aware of for a long time: the power of yoga, role-playing, dance and meditation in healing.  He points out that they are referred to as alternative therapies in healing, with drugs being the primary approach. In Part 5: “Paths to Recovery,” he states that it should be the other way around and that drugs should be the alternative therapy.

In my research I found four different articles in The New York Times citing van der Kolk’s work.  That kind of exposure gives resounding recognition. While the medical community may be reluctant to give up talk therapy and medication, the public is hungry for alternatives.  The first article was in 2014 in the magazine section of The New York Times. It opens with a description of a workshop van der Kolk gave at Big Sur in California called “Trauma, Memory and Recovery of Self.”  Working with one participant he took role-playing to a new level which he calls “Structure,” which grew out of the psychomotor therapy developed by Albert Pesso, a dancer who studied with Martha Graham.  The article goes on to describe van der Kolk’s career in much detail and I highly recommend checking it out.  Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/a-revolutionary-approach-to-treating-ptsd.html

The second article is the review which I have already quoted and the third and fourth articles are from this summer.  How amazing that a book that came out in 2014 is receiving so much press and interest now!  The third article basically is asking the author if he follows how his book is doing.  The last article is a brief introduction to a long (over-an-hour) podcast with the author and Ezra Klein.  I loved that in the introduction Ezra Klein points out that van der Kolk:

co-founded and leads a trauma research foundation and has been studying ways to try to heal these deeper parts of our psyches, everything from movement therapies like yoga and dance to E.M.D.R. to internal family systems therapy to MDMA treatment. We talk about all of it in here.

Here’s the link where you can listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

It is affirming to have read this book because I was first introduced to this kind of work in the 1960’s when I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh.  As a theatre major I first took a course in Creative Dramatics from Dr. Barbara McIntyre (1916-2005), and later as a graduate student I was her teaching assistant.  As I write this section, I pause with gratitude to Dr. McIntyre and the warm mentoring she provided.  Born in Canada in 1916, she came to the University of Pittsburgh in the 50’s with a master’s degree and a career in children’s theater, teaching and using creative dramatics. While at Pitt she saw the therapeutic value of creative dramatics when asked to work with children who had speech impairment.  That led her to work with Eleanor Irwin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in Pitt’s School of Medicine.  Ellie (as we called her) promoted the use of creative drama in drama therapy.  Barbara received her doctorate in 1957.  I studied with her between 1963 and 1965.  It was during this time that I began to see the relationship between drama and movement in healing.  In particular, she and Ellie Irwin introduced me to the work of Jacob Moreno and psychodrama.

Jacob Moreno (1889-1974) was born in Bucharest, Romania and practiced psychiatry near Vienna from 1918–1925. In 1925 he moved to New York City and continued working as a psychiatrist and experimenting with psychodrama, which included core techniques such as mirroring and role-playing.  I have a vague memory of attending one of his sessions and seeing role-playing in action.

In the early to mid-sixties I also became aware of Judy Rubin and her work in Art Therapy.  Judy and Ellie worked together, and in fact my mom, Janet Klineman, Ph.D., who was Director of the Lower School of The Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind, was very familiar with their work.  After I moved away from Pittsburgh in 1966, my mom often mentioned them, as I believe they may have worked with students at the School for Blind.  A quick Google search of Judy Rubin and Eleanor Irwin showed that they are still very active in the field.  In 1985 they developed an Expressive Media Film Library and as recently as this spring Judy Rubin’s Facebook Page celebrated a Launch Party on May 22 featuring a number of art therapists sharing theory, practice tips and personal experiences.

Reading The Body Keeps Score was an experience in reaffirming my long-held belief that body work is a very important component of healing.  The book provides excellent language to describe how the brain and body work together, and cites research work that van der Kolk and his colleagues have done to support this.  Before closing I want to highly recommend reading the book and especially Part Five, Chapter 16: “Learning to Inhabit Your Body: Yoga” and Chapter 18: “Filling in the Holes: Creating Structure.”

I close with two pictures from the project I did using creative movement with women from Esperanza, the domestic violence shelter in Santa Fe.

Expressing Anger, Through the Door Project, Esperanza Shelter, Santa Fe, NM
Photograph by Judy Naumberg
Expressing Joy, Through the Door Project, at Esperanza Shelter in Santa Fe, NM
Photograph by Judy Naumberg

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Lessons Learned from the 2020 Olympics

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

Delayed a year, the “2020” Olympics in 2021 were different than past Olympics, with no visitors in the stands, COVID testing regularly for the athletes and the chance to see family members of the athletes watching from home.  They were also very different for me on a personal level.  This was the first year that I watched alone without Murray, my husband who died in October 2020 and who dearly loved the swimming.  And it was the first time I ever had a family member competing (a distant cousin on my father’s side).  I also was very proud that Simone Biles chose to take care of her own mental health rather than risk injury. That’s an important lesson for all of us to learn.

Let me begin by sharing a few of my reactions to Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the team competition. Surprised, of course, but once that reaction passed I thought how wise she was and also how wise it was that she was not pressured into changing her mind.  Gymnastics has come a long way in respecting her decision. Too often with dancers and athletes the emphasis is on having to stay the course without taking into account both the physical and mental damage done. And her teammates stepped up to the plate.  They competed well that evening, not dwelling on anything other than the job they needed to do, as she cheered them on!!  The result was that they won the silver medal.  As the week continued and Biles cheered from the stands for the individual events, some of her teammates went on to win gold medals. And then she came back to compete on the balance beam winning a bronze medal.  She simplified her routine dismount and yet it still earned her the bronze!  There is no question about her talent as a gymnast, and now she is showing us a courage and talent way beyond that, by causing us to stop and think about the importance of mental health in athletics and beyond. Certainly there is a strong lesson for the world of dance in this too, and teachers of dancers at all levels should please take this to heart!

An excellent piece of journalism by Dan Rather and his team at Steady, published by the website SUBSTACK.com, provides insight and commentary on this, and I strongly urge readers to check it out. I end this section of the blog with the following quote from the article:

Simone Biles forced us to pause to think about sports and life, at least for a moment, through a different lens. And for that we should all be thankful. If she has courage to stand up, we should have the courage to stand with her.  https://steady.substack.com/p/a-profile-in-courage?fbclid=IwAR341pTQVPnPvvtutJlDeRLY8vJwzi1sZUzPpoAv_OfDMaxDoSfOA9VWjcM

Up until this year I enjoyed watching the Olympics with Murray.  Since he passed I wondered how it would be watching without him.  His main interest was always the swimming and I went along watching it with him.  This year I didn’t have to watch it but found that I wanted to.  For one thing I just found it fun and interesting to watch.  The other reason was that it just plain felt good to do something that I knew was important to Murray and that we had shared together. I felt his energy present and it brought back so many good memories.  Murray loved to swim and he swam three times a week for as long as I knew him.  During the time we lived in Tallahassee, Florida he was a part of a Masters Swim Team and Program and even traveled to different parts of the state to compete.  I loved watching his body move rhythmically and powerfully through the water, even toward the end, when due to heart problems he didn’t have his usual energy. I am so glad to have this video of him enjoying our pool here in Costa Rica and that he got to enjoy a little bit of swimming here.

Murray swimming in our pool in Costa Rica, April 2020. Video by JoAnne

What also kept me glued to the Olympics was watching Alix Klineman compete in beach volleyball.  My Dad and her father, Michael, were cousins.  Michael and I have kept in contact and I was aware of Alix’s talent. When she was on the Stanford indoor volleyball team and they came to play the University of New Mexico, Michael came to see her play and invited Murray and me to the game.  It was great fun to watch and afterwards Michael introduced us.

Since then Michael has kept me up to date on her career, specifically playing for a professional team in Italy and then later in Brazil.  I was also aware when she transitioned to beach volleyball and I knew that she and April Ross were doing well as a team.  So it was with much enthusiasm that I started watching the first match they played in the Olympics and then of course continued watching all the matches through to the last one where they won the Gold medal.

As I watched interviews of the two women there were several things that resonated with me and which I want to keep in mind for myself.  First of all Alix shared that when she was younger she was uncomfortable or self conscious about her height.  Now of course it is a major asset.  So important for all of us to keep in mind that some of our natural physical nature that we are uncomfortable with may prove to be an asset.

For me personally, I have loved to watch and to work with tall dancers.  When they are wonderfully coordinated and know how to use their body there is nothing more beautiful.  I am reminded right now of Judith Jamison and in particular the beautiful solo that Alvin Ailey choreographed for her called Cry.  There was a point when Rick Jacobs was a part of the Avodah Dance Ensemble which I directed for over 30 years, and he is about 6’4”. Sometimes when he was in the company all of the women were 5’10” and over.  It was a challenge to keep up with them when we walked down the street.

Another important thing that Alix shared was that when she wasn’t selected for the 2016 indoor volleyball team she was able to realize her goal of going to the Olympics by moving into beach volleyball.  A recent New York Times article pointed out:

In 2017, Klineman envisioned a future in beach volleyball and dreamed of the Olympics. She began to study the craft.

Ross, a two-time Olympic medalist, was watching. She saw potential with Klineman, 31, citing a list of attributes: her physicality, work ethic, intelligence and intensity, to start.

“Alix did study the game more than anyone else I’ve ever known,” said Ross, 39. “She’d go home and watch a ton of video, and I’d be like, ‘Well, I’ve got to go home and watch video, too.’”  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/sports/olympics/olympics-beach-volleyball-alix-klineman-april-ross.html

A good reminder for all of us is that if one way isn’t working out figure out another. Once you have a new plan it is important to learn as much as you can to accomplish what you want.

Ross is quoted in the same New York Times article as saying, “Our communication and respect for each other is off the charts.”

One of the most important things I learned directing a dance company and also in working in film is that putting together the right team is all important.  When there is mutual respect and the chemistry is right between colleagues so much more can happen.  “The A-Team,” as April and Alix like to be called, provides us with an excellent example of how this works at the highest level!! Congratulations to April and Alix.  Thank you, Michael, for keeping me up to date on your daughter’s  career and for introducing me to volleyball on your trip to New Mexico.

If you watched this year’s Olympics did you have a favorite moment or something that resonated with you?  Please feel free to share it in the comments!

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Agnes de Mille at Perry Mansfield – Part II

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Musical Theater, Perry-Mansfield

One of the challenges that Linda Kent faced when she was Director of Dance at Perry-Mansfield was to provide really meaningful experiences for the dance students after their concert which was held the fourth week of camp. That meant there were still two weeks left of the six-week program.  She came up with the idea of bringing guest artists to P-M so the students would be exposed to both master classes and a lecture demonstration by an outstanding artist.   

In 2007, P-M faculty member Christina Paolucci arranged an amazing experience featuring Gemze de Lappe sharing work of Agnes de Mille, along with two dancers and a musician.  (At that time I did not know about Agnes de Mille’s history with P-M.  Check out Part I of this blog to learn about it.) I was thrilled that the students would be able to have master classes and a lecture demonstration, and so Murray and I made a contribution to P-M to help fund it.

Christina at the time was Educational Director/Associate Artistic Director at New York Theatre Ballet, and Gemze had been working extensively with NYTB from 2005 until her death in 2017 as NYTB presented many excerpts from de Mille’s ballets.  A highlight of NYTB’s work on de Mille was a production called Dance/Speak.  A description in TheatreMania describes it well:

The New York Theatre Ballet celebrates its 30th Anniversary season with the World Premiere of Dance/Speak: The Life of Agnes de Mille, a dance/drama which tells the story of choreographer Agnes de Mille’s struggle for success in the American theatre. Written by Anderson Ferrell, novelist and director of The de Mille Working Group; Directed by Scott Alan Evans; Staged by Gemze de Lappe (including dances from Oklahoma!, Carousel, Brigadoon as well as Fall River Legend, Three Virgins and a Devil, Rodeo, and Debut at the Opera) with Additional Choreography by Liza Gennaro. All performances are followed by an intimate panel discussion with the creators.  

https://www.theatermania.com/shows/new-york-city-theater/dancespeak-the-life-of-agnes-de-mille_154271
Diana Byer, Sallie Wilson, Gemze deLappe and Paul Sutherland at a post-performance conversation after an evening of de Mille works produced by NYTB. Photo by Christina Paolucci
Elena Zahlmann and Terence Duncan in Oklahoma! Photo by Richard Termine, courtesy of New York Theatre Ballet

An obituary in The New York Times helped me understand better the contribution that Gemze made to the dance world and to keeping the integrity of de Mille’s choreography.  Richard Sandomer described it well in this quote:

Miss de Lappe understood that de Mille’s dancers had to be actors, and that her choreography — which was celebrated for incorporating elements of folk dancing and classical ballet — was as much about forging character as it was about learning the steps. When she recreated de Mille’s choreography, Miss de Lappe used her mentor’s vocabulary, vivid with motivational similes, to inform even the subtlest of movements.

The obituary also pointed out:

Miss de Lappe’s association with de Mille began in 1943 when she was cast in a small part in the first national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s“Oklahoma!”

…“She was the potter’s clay for Agnes and one of her foremost interpreters,” Anderson Ferrell, director of the de Mille Working Group, which licenses performances of de Mille’s dances, said in a telephone interview. “Gemze was her muse.”

Here’s the link to read the full Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/obituaries/gemze-de-lappe-95-dies-keeper-of-the-agnes-de-mille-flame.html

Over the course of three days Gemze along with dancers Terence Duncan and Julie-Anne Taylor and music director Ferdy Tumakaka conducted a Repertory class for P-M dancers, held two master classes open to the public and presented an hour-long lecture demonstration. Repertory from Carousel, Brigadoon and Oklahoma were introduced. Christina and Terence remember that Gemze’s master class focused on the breath and very detailed characterization from Carousel.

Gemze (center) teaching at Perry-Mansfield. Photo by Christina Paolucci

Five years later in 2013, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Perry-Mansfield Linda Kent turned to de Mille’s Rodeo and shared the following with me:

I wanted to celebrate our history and our dance present and future.  Rodeo seemed the most perfect look back. I had great ambition and very little budget!!!  Paul Sutherland and the de Mille estate worked with us and we did an excerpt of the second half of the dance. Paul has been the exclusive restager of Rodeo since 1979 and he gives the dancers so much more than steps!!  It was a miracle to see contemporary 16-21 year olds ransformed into the gals and cowboys of de Mille’s first encounters. Our cowgirl, Cleo Person, was a delight in her awkward mooning over Keil Weiler as our Champion Roper (and fantastic tap dancer).  Paul Sutherland was delighted and I was thrilled that we could bring this back to the community where the inspiration began. 

Murray and I had already moved from Steamboat Springs to Santa Fe in late 2009 and while at first we returned in the summers, by 2013 we were busy sharing our artwork at fairs and didn’t make it up to Perry-Mansfield for the celebration.  We did hear raves from our friends about how well the evening of dance went.

One of the most delightful things of writing the blog posts for Mostly Dance is the interaction I get with other artists sharing memories. I am very grateful to Linda Kent, Christina Paolucci and Terence Duncan for going through notes, photos and memories that made this post possible.

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Agnes de Mille at Perry-Mansfield – Part I

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Musical Theater, Perry-Mansfield

It wasn’t until 2011 that I learned that Agnes de Mille had been at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the 1930’s.  If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that the summer I spent at Perry-Mansfield as a teenager in 1958 was life-changing and that Agnes de Mille’s autobiography Dance to the Piper was also a big influence during that period in my life.  In 2011 I was a member of the Board of Directors of Perry-Mansfield and was asked to chair a book-signing event for Dorothy Wickenden’s new book Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.  In discussion with Dorothy I learned that the reason she wanted to have her book signing at Perry-Mansfield instead of the local bookstore was she wanted square dancing and if possible an excerpt from de Mille’s Rodeo to be part of the event.  She felt this would set the ideal mood for her book and draw people out to the event.

Wickenden’s book Nothing Daunted tells the adventures of two young women, graduates of Smith College, who in the summer of 1916 left their society life in New York state and headed to Colorado to teach school in rural northwestern Colorado.  One of the women was Dorothy’s grandmother, and nearly a hundred years later Dorothy discovered her grandmother’s letters.  These letters helped her recreate the womens’ saga.  

Perry-Mansfield was founded in 1913 by two other Smith College women, Portia Mansfield and Charlotte Perry.  “The Ladies,” as they were usually referred to, shared their purpose in the following statement: “Creative practice through art and nature manifests in a thoughtful, insightful, and courageous life.”  Certainly Charlotte and Portia knew the two women written about in Nothing Daunted.

C. S. Carley, in one of her blogs at Castleandcoffeehouse.com, notes, “The story of Agnes de Mille in Steamboat Springs is one of the many historical nuggets in Dorothy Wickenden’s bestselling book . . .”  Carley goes on to describe de Mille’s stay in Steamboat:

During her stay . . . ,Agnes asked to be taken to a square dance, an important regular social event in the local schoolhouse.  Not only was she fascinated with the actual cowboys and girls dancing in actual cowboy boots, but she went out on the floor and did a solo turn, to much applause.

I encourage you to click this link and read the full blog by C.S. Carley. https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2013/09/14/russian-cowboys-in-colorado/

The event for the book signing was planned.  It included some square dancing, a duet from Rodeo and of course Dorothy Wickenden speaking.

Dorothy Wickenden speaking at Perry-Mansfield (photo by Murray Tucker)

Sharing the duet from Rodeo was the beginning of a project by Linda Kent, who at the time was the director of dance at Perry-Mansfield. She brought the project to culmination two years later by presenting an

excerpt from the second half of the dance as part of the 100-year celebration of the performing arts camp.

Paul Sutherland is the sole répétiteur of the ballet Rodeo, having been appointed by the choreographer in 1979.  There is a wonderful article from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that shares the important role Rodeohas played in Sutherland’s life.  He first saw the ballet when he was 18, when someone gave him a ticket. The next morning he signed up for a ballet class and two years later he had a contract with The American Ballet Theatre.  His first role was dancing one of the cowboys in Rodeo.  Here’s the link to the article which shares additional information.  http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2011/12/03/stager-paul-sutherland-is-still-in-the-saddle/

Linda arranged for Paul to come to Juilliard and teach the dance to her student Ellie (who would be a scholarship student at Perry-Mansfield in the summer), and to a young man from the Ailey BFA program, who also planned to be at P-M.  When the dancer from the Ailey program was unable to attend, Ellie (then at P-M), taught the dance (with Paul’s permission) to Raffles Durbin, who was a scholarship student from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.

The event was a success with a packed, enthusiastic crowd.

Steamboat Sprints Pilot Newspaper, saved by Linda Kent, publicizing the book-signing event! 
 (Credited to John F. Russell/Staff)

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