Author: JoAnne Tucker

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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Agnes de Mille and The Dream Ballet in Oklahoma

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Dance in Film, Musical Theater, Personal Life

Much to my surprise and delight I found that Disney+ was streaming the 1955 movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma (that duo’s first musical, created for the stage in 1943).  When the movie first came out I wasn’t a big fan, as I didn’t like the casting of the main leads. I loved the original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma that featured Joan Roberts, Alfred Drake and Celeste Holmes. None of them were in the movie so I did not see the movie until many years later.  What attracted me to watching the movie this month was that it is one of the few examples of Agnes de Mille’s choreography that we can see today.  Since I was a teenager and read Dance to the Piper (published 1952) I had always admired de Mille, who despite being discouraged by her parents from becoming a dancer, and facing numerous struggles as a dancer and choreographer, achieved success through her sheer determination.  

De Mille choreographed the movie just as she did the Broadway show. She was hired by Rodgers and Hammerstein following the 1942 success of the ballet Rodeo which she choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She asked Aaron Copeland to create the score for the piece.  It premiered in the fall of 1942 at the Met in New York City with deMille dancing the lead cowgirl.  She received 22 curtain calls, and the ballet’s success led to her choreographing the Broadway show which changed the use of dance in musicals.  For her, dance was not just an entertainment but rather a way to advance the emotions of the characters and the plot. 

The original lead dancers in the dream ballet were Marc Platt, Katherine Sergava and George Church.  They doubled for the leading actors, and John Martin in a review in The New York Times wrote that Ms. Sergava, dancing the alter ego of heroine Laurey, “with her strangely remote quality of beauty becomes the ideal heroine of a rather terrifying dream.” Neither Katherine Sergava nor George Church was in the movie.  Marc Platt was, but not in his original role of Curly.  Instead he had a role dancing and speaking as one of Curly’s pals.  The dance leads in the movie were Bambi Linn as Dream Laurey and James Mitchell as Dream Curly.  Bambi Lynn made her debut in Oklahoma as a dancer and later went on to a career as a ballroom dancer with her husband Rod Alexander.  James Mitchell began as a modern dancer and for 25 years was an assistant to de Mille.  

In the movie there is a very graceful transition from the actress Shirley Jones to the dancer Bambi Lynn where for just a moment they mirror each other and then the dream ballet really begins as Laurey runs into and is lifted by Curly and the two dance a very lovely duet.  A chorus of women soon joins in and it is a celebration with Laurey imagining her wedding, with a veil that floats down and is put on her head.  The scene builds as townspeople gather and an imaginary wedding is about to take place.  Curly begins to lift Laurey’s veil when suddenly instead of Curly it is Jud. Laurey flees from Jud and ends up running into a scene of women dancers (women of the night) doing the cancan as Jud watches and at times joins in with them.  Laurey continues to be a part of the scene, confused, sad and bewildered, and at times even trying to dance with them.  One of the dancers puts Laurey into Jud’s arms and Laurey flees from him and up an open stairway that dramatically is a dead end into open space. 

A transition within the ballet is then made with sound effects and lighting suggesting a thunderstorm or tornado, and a trio with Curly, Jud and Laurey begins.  Following their struggle, townspeople enter as the energy builds, ending with Jud killing Curly and lifting and carrying Laurey off.  This is where the dream ballet ends and the actor Jud appears ready to take the actress Laurey to the party as she awakens from her dream terrified!

As I watched the ballet several times I was struck by what a beautiful ballet de Mille created and what a wonderful score Richard Rogers created using melodies from all different songs in the musical.  The dancing is well executed and the way it was filmed added to the richness of the choreography.  I also

noted that it was danced on a good soundstage so the dancers could be at their best.  We are so lucky to have this available to watch, and I hope I have whet your appetite and you might watch this very well done sixteen minutes of dance.  I think that Disney+ still might have a 7-day free subscription trial.

There are other good dance moments in the movie too.  One comes about 24 minutes into the film, beginning with a kind of two-step which becomes a vigorous tap dance solo building into a full ensemble dance taking place at the train station. The ending is fun as three of the dancers end up on the roof of the train and two women dancers jump off the train into the arms of waiting men as the train leaves with the male dancer still dancing on the train’s roof!!  Another lovely moment is a women’s ballet to the song “Many A New Day.”  A square dance in Act II to the “Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends” is lively and is used to point out the tension that exists between the cowboys and the farmers, ending with a well choreographed full stage brawl!

While I have to point out that the story doesn’t really work for me anymore the dances sure do, along with the songs!  I grew up listening to the music and also remember my Mom mentioning how she had seen the show shortly after it opened with my Dad, who was in the army about to be shipped overseas. She had loved it and talked about the enthusiasm of the audience.  I wanted to know more about Oklahoma’s impact at the time related to World War II and found two excellent pieces online related to this.  In a blog written by Ryan Raul Banagale he points out that “Oklahoma can be seen as a work that captures an optimistic vision of America at a moment when its future remained very much up in the air.”  (https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-at-75-has-the-musical-withstood-the-test-of-time-94110 )

In an article in The New York Times, Todd S. Purdum mentions that “at every performance, there were rows of men in uniform, sitting in seats especially reserved for them, or taking standing room before shipping out overseas. 

Both of these articles clearly point out how Oklahoma changed musicals and how the show remains relevant today. I am thrilled we have this example of de Mille’s choreography to watch today.  Reading her book, and learning about her, strongly impacted my decision to be a dancer.  

In searching for a picture to include I found this wonderful interview of Agnes de Mille talking about the stage version of Oklahoma.  While it was uploaded to YouTube in 2013 it is actually from a PBS series done in 1979.  We see excerpts from the stage version.  It is curious that she never mentions the movie.  While the choreography in this clip is similar to the movie I think the movie is actually more interesting and stronger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW35nQUZdk4&list=RDiW35nQUZdk4&index=1
Screenshot from YouTube interview of de Mille in 1979 PBS program

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A Trip to Bali

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance Midrash, Multicultural Programs, Personal Life

Memories of a trip to Bali resonate strongly, even though it was nearly 30 years ago that I spent 6 amazing days exploring the island, totally fascinated with the different sites we visited.  Murray and his colleague had wandered into a tourist agency on a lunch break during their work trip to Singapore.  They saw a great package for 6 days in Bali with airfare and hotel.  Liked it and bought it.  A few days later we were on the plane for the 3-hour flight to Denpasar Airport.  We were met, part of the package, and driven to the resort hotel in Nusa Dua, by far one of the most beautiful hotels we had ever been to.  While the resort was very modern, it displayed the traditional beautiful sculpture and art work that the Island is famous for – a nice blending of traditional and modern styles. The rest of the first day we totally enjoyed hanging around and swimming in the very large pool!

The next morning we piled into our small van and the four of us were joined by one other couple.  Following a morning concert of traditional music and dance, our guide took us to Ubad (the cultural center) and we wandered in and out of lots of tourist type shops that were at least tasteful and did have some interesting things.  In one of them I found a percussive instrument, made of wood – a face with a wooden knocker as the tongue. It was similar to one of my favorite instruments on Newman’s accompaniment blanket, and I was very excited to find it.  (Newman, mentioned in other blogs, is the musician who accompanied many workshops and the piece “Let My People Go.”  He would set out his wide variety of instruments around him on the stage floor, on a piece of fabric which I came to call “Newman’s Blanket.”) I was thrilled to make the instrument my first purchase and enjoyed using it for many years!  There were quite a few Batik stores and I also purchased in one of them a round placemat that I still enjoy using.

As we walked from store to store we were greeted by a number of vendors selling various handcrafted things.  Often they started by quoting a very high price, expecting us to bargain. When we walked away they would offer the item for a realistic price where the bargaining could begin. Murray and I saw some interesting small carvings and learned they were carved cow bones.  We were first quoted a price of $100 but didn’t counter it and just walked away.  Before we knew it, the vendor had said we could have each one for $10.  We ended up buying 3 of them, each for $1. The vendor was happy to have sold them, and we were happy to have bought them.

While the shopping was fun, what really fascinated me happened the next day as we were driving up in the mountains.  It was a festival day and many Balinese were dressed in traditional clothes.  A number of the women were carrying – balanced on their heads – baskets of fruits and flowers arranged in beautiful and intricate patterns.  Our tour guides explained that the women were on their way to a sacred site and the baskets were offerings.  

I vividly remember a visceral response in my body, and thinking this is exactly the kind of thing that is described in the Torah, and further explained in the Talmud, about how during the time of the Temple’s existence, the Jewish people made offerings. For example, Deuteronomy 26:2 says:  

you shall take of the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in from your Land that your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that your God will choose.

If you would like to learn more about this ritual, here is a good link to check out: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/first-fruits/

I was seeing something similar in a totally different culture, and I was totally fascinated.   

Once back home, I would learn that 90% of the Balinese practice Balinese Hinduism which:

 is a mixture of years of contact with different cultures, most notably the Indian one. Traders introduced their faith to Bali between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago.

Apart from Hinduism, the Balinese have aspects of other beliefs in their religion: Buddhism; Malay ancestor cult or the reverence of dead ancestors; and animistic beliefs.  (“Lisa’s vivid writing” in Medium.com – see link below)

If you want to learn more about Balinese religious practices, rituals and festivals check out these websites:

https://medium.com/bali-in-a-few-words/balinese-hinduism-explained-e3316a16a535

https://www.villa-bali.com/guide/offerings-canangs

/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/indonesia/articles/traditional-rituals-in-bali-you-should-know-about/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/indonesia/articles/traditional-rituals-in-bali-you-should-know-about/

And then we visited a temple and saw a sign outside that said something like “Women:  If you are menstruating or pregnant please do not enter.”  When I asked our guide about it, he shared that women who are menstruating, pregnant or have just given birth are considered “ritually unclean.”  Here was another example of something that had been part of the Jewish tradition, well documented in Leviticus Chapter 15 beginning with verse 19:

If a woman has a discharge, her flesh discharging blood, she shall remain in her state of menstrual separation for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be come unclean until evening.

There are many others examples of times when someone or something is considered unclean in Leviticus and in other parts of the Torah.  Now, here I was, in another culture and religion seeing a similar practice in action. I was surprised to find this in Bali.  

The trip to Bali took on a whole new significance for me.  It was not just the beautiful scenery or tourist shops or sightseeing.  It was about seeing the rituals and culture in practice.  The similarity between the rituals I was seeing and the passages I was reading in the Torah (and using as a basis for leading “dance midrash” workshops in Jewish religious schools) was clear. It gave me new ideas for my teaching.  It was also an awareness of how similar cultures can be and a reminder that we may all be more alike than different.  

Here I am sightseeing in Bali and loving the rich greens of the rice fields.
Murray and me visiting Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave.  To learn more about
this site check out this link:
https://www.tripsavvy.com/goa-gajah-eerie-elephant-cave-in-bali-1629094

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A Trip to Bangkok and Reflections on The King and I

JoAnne Tucker / / Childhood, Musical Theater, Personal Life

A business trip back in the early 1990s, on which I was able to accompany my husband Murray, still has special significance to me.  Murray had a case in Singapore that required him to travel there for some onsite research.  We decided to begin our trip with a five-day visit to Thailand.  After a long day of flying, which included changing planes in Tokyo, we arrived around 1 AM in Bangkok. I still have a very vivid memory of our taxi ride from the airport to our hotel as traffic was bumper to bumper! And that is how it seemed all the time in Bangkok – never a time when there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the roads. A quick Google search as I am writing this post shows that traffic in Bangkok is still a major problem.  Murray and I soon learned that many of the tourist sites were close to one another along the river and that it was possible to take a water taxi on the Chao Phraya River that connected The Grand Palace, Temple of the Reclining Buddha and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  We also took a river trip to the old capital and another river trip in smaller canals to get a flavor of local life.  While we did not stay at a hotel on the river we determined that should we ever return, we would certainly do that, to radically limit our time on traffic-filled streets.

While the trip to the old capital was very interesting and I loved the various Buddha statues, my favorite part of the trip was the time in Bangkok at The Grand Palace.  Upon entering the grounds my immediate reaction was that I was on the set of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s play The King and I.  Everything felt so familiar to me, having been such a fan of the musical.  Of course I realized that this was where so many of the set ideas had come from.  And for choreographer Jerome Robbins, the position of the figures in many of the facades were woven into the dances.

My own history with The King and I goes back to shortly after the original production starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner opened on Broadway in March 1951. My good friend Regina had an original recording of the show.  We would dance to the songs in her living room.  In 1956 the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical came out, and what a dazzling production with amazing sets! Jerome Robbins recreated his ballet Small House of Uncle Thomas for the film, and I loved that ballet.  

In 1964, after returning to Pittsburgh following my two years at Juilliard, I was asked to choreograph a production of The King and I that was being done at Taylor Allderdice High School, the very high school that I had attended.  I had a wonderful time doing it. There are three wonderful dance moments in the musical:  of course, the sixteen-minute ballet Small House of Uncle Thomas; The March of the Children, when they are introduced to their new teacher; and the duet between Anna and the King.  Working with the two leads in the high school production was particularly fun and they were very appreciative of my help.

Over the years I have enjoyed watching the movie quite a few times and seeing revivals of the production. While I didn’t see the 2015 Broadway revival with Kelli O’Hara I was pleased when it won a Tony for best revival.  There is even talk right now of a remake of the film. What a great contribution Rodgers and Hammerstein have made to musical theater!  

I conclude this blog with a few pictures from our trip to Thailand and welcome your comments related to your connection to the award-winning The King and I.

Photograph taken of a Buddha during our tour to the
Old Capital
Images on a façade at The Grand Palace that might have inspired 
Jerome Robbins’ choreography.
Murray and me on the grounds of The Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

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Doing Taxes Takes on A Whole New Meaning

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

One of the highlights of the meaningful Zoom memorial service that good friend and spiritual leader Jimmy Levinson led for my late husband Murray was when he shared some of Murray’s hobbies and then invited each of those present to raise their hand if they also had that hobby and would think of Murray when they did that.  Among Murray’s hobbies were hiking, gardening and photography.  While taxes were certainly not a hobby, Murray always did ours, first by hand and in later years using Turbo Tax.  

While this year was a bit more complicated due to his passing I decided that a way to honor Murray was to continue with his tradition and to do the taxes myself using Turbo Tax instead of organizing them and sending them off to an accountant.  I am really glad I did.  As I worked on them I felt a real closeness to Murray and a satisfaction of knowing that I was honoring the way he did things.

Now…. Let me be honest, Turbo Tax has an upgrade where they offer 24/7 chat or phone calls and I took that upgrade and did I use it.  I never hesitated to call them or chat whenever I had a question and they took their time working me through the questions and the inputting of information.  Numbers and math have never been my thing but I did do the easy 990 form for my non-profit dance company and the financial statements for both the dance company and Healing Voices.  

It has now been just over 6 months since Murray passed.  I miss him a lot and find ways to both keep him in my memory and to honor our years together.  This May 6th would have been his 81st birthday and I wanted to make a contribution in his memory.  With the devastating news out of India I knew I wanted to make a contribution to an organization in India.  I reached out to my good friend Jimmy Levinson to ask what his son Noah’s organization, Calcutta Kids, was doing related to COVID and Jimmy shared that they were setting up a vaccination site.  I decided to donate to Calcutta Kids knowing that it was a small organization that I have supported in the past and that they have made and are making a difference in young children and moms’ lives starting with pre-natal care.  Here’s a link to their organization in case it interests you: https://calcuttakids.org

I close this blog with a few favorite recent pictures of Murray! (Photos were taken between 2015 – 2018.)

Visiting Fallingwaters, Achitect Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous house outside of Pittsburgh, PA
At Morraine Lake, Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.  Murray and I visited there on our honeymoon and always talked of going back.  We did, 53 years later.
Murray sipping a drink around the pool at a resort in Cancun!

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Last Thoughts on International Touring

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life, Touring

In this concluding blog about our Italy tour Kezia and I share some of our favorite non-dance memories.  Certainly one part of touring is when we have a free day or two.  On the tour to Pitigliano, Kezia and I arranged to have several days to sightsee after the performance before returning to New York. 

One of Kezia’s favorite memories is having to stop the car for a significant time on our way to Pitigliano to allow a flock of sheep to cross the road.  She remembers that their bells made wonderful music, and that Deborah spoke to the shepherd and translated for us.  He was carrying a little lamb because he said she was tired and kept lying down in the road and crying when she couldn’t keep up with the other sheep.

View from the car when we encountered the sheep in the road.  If you look carefully
you can see a figure in the very back carrying the lamb.

A favorite memory of mine was watching Deborah’s mother-in-law make gnocchi from scratch and of course getting to enjoy eating it afterwards. 

Deborah and her mother-in-law.  We all watched enthusiastically 
as Jeevan’s mother make the gnocchi!

 I also loved our time soaking in a hot spring,

JoAnne and Deborah in the hot spring!

In the February 2000 Avodah Newsletter, Kezia wrote about some of our adventures sightseeing:

As tourists in magical Florence, we strolled into innumerable churches, each graced by masterpieces of art, so much a part of their surrounding spiritual home and purpose that often no nameplate is even provided to identify the artist.  And regardless of one’s religion, when the church bells ring at twilight in Florence, one is filled with joy.  In stark contrast to the gentleness of Florence, the astounding massiveness of Rome was like walking at the feet of elephants.  Surprisingly, St. Peter’s, even more enormous than it appears on television, by genius of design, offers an undeniable sense of embrace, even to these two Jewish visitors.

On Shabbat, JoAnne and I attended services in the old Jewish section of Rome.  The architecture of the temple was of a style similar to that of churches we had visited, and the unexpected acoustical effect of this kinship was that the chanting in the service took on a nearly Gregorian quality.  The text of individual prayers and readings was indistinguishable, replaced by an engulfing hum.  The women’s section, up a long flight of stairs, was separated from the downstairs men’s section by an iron gate so densely and intricately patterned that one could barely see through it – as intended.  But I suffered no shortage of spiritual sustenance in this country where religion has been the inspiration for glorious architecture, serene and achingly sad painting and sculpture, heart-soaring music and people of deep warmth and courage.  When I looked out my window during the flight back to New York and saw how easily the Italian Alps reach right above the clouds, I was not in the least surprised.

Closing thought from JoAnne: I am so grateful for the dedication of the dancers who were part of Avodah, both when they were in the company and afterwards.  In particular, to Deborah — who organized and made this tour possible, including rehearsing her dancers and performing in the concert —  and to Kezia — who shared this experience with us, helping in staging and performing, and then sharing time together sightseeing with me – a deep bow of gratitude.  

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Performance in Pitigliano

JoAnne Tucker / / Touring

Continuing the blog entries on my international work, I flew from Israel back to Italy, and Kezia arrived there from the U.S., and so rehearsals began in earnest for the upcoming performance for the Pitigliano Festival of Jewish Film and Culture.

In the February 2000 Avodah Newsletter, Kezia reported:

Our trip to Italy came about in great part through the extensive organizing efforts of former Avodah dancer and dear friend Deborah Hanna Leoni, who had been living in Italy (and teaching dance there) since 1992.  It was Deborah and two of her delightful advanced students whom I joined to form Avodah’s Italian company.  Deborah and her husband Jeevan generously housed JoAnne and me in their country cottage in the very beautiful Tuscan village of Tarquinia, a center of ancient Etruscan life, about 45 minutes from Rome and 15 minutes from the Mediterranean Sea. With stone streets and buildings tinted in warm fresco shades of gold and orange and green with castle-like wooden doors, Tarquinia is a hill town with an expansive view of velvety green countryside.  For people who teach, as we do, I believe it is a good reminder to return periodically to being a beginning-level student of anything – to remember just how bare – and frustrating – beginning knowledge is.  Since neither JoAnne nor I speak Italian, we had a good dose of “beginnership,” but we found that people determined to find a common understanding are reassuringly able to do so. 

We also figured out puzzling light switches, door latches and toilet mechanics, learned to wash dishes using the least possible amount of water (start with that handy pot of water left from boiling pasta) and functioned for periods (common) when the water was turned off or the electric was out.  (The cottage was perfectly and appropriately lovely in candlelight.)  Our Italian alarm clock each morning was the gunshot chorus of local men hunting for small birds on the property.  We deciphered money and purchased groceries (everything FRESH), ate pine nuts from the ground and gourmet mushrooms picked by Jeevan’s family, and watch his mother make us homemade gnocchi.  We learned that, like nearly everything else in life, there is a skill to hanging wash on a clothesline – and we did not have it.  We were made sharply aware of how luxuriously we usually live, particularly in terms of the use of water, electric and gas, and I felt downright wealthy when I returned home and was able to wash and dry all my clothes at the laundromat.  We learned that in Italy, concepts of “efficient” and “businesslike” do not exist as we know them in New York; “casual,” “social” and “personal” are the critical elements of life, as is “generous.”  And they do make for a charming, if drastically different, life.  For a  high school workshop, the students each contributed a sum toward our booking, and we were paid with an envelope of small bills and coins, like the collections I remember for elementary school “milk money.” I – who am still surprised each time JoAnne pays me for dancing – have never felt such a direct connection between my work and my pay.

From JoAnne’s scrapbook: Scenes from Deborah and Jeevan’s land.

The theatre in Pitigliano had a historic feel to it.  The stage was just large enough but it did present a bit of a challenge as it was a raked stage (meaning that it sloped upward away from the audience).  Fortunately the dancers were able to adjust  quite quickly.

Back entrance to the theatre where we performed

The performance consisted of six pieces, and one of them was created for this special event. Entitled Generations,it was inspired by the Hebrew phrase “L’dor V’dor” (“from generation to generation”) and focused on the Jewish woman’s role of carrying on tradition.  In seeing a video of the piece, I wasn’t sure at all what I was really trying to say.  How I was able to watch a video of the piece was an interesting story in itself.  Deborah reminded me that there was a video of the performance and thought that Kezia had a copy of it.  It was a VHS which is very outdated and most of us no longer have VCR machines that can play such tapes.  Kezia however does still have a VCR,  but she doesn’t have the means to transfer a VHS into a format such as an mp4 which would be easy to send over the Internet.  So, resourcefully, Kezia played the video on her VCR and filmed it on her phone and sent it to me. 

Screenshot of the piece Generations. Kezia is on the floor and Deborah is behind her. In the background are our Italian company members Sylvia Manciani and Anna Compagnucci (two of Deborah’s advanced students at the time).

The other pieces were: Hallelu – a setting of the 150th Psalm; Negro Spirituals – four solos from Helen Tamiris’s work (danced by Kezia) which had been reconstructed by Elizabeth McPherson from the Labanotated score; M’Chamocha – a piece celebrating the crossing of the Red Sea; Kaddish –  a work set to 8 minutes from Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish symphony, and Shema – a setting of Primo Levi’s writing. Search this blog site for entries describing some of these pieces more fully.  In the Avodah Newsletter  Kezia described performing Shema:

Most memorable in this performance was the inclusion of our repertory work Shema based on the writings of Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.  JoAnne insisted on performing this work, defying suggestions that Italian dance audiences prefer lighter pieces.  In Shema the dancers speak excerpts from the writings of Primo Levi.  In this performance the text was recited (by our Italian actress, Elisabetta Irrera) in its original Italian.  The impact upon the audience was powerful, earning the longest applause of the program.

Deborah Hanna in Shema, with Elisabetta Irrera (the Italian actress who spoke the text in Italian) behind her.
Curtain call following the last piece, Kaddish.

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