JoAnne Tucker shares her experiences in dance from directly a modern dance company to leading movement activities for women in prison and domestic violence survivors.
Continuing my blog entries on my international teaching, I’m sharing for this blog a section of the beautiful piece Kezia wrote in February 2000 for the Avodah Newsletter about Pitigliano, the town in Italy where she, Deborah, three Italian dancers and an actress performed Avodah repertory on the opening night of the Second Annual Pitigliano Festival of Jewish Film and Culture.
From Kezia (in February 2000):
Known as “Little Jerusalem,” Pitigliano sits on the edge of a cliff of volcanic rock, out of which it appears to have risen. Nearly mystical is the sudden sight of the town as one rounds a curve in the winding mountain roads. (The cartoon-like zigzags of these roads begged for more Dramamine than the entire New York-London-Rome flight.)
Our first view of Pitigliano
The road up to Pitigliano
The beautiful stone streets with their ancient stairs are layered upon one another like an Escher drawing, with flowered courtyards tucked into odd corners, and arresting slashes of light between buildings – through which one glimpses what appear to be sheer drops from the mountainside; and everywhere, garlands of laundry decorate the facades.
Street scenes in Pitigliano
In 1799, the Christian community of Pitigliano sheltered its Jewish inhabitants from attacks by neighboring Christians, who had forced Jews from their homes in nearby towns. In 1850, the Jewish population constituted at least 10% (and perhaps as much as 20%) of Pitigliano – exceptional in Italy. Around 1870 many Jews left for new opportunities in larger cities (due to an easing of ethnic restrictions), but some remained in their comforting home of Pitigliano. In the 1930’s the Christians of this town once again protected their Jewish neighbors. But in about 1938, when the Fascist anti-Semitic laws became overpowering, the Jewish community of Pitigliano dissolved. Two websites devoted to this special town note, “During the Holocaust, people of Pitigliano risked their lives to hide and save Jews that were escaping from the Nazi terror” (Eytan Kahn), and “By lucky circumstances and also by the help of gentile Italians, who risked their lives, apparently all the Jews of Pitigliano survived” (Peter Petri). Elena Servi, who was a young girl in 1938, is the only member of Pitigliano’s early Jewish community living there today. Maintaining their proud tradition of shared lives, the Christian community in Pitigliano and Ms. Servi have joined together and created a small museum of Jewish history, and restored the synagogue, the Jewish cemetery and the communal baking ovens where the Jewish community gathered to bake Passover matzoh. (We were graciously given a private, unscheduled tour of the baking site by curator Luigi Cerroni, to whom we extend our appreciation.)
Synagogue and Matzoh Oven at the Museum
The bicentennial of the heroic events of 1799 coincided with the Second Annual Pitigliano Festival of Jewish Film and Culture, a festival created by Michela Scomazzon Galdi, an Italian film aficionado who chose to integrate her love of film with her appreciation of and interest in the Jewish culture of Pitigliano. It was as part of this Festival that we had the great and moving honor of performing in this town so enriched by its history of rare cooperation and compassion.
This was not my first trip to Israel. For my 50th birthday Murray and I traveled to Israel, staying first with friends at Kibbutz Lotan located in the South and then taking a small minivan tour of the country for about a week. While it was a very positive experience and I especially liked Tel Aviv and have vivid memories of watching large groups of people gathering by the beach to folk dance on Shabbat, I did find not myself in a hurry to return. As I flew into Israel on Friday morning to begin this nine-day trip with five workshops scheduled I wondered how my work would be received particularly among traditional orthodox Jewish participants. The five workshops were scheduled throughout the country and I had no idea who the attendees would be.
I am very glad to have written about the trip, shortly after it happened, in an Avodah Newsletter, and the majority of this blog comes from the newsletter. As was my regular practice when leading dance midrash workshops, they were always based on that week’s Torah portion and I had a particularly rich and easy one to work with. I decided to focus on two specific lines in the portion “Lech Lecha”: Genesis 12:1, “The Lord said to Abram, ”Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” and Genesis 16: 1-16 where Hagar bears a child for Sarah.
Arriving in Israel on Friday I would have Saturday to spend with friends who offered a place to stay where they lived on Kibbutz Tzora. They had originally lived at Kibbutz Lotan, where Murray and I had visited them six years ago. Now, along with two adorable twins, they lived on Kibbutz Tzora which had a much more urban feeling than Lotan. I was also able to use time to review the Torah portion I would be working with. Even though I had worked with many Torah portions many times I often found new insight depending on my life events and world happenings. This particular week I decided to address the question of what quality in Abram triggered God to select him to “go forth.”
For the section on Sarah and Hagar, I decided to find moments of interaction between them that are not described in text, such as what Sarah might have said to Hagar to convince her to bear a child for her, or what Hagar might have said to Sarah when Hagar knew she was pregnant. In other words, I wanted to make the relationship very real between these two women.
All five workshops were built from these two scenarios, and each workshop had the same outline: movement warm-up, introduction of ritual movement (i.e. movement already existing in our tradition, such as putting on a tallit or bending and bowing), exploration of text in movement, questions, and feedback. Each workshop took on its own character and emphasis based on the participants, and there was a huge range!
As I reviewed my write-up in the Avodah Newsletter I noted that I only mentioned four workshops. Actually a fifth one stands out in my mind and I hunch that I decided not to write about it for the newsletter. For this blog I will just share one very strong memory of that workshop (the first), which I led in Jerusalem. I remember my friends driving to and from the location, and that I felt a huge relief to be leaving Jerusalem, as I felt the energy from both the workshop and in the streets to have been somewhat frantic!!
While each workshop had the same outline, each one definitely had its own character and emphasis based on the participants. The second workshop, in Tel Aviv, like the one in Jerusalem, was attended by all non-dancers and thus my main job was in motivating movement and leading the group to be comfortable with movement as a way to explore text.
The third workshop was in the city of Beit She’an which is located in the northern part of Israel in the Jordan Valley. It was held in a beautiful dance studio, part of the region’s cultural center, and had the highest level of dance participants, with several professional dancers and advanced dance students. I also seem to remember this was the home community of Elisabeth, the person who had visited my dance midrash class in New York City and arranged for me to come. A single sentence was enough to motivate rich movement, and sophisticated improvisational dance challenges quickly became an important part of this workshop. A particularly memorable improvisation occurred on the letters in God’s name (yud, hay, vav, hay). I taught a simple movement phrase based on a meditation related to these letters and then asked the participants each to think about her own God image and to incorporate that in her improvisation. The intensity in the room was incredible and while I was dancing with the group I sensed an extraordinary energy happening, with amazing movement interactions taking place in my own improvising. One person had chosen to observe and was mesmerized by what she saw. Not surprisingly, in the feedback section, this exercise was commented on the most. From an orthodox woman came the statement that she was apprehensive when asked to do this activity but found it profound. A secular woman also shared the same reaction – an initial reluctance to dance the letters in God’s name, but then a discovery of great meaning to the exercise. I felt a certain affirmation in having been able to provide such an experience for women coming from such different backgrounds.
From there I traveled to Yeroham which is in the Southern District – Negev Desert. The workshop was held in the Bamidbar Creative Beit Midrash which had been built in 1990 following the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, and which serves the local community as well as visitors. It is also an unusual space in that it has served as a bomb shelter. Put to happier use, all the furniture had been removed for our dance workshop, and there was also an art exhibit by oil painter Anna Andersch-Marcus, a world-renowned artist living in Yeroham. This was the only time my teaching in English created a few moments of tension, when some debate arose about how to translate what I said. Luckily several bilingual participants were able to assure the group that the differences were insignificant to the assignment, and the 15 women ranging in background from secular to traditional worked together sharing nonverbally our interpretations of biblical text.
My own improvisations that day were influenced by the fact that we were near a site called Hagar’s Well and I was reminded of the challenges that the environment presents. It made a big difference in my own movement to keep the harshness of the desert landscape in mind as I danced interactions between Sarah and Hagar.
The final workshop was at Kibbutz Lotan. The Kibbutz was further south located in the heart of the desert about 40 minutes north of Elat which is on the Red Sea. I had very pleasant memories of the Kibbutz from my earlier trip to Israel. The reform Kibbutz had developed further with bird-watching trails, sand dunes and the intimacy of a small lush Kibbutz surrounded by the barren desert mountains. I thoroughly enjoyed being there and even discussed with the leadership of the Kibbutz the possibility of doing an intensive five-day workshop to train dance midrash specialists as well as individuals who just wanted to explore text through dance stimulated by the beautiful desert environment and guest facilities of the Kibbutz. I never put much energy into organizing it and so it never happened. Being at Kibbutz Lotan was a wonderful way to end a very full nine days and return to Italy to continue getting ready for our October 31 concert.
The only picture I could find that I took on this trip to Israel. Clearly I was fascinated by the harsh environment of the desert!
In one of the many Jewish newspapers or magazines that I followed I saw a notice about a Jewish Film Festival in Pitigliano, Italy, organized by Michela Scomazzon Galdi, who lived in Rome. I thought maybe they might be interested in adding a dance event. I sent Deborah information about it, along with Galdi’s contact information, and much to my delight Deborah was able to get in touch with her and even headed into Rome to meet with her. Later Deborah would travel to Pitigliano to see the space and figure out theatre technicalities. There was much correspondence between all the parties in Italy as well as between Deborah and me figuring out details for our participation for the opening night of the festival, October 31, 1999.
Deborah also wanted us to have more than one performance and began working with some school contacts to see if she could arrange a workshop and performance in nearby Tuscania.
I knew that our budget would be extremely limited, so there was no way that the whole Avodah company could go, and part of the fun and challenge would be working with Deborah’s dancers. It would be ideal if Kezia could go too. Kezia could help teach as well as perform in the concert and an added bonus was that it would be fun to travel and tour a bit too.
Deborah remembers, “In the summer before you and Kezia came to Italy, I headed home to the US with a long stop in NYC to rehearse with you. As I was planning my trip, several of my dancers – Anna, Cinzia and Francesca wanted to tag along and visit NYC. I said sure and they came and so we had rehearsals there in Chinatown – getting them into some of the pieces for Pitigliano. Also, Silvia Manciani happened to be in New York studying at Graham for an intensive and she came to rehearse with us as well, I believe.”
At the same time I had also been in contact with an enthusiastic dancer from Israel who had attended a Monday night Dance Midrash Class I led regularly in New York City. (These were improvisation classes based on Biblical text. For more information check out Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash which I co-authored with Rabbi Susan Freeman.) The dancer in Israel very much wanted me to go there and teach dance midrash and she was willing to arrange it. She followed through with an email as we were beginning to organize plans for Italy and I thought that the timing would be a perfect fit. I could fly to Italy, have one or two rehearsals with the dancers and then fly to Israel to teach. Kezia could meet me on the return to Italy and we could finish rehearsing, perform in Tuscania and at the Festival, and have a little time for sightseeing before returning to New York.
Deborah did a super job of arranging things and I remember so clearly a rehearsal before I flew to Israel. At that time Deborah had stopped running her own studio. After spending two years trying to do so, and building a small ensemble that traveled to do school performances and festivals, she had realized that the economics were just not in her favor. In fact, after teaching for two years in a studio that her Uncle Enrico had built for his ballroom-champion son, she realized she hadn’t earned a penny for herself after paying rent and the two other teachers in classical and jazz to round out the curriculum. Her husband was a dedicated documentary filmmaker and so she decided that two working artists in the family was one too many and therefore she would teach English. So when I got to Italy, Deborah was teaching English full time for the Italian Military.
I remember well the first rehearsal that I had with the dancers in the lovely studio that her Uncle Enrico had built. I was totally taken aback when someone’s cell phone rang and the person stopped dancing in the middle of the piece to answer the call. I looked at Deborah aghast and she explained that this was the custom in Italy and to just be patient. That never happened in NYC, as cell phones are turned off and only in breaks do people use a phone unless of course someone has an emergency and needs to keep it on! I soon adjusted to this more informal rehearsal style although it did leave a very clear memory in my mind. In terms of the dancing I could see the excellent progress Deborah had made with the dancers and that they would be ready for the upcoming performance.
With Deborah in Italy, October 1999.
After just a few days I returned to Rome for my short flight to Israel. Once inside the airport, I couldn’t find El Al listed anywhere. I wandered around the airport a bit and finally asked a policeman where to check in for El Al. He pointed down the hall to the farthest part of the airport. I continued walking down to an unmarked area where I soon realized there was a temporary place to check in.
I was interviewed for quite a while before being able to proceed to the next waiting area. When I got inside I was taken aback to realize that a balcony surrounded the room, and stationed at quite regular intervals were army members with machine guns. When I had traveled to Israel from the US, while security was tight it was nothing like this.
I knew that there had been an incident in the past that had warranted a high level of security, and a bit of Googling brought up the event which happened on October 11, 1982. The following description is from Wikipedia:
The attack took place at the Great Synagogue of Rome in the historic district of Rome on Saturday morning, at 11:55 AM. As the families of the local Jewish community began leaving with their children from the back entrance to the synagogue, five elegantly dressed armed Palestinian attackers walked calmly up to the back entrance of the synagogue and threw at least three hand grenades at the crowd, and afterwards sprayed the crowd with sub-machine gun fire. Eyewitnesses at the scene stated that the hand grenades bounced off the steps and exploded in the street.
A 2-year-old toddler, Stefano Gai Tache was killed in the attack after being hit by shrapnel. In addition, 37 civilians were injured, among them Stefano’s brother, 4-year-old Gadiel Tache, who was shot in the head and chest.
Great Synagogue of Rome (photo from Wikipedia)
I found it meaningful to continue reading and learned that the event was remembered as recently as 2015.
On 3 February 2015, during the message to the Italian Parliament following his taking the oath as President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella remembered the attack with these words: “(Italy) has paid several times, in a not too distant past, the price of hate and intolerance. I want to remember only one name: Stefano Tache who was killed in the cowardly terrorist attack on the synagogue in Rome in October 1982, He was only two years old. He was our baby, an Italian baby.”
Once through security and check-in, we were bused in groups to the far end of the airport where we boarded the plane. It was an easy, uneventful flight to Tel Aviv and I looked forward to my teaching adventure in Israel, which will be the subject of the next blog.
For seven years Deborah Hanna was a part of The Avodah Dance Ensemble. If you skim through the blogs of Mostly Dance you will see lots of pictures of her, as she played a key role in collaborating on pieces that became an important part of Avodah’s repertory. In particular, Deborah was in the original cast of Let My People Go, and she and Kezia collaborated on Sisters. At some point, I shared her with the Martha Graham Ensemble and loved how well trained she was in Graham technique, which I totally adored! When she decided it was time to leave the company and move to Italy with her husband I was both sad to see her go and also excited for her new adventure. We might even have joked a bit about Avodah coming to Italy, as she did not intend to stop dancing.
Two years later, in 1995, I saw Deborah on a trip to Italy. My husband, Murray, had a business trip to Rome, related to his job as economist with the IRS. I was able to go with him and we decided to travel a few days early so we could spend some time visiting Deborah.
A day or two after arriving in Rome, Murray and I took the hour-and-a-half train ride to Tarquinia, where Deborah and her husband, Jeevan, were living. Tarquinia is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, known mainly for its ancient Etruscan tombs. We stayed in their sweet country cottage and loved going sightseeing in the area with them. Tarquinia is Jeevan’s hometown and his family owned a wonderful restaurant there.
Top Picture: Deborah and I have fun posing at one of the Etruscan Tombs. Lower Picture: Deborah and Jeevan, Murray and I, enjoying being together.
Deborah had begun to teach dance shortly after she arrived in Italy in February of 1993. She taught Graham technique and choreographed for the end-of-the-year concerts in her local community. Deborah shared with me that “The Graham Technique made a big hit as quite a novelty and the first piece I did for them to the music of Carmina Burana received a loud “ANCORA” from the audience – which I just took as a wonderful sign of appreciation, but quickly found out meant we had to repeat the piece again immediately – which we did.”
Deborah choreographed for this group of dancers when she first arrived in 1993.
By the time of our visit with Deborah she had not only continued teaching but had expanded with in-school performances and workshops in the local grade schools and middle schools and had won best choreography awards at the Viterbo Dance Festival.
Before we left Italy Deborah joined us in Rome and ended up going out to dinner with us and charming some of Murray’s business colleagues with her excellent Italian. We talked about projects between Avodah and Italy, and the seeds were planted for what would happen several years later.
Moving to Costa Rica, I brought a few watercolor supplies with me and thought that I might like to experiment with this medium. When I saw that Eric Rhoads had put together an event called Watercolor Live. I decided to check it out so that I might learn some basic skills! The first day was for beginners and then there were three days that followed, pitched to all levels of watercolor painters. I definitely was a beginner so I knew that I would sign up for the first day, and then I thought why not just sign up for the full event? I am so glad that I did.
First of all, I was familiar with the quality of events that Eric Rhoads puts together, having attended a Plein Air 4-day event in Santa Fe held at Buffalo Thunder a few years before. I had learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it. The artists that he put together for the event were first rate and I was familiar with several of them prior to attending. In December I spent some time at the website for Watercolor Live where I could see the excellent quality of artists who would be demonstrating during the 4 days of the virtual event[.
There were so many pluses for signing up. First of all there was no way that I could attend any kind of live art event, even here in Costa Rica, because of COVID!! Second, I was getting frustrated with my limited knowledge, and so far my watercoloring was limited to making very simple Christmas cards for friends and workers here in Costa Rica. Third, I was hungry for some stimulation. My husband, Murray, had passed away in the fall and so much time was being spent on handling business things that needed to be done, that a change of pace was definitely important.
So I signed up and wow what an excellent experience. I loved spending four days from 10 AM to 10 PM just thinking about ART. It was non-stop and only occasionally did I pause to take a quick swim in the pool or to walk around the house a bit. I was mesmerized by the variety of different demonstrations. There are three options for buying the event. I had selected the middle option where I can go back and replay segments for 60 days. I am satisfied with that choice as there are quite a few sections that (although interesting) I have little desire to replay, but there are quite a few that I look forward to going back to and watching maybe several times. Beside the formal demonstrations there were other elements that stood out for me.
Suppliers of watercolor brushes, paper and paint presented segments too. And they weren’t just commercials. Instead, they often had an artist explain a technique or show how a product could be used. The first day began with basics about Understanding Materials. It was a perfect way to begin and even more important, it introduced me to Birgit O’Connor, whose floral watercolor paintings are breathtaking. She offers online courses that I might consider taking, down the road. The next session, by Kim Minichelle, related to color mixing and working with a limited palate, and was also very on target. Shuang Li’s demonstration on basic washes was one of the few demonstrations where I decided to paint along with her as she demonstrated. I did of course spend time later working on some of her techniques and have used them in the beginning paintings I have done. Another highlight from the first day was a critique session led by Antonio Masi. As he commented on some watercolor paintings that participants had submitted I realized what had been bothering me about an oil painting that I had almost completed but which I knew had problems!! That evening I figured out what I needed to do to improve the composition of an oil painting inspired by several orchids and while I didn’t get to it until after the four-day workshop was over, the key to solving the problem was learned in Masi’s critiquing session.
Oil painting inspired by several orchids Completed February 2021 after hearing Masi’s critique session.
In fact, one of the best things about the workshop was that it wasn’t only about watercolor paintings; it was about art in general. I was constantly reminded how important it is to continue to work on my sketching skills and to regularly evaluate the composition of my paintings. Also stressed was the importance of spending two hours a day painting even when not inspired.
One of the things that doesn’t work for me and which even now I have no desire to do, is to paint along or copy someone’s painting. I am sure that one can learn techniques in doing this but it is an uncomfortable exercise for me. My preference is to watch and see what I can take away and maybe explore as one aspect or new technique of the painting and then to apply it to my own compositions. I will continue to do that over the next few weeks as I replay. I am also thrilled to have so many good painters’ websites to explore.
Each day there were breakout groups of about 8 people, where for about 25 minutes we could meet other participants from around the world. We could learn about what kind of work they were doing and sometimes see examples of their art work. Most of the break sessions were good but occasionally someone dominated and that took away from a real sharing. We were regularly warned about not doing that. On the whole most people were respectful and I felt it was valuable to participate. I attended almost all of the 8 breakout groups that took place, spread out during the 4 days.
Another very nice element of the event was that all of the demonstration had been pre-recorded and the artist participated in a chat so that students could ask questions during the demonstration, similar to what happens if one is attending a live event!
During the three days of the regular event there was a great variety of presentations, from portrait painting, landscape both plein air and from photographs, cityscapes and a final seascape from well known Australian painter Joseph Zbukvic, truly a master! It was exciting to see so many different techniques and so many fine painters.
Just as I know from my dance days how important it is to be totally immersed in dance, so I felt that same energy being engaged in art even though it was virtual. I came away refreshed and inspired and already I can see a big difference in how I am working in the medium of watercolor.
I highly recommend participating in the events that Eric Rhoads puts together. He just recently had to cancel this year’s Plein Air event scheduled to meet in Denver, for the second year in a row. He had already put together a virtual plein air event (https://pleinairlive.com/2021-register) that was going to be held anyway based on the enthusiasm of last year’s participants. That is the next main event he has planned. In addition to planning this virtual event he has held daily events for artists through the pandemic called Live With Eric Rhoads. Participating when they are happening can be done via Facebook and there are replays available at YouTube at Streamline Art Video Channel.
Eric is a real gift to artists as he has really figured out ways to reach artists during COVID and as a result is getting a worldwide following. He is himself a studio and plein air painter who has made his living as publisher of PleinAir magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur magazine as well as publishing a series of videos, putting on conferences, and writing his own book related to art marketing. At the end of each day he held a “virtual cocktail party” via Zoom where he talked to different participants. A setup was also available so that one could paint at this time as well! I enjoyed doing that the first day and had fun when he called on me to share what I was painting and where I was from. It was fun to share I was in Costa Rica and learn of his enthusiasm for possibly bringing a group to paint in Costa Rica. Right now he has a tour planned for Russia.
To conclude I share two recent watercolor paintings I have done, inspired by views here on the property. A big leap from the little Xmas cards I had been doing. I look forward to seeing where my skills go as I study the sessions and learn more techniques I can incorporate into my landscape paintings inspired by the beautiful property I am very grateful to live on.
View 1 from the Property Completed February 2021
View 2 from the Property Completed February 2, 2021
While not a very long flight or very far, our first international tour was to Toronto, Canada in October of 1995. I didn’t remember much about it until I mentioned to Kezia that I was planning to do a blog about the tour. She happened to be sorting through lots of old files and found a program from the performance, which she scanned and sent to me. (She also found a photo related to another recent blog, which we’ve included at the end here.) We then emailed about a fun shopping trip we had one afternoon during a break and she said she still had the beautiful barrette she had bought (yes, photo at end of blog). Having the program brought back all kinds of memories for me both about the repertory we did, the cantor we performed with, the company members on the tour and the unique congregation where we performed.
While I am most grateful for Kezia’s editing skills, what makes working on this blog all the better is the fact that she has been a part of so many of the things I am writing about. She was a member of the company for 13 years, and then an Avodah board member, and we have a 34-year friendship. She also saves things. After many years and a series of moves, I no longer have programs and now have only scanned material from scrapbooks and personal files. It is wonderful to read an email or hear in a Zoom or phone call that she has a program or a photo of something I am planning to write about. So a deep bow of gratitude to Kezia for her friendship, her memory and her wonderful editing skills.
Now let me share about this first international tour. First of all since it was prior to 9/11 and before passports were needed for travel to Canada, all we needed was appropriate ID such as a driver’s license. Traveling and going through Customs were very easy for us. The four dancers (Kezia, Beth Millstein Wish, Elizabeth McPherson and Carla Armstrong) worked well together and it was a fun and easy group to travel with. Our booking was at Holy Blossom Temple as part of the 1995-96 “Our Musical Heritage” Series. The booking had been arranged by Cantor Benjamin Maissner and he would be joining us in accompanying two of the pieces.
Holy Blossom Temple is the oldest synagogue in Toronto, dating back to 1856. It is also a very large congregation with 6,500 members. It is affiliated with the Union of Reform Judaism, which serves congregations in Canada and the United States. I don’t remember exactly how we got the booking except that Cantor Maissner might have been at a Cantorial Conference we performed at or heard about us from one of his colleagues. For us it was exciting to be collaborating with the Cantor in the opening piece Hallelu (music composed by Cantor Benji Ellen Schiller) and also in Binding which is a retelling of the Akedah – the biblical story where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Our usual pattern was to send the music to the cantor several weeks beforehand and then spend an hour or so rehearsing — coordinating cues and tempos. Usually it went very well, as it did with Cantor Maissner. Then we would focus on staging the other four pieces, as concerts generally consisted of six pieces.
Other works in the program included: Shema, a Holocaust piece set to poems by Primo Levi; Kaddish, set to the first 8 minutes of Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony; Noshing, a comic piece about eating and gossiping; and Braided Journey, choreographed by Lynne Wimmer and based on the Ruth and Naomi story. Since I have written in previous blogs about all the other repertory except Hallelu and Braided Journey, let me share with you a little about these two pieces.
Hallelu was inspired by Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller’s beautiful setting of Psalm 150 (“Praise God . . . with the timbrel and dance.”) Our dance piece opens with a dancer circling the space and then calling out “Tekiah” — the first call for the blowing of the Shofar (ram’s horn) on the Jewish high holidays. Other dancers join her, calling out more Shofar calls accompanied by movement, leading into the opening section of the music. A rhythmic section follows in which the floor becomes a virtual drum for patterns beat by the dancers’ feet, leading into the final section of joyful movement to Schiller’s inspiring music. Cantor Schiller is Professor of Cantorial Art at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and I knew her from our time as dance company in residence at the college. It was a delight to be able to choreograph a company piece to her work. In addition to her role at HUC-JIR she is Cantor at Congregation Bet Am Shalom in Westchester where her husband Rabbi Lester Bronstein is the Rabbi.
From Hallelu l to r: Beth, Elizabeth and Kezia
From Hallelu l. to r. Beth, Elizabeth and Kezia
Company in Hallelu
Braided Journey, choreographed by Lynne Wimmer, tells the story of Naomi and Ruth and is divided into three sections. Section I is titled “Return unto thy people” (Naomi to Ruth). Section II is “Entreat me not to leave thee” (Ruth to Naomi), and Section III is “Thy People will be my people.” The piece is set to music by The Bulgarian Women’s Choir. Lynne and I have known each other for years and it is always an honor when I can collaborate with her. Lynne has a long dance history, including joining Utah Repertory Company full-time immediately after graduating from Juilliard. She has had her own company and been a professor of dance at University of South Florida. The tour to Toronto was shortly after Braided Journey joined Avodah’s repertory, and in this program it was performed by Elizabeth and Carla.
While this was not my first trip to Canada, as Murray and I had gone to the Canadian Rockies, it was my first trip to Toronto, as I believe it was for the four dancers. We were glad to have a leisurely afternoon to wander through one of the neighborhoods which reminded me of the East Village in NYC. Kezia and I hung out together and had great fun going in and out of shops, including one that kind of reminded me of a vampire type funky store and actually had some unique velvet hairpieces, which we both bought. Amazingly Kezia still has hers!!
Kezia’s barrette that she bought on tour in Toronto in 1995 and still wears!
In the Blog published on January 4, 2021, “Touring in the United States, Part I” I wrote about the challenging adjustments the dancers had to make in each unique performance space, particularly on temple bemas. Kezia kept this picture of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (Short Hills, NJ). She had also made a note that when performing the piece Gimmel there (choreography with a lot of wave-like movement, including rolling on the ground), the dancers rolled down the stairs!
As I write this blog it is with a lighter heart and a sense of joy, filled with so many poignant memories of Wednesday’s inauguration. With COVID and security concerns the day was beautifully choreographed and the inaugural committee is to be commended. As a United States citizen now living abroad in Costa Rica, my connection to the democratic ideals of the United States remains deep, as do my concerns and hope that healing of long-time wounds will be addressed. I am also very interested in how other countries react to what is happening in the United States.
On Thursday morning I read with delight an article in the Tico Times which I want to share with you, as it gives insight into how Costa Rica views the U.S. inauguration. The headline itself says a lot: “‘Multilateralism is back!’ How Costa Rica’s leaders celebrated U.S. inauguration.” The article mentions that in a Tweet President Carlos Alvarado thanked President Biden for rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, and that he also assured cooperation with the U.S. in “pursuit of ‘shared principles.’”
What was most meaningful in the Tico Times article was what I learned about the Vice President of Costa Rica. Her name is Epsy Campbell and she was elected in 2018. An article by Brendan O’Boyle in Americas Quarterly (Oct. 19, 2020) notes:
Epsy Campbell Barr became the first Black woman in Latin America to be elected vice president – despite the fact that Afro-descendant women comprise up to 17% of the region’s populations. . . . [She] began her career as a human rights and environmental activist and an economist researching women’s inclusion. As vice president, she has led a working group to try to close the gender pay gap, and also launched a program offering credit to rural women working in conservation.
The Tico Times article reported that Campbell “shared a letter she had sent to Vice President Kamala Harris”:
In the communication, Campbell referenced her Afro-descendant grandmother, who “did not live to see her dream made reality,” but who worked to ensure “her daughters and her granddaughters could enjoy the rights she always wanted but never had.”
“As Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica, and as a Black woman, I have joined the celebration of Afro-descendent towns and communities across the world that appropriate this accomplishment as an example to advance on the path to equality,” Vice President Campbell wrote.
Photo by Stefano Martin of Epsy Campbell from the Americas Quarterly
Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry is also quoted as saying:
Costa Rica celebrates the solid ties of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which have cemented its 170 years of diplomatic relations. In this sense, we will work actively and constructively together with the Government of President Biden and Vice President Harris and their teams, to strengthen the recovery process in the face of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and energize the bilateral, regional and multilateral agendas, promoting political dialogue, cooperative actions, and the promotion of commerce and attraction of investments.
So today I not only celebrate the inauguration but I have learned more about the country I am living in and its relationship with the U.S. Murray and I were always aware of the good relationship that existed between the two countries when we decided to move here although we knew that Trump was damaging and isolating the U.S. relationships with many places. So it is with delight I read the Tico Times article and learned about Vice President Epsy Campbell.
For as long as I can remember I have always been interested in traveling both in the United States and internationallybecause not only is it about sightseeing but it is about what we learn about ourselves and our relationship to others. Sometimes I’ve traveled alone, sometimes with the dance company and sometimes with Murray. In our international travel we were both fascinated with how citizens of other countries viewed the United States both positively and negatively. I remember seeing negative things written on walls on a trip to a university town in Germany back in 1987. Traveling during the George Bush administration between 2005-2008 we heard and saw negative things. (Now, of course, the Bush administration is looking amazingly good, after what we have just experienced with Trump.) Living now for nearly a year in Costa Rica I was well aware of the negative attitude toward Trump and the disappointment that Ticos felt for what was happening in the U.S.
I was particularly made aware of that on January 7th when the young man from a restaurant/bakery that I regularly order from made a delivery to the house. The young man asked me how I was doing. I told him that I felt very sad and upset about what had happened at the Capitol in the U.S. the day before. He shared that he was upset too and that it was very troubling what had been happening in the U.S. since Trump had been elected, as he and most Costa Ricans looked to the U.S. as a model and since Trump that wasn’t possible. He hoped it would be possible again. Luckily the young man spoke English very well because while I am progressing in learning Spanish a detailed conversation like this would not have been possible.
I was glad I watched the inauguration with my Costa Rican friend and helper. First of all, I missed sharing this with Murray as he would have been thrilled to witness Biden and Harris sworn in and so I was glad not to be alone. And second it was wonderful to know how a Tico was experiencing the transfer of power. We both had tears in our eyes when Vice President Harris was sworn in, as I did later during the beautiful poem written and read elegantly by 22-year-old American Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.
I loved the images of both Biden and Harris immediately going to work. Maybe eliminating Inauguration Balls is even a good option for the future.
While days on tour were demanding, with long hours spent in the performing space whether it was a synagogue or theatre, we occasionally had time to sightsee or just have a day off to relax! Most of those times were wonderfully refreshing, and right now I only remember one tour in which I was so exhausted I barely communicated with the dancers and was just glad to have time alone. This stood in strong contrast to most of the time when we had fun planning what we would do and enjoying each other’s company. With a small company and only one car, having a congenial group was important.
As this blog continues I’ll be sharing my experiences. I enthusiastically invite others to send their favorite memories of days off while on tour with a dance, theatre company, or music group You can just send a sentence or two or have fun writing a fuller “but brief” description. Pictures are always welcome. I’ll put some memories together for a community guest blog. You can share either anonymously or with your name.
One of our most frequent day-off decisions was whether it was best to stock up on food from a grocery store or plan to enjoy a restaurant meal (or a combination of both). (Kezia’s favorite description was from Ida Rae Cahana — that touring was “all about packing, unpacking and foraging for food.”) I can remember lots of meals where afterwards we would pass the one check around the table (‘cause many places would not do separate checks) and each person would calculate what they owed and also put in an amount for a tip. I learned to be a better tipper from those trips, as some of the dancers had been or were waitpersons and understood how important a good tip is!!
Quite often to keep costs low we did home hospitality. Some of these were wonderful experiences where we met people who became friends and contributors of the company through the years. Occasionally, hosted experiences were unpleasant but most of those times a dancer was not alone at a house, so the dancers could support each other and keep a sense of humor about the experience. On one such occasion, Kezia and I were in a house where a five-year-old child kept intruding into our space and asking repeatedly if he could see me naked because he wanted to see a fat person without clothes on! Yes I was heavy and the first time it was kinda funny but soon it became annoying. Kezia (though appalled) helped me keep my sense of humor on this occasion.
Our housing could be all extremes — from mansions to dorm rooms with a mattress on the floor and limited sheets/blankets. Luckily the mattress on the floor only happened for one night at a college booking. One time I spent a few nights in the home of the CEO of a cruise ship line in a beautiful separate guest house overlooking the water in a gated community in the Miami area. I remember a time when two company members stayed in a home that had actual Picasso works.
In the early days of the company one of my favorite trips was to Savannah, GA with Irving Fleet. We were there to stage In Praise as part of the service at Temple Mickve Israel and there had been wonderful publicity. We had the morning off and were wandering on a tour on Riverwalk which runs along the southern edge of the Savannah River, and we entered a touristy jewelry store mainly consisting of beads where you made your own necklace or bracelet. The person behind the counter got very excited and said something like “Oh I recognize you… you were in today’s newspaper!”
The California tours always provided a few fun days off. Once when we were in the Santa Rosa area several of us drove up to Calistoga and I did my one and only mud bath. Calistoga was an interesting small town at the end of the well known Napa Valley, home to hot springs, mud baths and wineries. I remember it as quaint and fun just to walk/drive around. I didn’t like the mud bath too much but was glad I had tried it!
Sometimes we went for gentle hikes or had a beach day or hung around a pool. On a Colorado tour we did a circle drive west of Denver that took us up to a snow-filled pass that had only recently been opened.
What follows next are some of my favorite day-off pictures. A few of them have been in earlier posts!! Some are new.
From an Avodah scrapbook. On the left is Kezia relaxing under a tree and Beth Millstein on the beach, both taken on a Florida tour.Colorado tour when we took a circle trip into the mountains west of Denver. From l to r Loretta Abbott, Newman, JoAnne, Deborah and Cantor Ida Rae Cahana. On a California Tour from l to r. Deborah Hannah, Beth Bardin, Kezia, Susan FreemanRick Jacobs and Bea Bogorad volunteer to be part of a demonstration on our day off tour of Universal City on an early California tour.
While I was in the midst of writing a blog related to dance company touring, I had my iPad tuned to news programs mainly to hear about the results of the Georgia runoff elections for the Senate. I was feeling pretty excited hearing that Ossoff was pulling ahead in the GA race and Vice President Mike Pence had made an opening statement indicating that he would be following his appropriate role in receiving and registering the electoral votes. Then the mob breached the Capitol and my energy changed. I could no longer concentrate on writing the dance company blog. The rest of the day and into the late evening I was focused on the news, mainly listening to MSNBC. I found myself deeply sad and at times tearful.
My interests and background are in the arts and I am not usually a news junky. That was what my life partner/husband Murray did and he passed away just over two months ago. Perhaps because I knew I couldn’t turn to ask him for an update, I needed to watch for myself. I did that and now I am left with a strange and uncomfortable feeling of how to react and what to do. I paint, I write and I used to direct a dance company, and so when I find myself having strong emotional reactions I know that I am also looking for a way to express them. So here I am writing.
Among the many senators’ speeches, one of them used two phrases which I could relate to. 9/11 was a time when the action came from outside the country while today the action was from within the country. Outside and inside forces. And the inside force came from the strong encouragement of the President. Images of the people inside the building, especially one person sitting at a desk in the House Speaker’s office had almost a clown feeling to it. Almost someone doing mischief. Efforts were to be disruptive and that they were. It could have been a lot worse. What it did show was how fragile the country is, how poor security was at the Capitol and how democracy is something we cannot take for granted!!
It felt good to see the proceeding resume after the building was secure, and while there were four deaths it could have been many more. By the time I got up this morning, Biden and Harris were formally elected and there was a message from the President there would be an orderly transfer of power. Yet I still have this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, and while my unrest is not at the level I felt after 9/11, it is here. On 9/11, living in Jersey City, I saw the second tower collapse, with my own eyes, walking the few blocks from our house to the river. I was with a neighbor and I knew that all of my family was already safe. Yet that day changed me. It took a few months before the direction was clear to me, and how I ran my dance company and what I decided to choreograph evolved in a different direction. I have written about that before and so I will just summarize by saying that the Forgiveness Project happened shortly after that, and my focus on work shifted from emphasis on Jewish themes and performances in synagogues to work relevant for working with women in prison.
So I know I have a need to be patient with myself, not discount my feelings and give myself time to see what evolves. My circumstances are different as I now am far from DC where the action happened. I live alone in Costa Rica in a beautiful setting. Yet I am hearing a voice inside me saying that this threat to democracy in the United States is very real and not over and that it does affect me and those close to me. This fight of the white men to keep control is not over. Racism is a key part of it. And I can’t be silent about it!
In 2003, the teacher I had for life drawing at the Art Students League in New York City (I am embarrassed not to remember her name) talked about how important it is to use your art for political statements, particularly related to feminism. So maybe thinking about how to bring these feelings into my art will be important to me.
We have so many outstanding examples of visual artists, musicians, and performing artists responding to the politics and challenges of their time. I ask myself and I ask you how are we going to respond to what we saw yesterday and the reminder of how fragile our democracy is, and how racism, anti-Semitism and feminism fit into this picture! For a brief moment yesterday we got to celebrate two new senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff elected from a Southern state. Ossoff is only 33 and Jewish. Reverend Warnock is African American. The fact that the Southern state of Georgia elected them and is giving the Senate back to the Democrats is a major tribute to Stacey Abrams who, along with other women of color, dedicated herself to changing the state. That gives me hope.
I am privileged to live in a beautiful home in Costa Rica. Part of the reason Murray and I moved here was because of our fear of how the election of 2016 pointed toward increased anti-Semitism, racism, and loss of democracy. Yesterday was a major test. Even though I don’t live in the United States right now I am still a citizen and care. So I am asking myself, “What can I do as an artist from right where I am????”
Today I decided I want to do original sketches of women I really admire for my wall of Sheroes. This is a very rough sketch of a portrait that I will be working on for the next several days.
I had planned to write this week about Avodah’s international tours, and workshops I led outside of the U.S. But as I was thinking about that I became curious about how many U.S. states Avodah had performed in, and what I remember about touring in the U.S. So for this blog and the next I am going to write about our domestic touring, in general terms, and include a few fun pictures, before turning my attention to international trips.
First of all, the Avodah Dance Ensemble visited 29 of the 50 United States, either performing or giving workshops — usually doing both. Some states we visited on just one tour and others with multiple tours. For me touring was one of the fun parts of directing the company and I kept in mind several things related to touring as I directed the company.
I made sure we continued always as a small company that could fit into one car or at least a minivan. I owned a minivan and we often rented one when we flew on tour. I purposely kept it that way for two main reasons: economic in that we would only need to rent one vehicle when necessary, and my own personal minivan would work when possible; and personal/professional in that having only 5 to 7 personalities to work with (that included me) made sense to me. I also made sure we were never gone more than about 10 to 12 days. Even when we toured to the West Coast we left, for example, on a Thursday, had two weekends away and returned on a Monday! On our long tours to places like California and Florida we often had several full days off when we could sightsee and relax.
So what was it like. When it was a one-day tour and I was using my own car we had a meeting place. That place depended on where we were off to. If I had to drive through NYC (from New Jersey) then the meeting place was often in the West Village by the Washington Square Subway stop so that it was easy for the dancers to get to. If I wasn’t going through the city and we were heading west or into South Jersey then we most often met close to where I lived, particularly when I lived in Jersey City. I don’t remember any incidents where anyone was more than a little late. That is in sharp contrast to some times when we were taking an airplane.
Two particular times stand out when we boarded a plane and not all the dancers had arrived in a timely fashion at the airport. For one flight to Sarasota, Florida one of the dancers simply wasn’t there when they started boarding the flight. So I left her ticket with an airline agent! We boarded and clearly other passengers became aware that we were missing someone because when the dancer arrived at the last moment just before they were getting ready to close the doors, most of the plane applauded her. I don’t remember why she was late.
Then there was another trip when the percussionist (not our regular Newman who was always very prompt) did not make the plane at all. Again I left his ticket and he did arrive on a later flight. There was also a time when there was a blackout in NYC and there was an element of suspense about whether everyone would get to the airport on time, but if my memory serves me correctly we all did.
Need I say these situations cause a certain level of anxiety, and I am so glad to report that over a nearly thirty-year period of touring those are the only incidents I have to share.
Now, once on tour, what is it like! Well for short day trips we generally spent the day in the facility rehearsing, with one food trip out unless we had requested food be provided for us. Grocery stories were a favorite for those day trips because we could each find something there to our liking to take back. The rest of the day was spent adjusting the dance pieces to the performance space. Often it was easy for spacing when we were performing in a theatre because the surface was flat and it was just determining which wings to go in and out. The challenge there was often setting lighting. Since Avodah didn’t have a stage manager, it was up to me to work with the lighting technician or crew in the theatre both determining what lighting was available and setting it for each piece. My guideline was to keep it as simple as possible yet have it be effective for setting the moods of the pieces. The most memorable lighting situation I ever had was in an outdoor festival in Long Island when it rained fairly hard and I was sitting under an umbrella in the rain in a lighting booth out in a field, calling the cues for the performance. Maybe we had one or two people in the audience and the dancers luckily were on a protected stage. (Kezia says it was one man, there were puddles on stage, and the dancers were terrified I would be electrocuted.)
For both theater performances and when we integrated dance into the Friday night service I usually ran the sound.
Picture taken at CAJE conference (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) where I am running the sound and the dancers are performing on a stage.
Beth Millstein ironing a costume for a Friday night service while on tour. Avodah was an ensemble onstage and off; everyone ironed, mended, hauled and helped as needed.
A great deal of the time on a Friday afternoon we were preparing to integrate three pieces into the Friday night Shabbat service. That meant spacing the three pieces on the bema (raised platform where the service is led). Now that could be a real challenge for several reasons: first of all, the bema usually was not just one level – often there were steps that led to different levels; second, its shape was not at all like the rehearsal studio we were used to; and third, it often took a lot of persuading to get most of the furniture off the bema so we would have maximum space for dancing.
Kezia (left) and Deborah Hanna on a break on tour. We were rehearsing for a Friday night service and the preschool playground provided a perfect place for a break.
Each of these three reasons presented its own unique challenge and each had memorable moments for me. First of all, levels. I was always amazed at how the dancers could quickly adjust to so many different levels and manage literally to dance up and down the stairs. One challenging bema was in South Orange, New Jersey and the dancers in the company in the early 80’s did a most amazing job with the many steps. While most of the company had gone back to the city after the Friday night service, Rick Jacobs (then in rabbinic school) and I stayed to lead a workshop with some teenagers. We were no longer in the main sanctuary but rather in a smaller chapel. As I was talking and demonstrating I managed to slip and fall down the maybe two steps. The next thing I knew, Rick was falling down the steps, because he said as he fell, if the director falls then the dancer follows suit. The kids laughed and I felt like a total idiot having watched the way the dancers negotiated the steps the night before!!
Irregular shapes were more common than not, and particularly challenging were long skinny bema’s where the dancers had to figure out how to negotiate in 6 feet what was designed to be done in 18 ft. They did an amazing job. Sometimes they made different adjustments in performance than were planned in rehearsal. I never got upset because they consistently found clever ways to adjust to each other. I was the only person aware and loved to see how they solved these last-minute, new, on-the-spot choreographic changes.
Ah… getting the rabbis to move the furniture for a Friday night service could be challenging. Sometimes, especially on return visits, it was easy but the first time could be difficult. Unfortunately, I had lots of experience with that, starting with the very first performance of In Praise before there was even a formal dance company. It took major negotiations to get most of the furniture moved and the Rabbi’s podium was never moved. A few years later when a Rabbi announced that the podium was not moveable, Rick Jacobs (still in Rabbinic school) and I simply showed the Rabbi how the podium could easily be moved over to the side and the wires adjusted so the mic worked from there. The Rabbi wrote, in an evaluation to the Jewish Welfare Board that had arranged the booking, that the director, JoAnne Tucker, was quite professional but aggressive, in seeing that the company got what they needed. I laughed when the evaluation was shared, knowing exactly what was being referred to. The Rabbi and that congregation did become a regular booker of Avodah and we returned to participate in a Friday night service for nine years and never had a problem getting the furniture moved again.
Toward the end of the time I was touring, in around 2002, we had the most challenging Rabbi situation. The Rabbi felt sure the best place for us to perform was in the back of the sanctuary, with the congregation looking over their shoulders to see us, because it was a level, large space. Well that was totally ridiculous as it was clear no one would see any of the dancing. I must have spent over an hour negotiating with him, and it was only when I quoted scripture to him and promised that we would not go up to the most sacred space where the Torahs were, that he relented and I was able to stage the repertory on the other part of the bema so that the congregation could see us. It amused me quite a bit that here it was thirty years after the earliest performance and I was still negotiating with Rabbis to be able to dance on the bema. It’s no wonder that I began to feel it was easier to work in prisons!!
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