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.
Leslie Zehr is a wonderful host and interviewer, and even though this was my first podcast, she immediately put me at ease. We had a delightful, fun conversation where I was able to share my journey from dancing as a toddler while my grandmother played the piano, through my dance education at the Graham Studio and The Juilliard School, to the creation of the Avodah Dance Ensemble. Her questions enabled me to discuss the transformative power of dance, as we explored how dance is a method of empowerment and healing in women’s correctional institutions, and how it led to filmmaking and in particular the film Through the Door: Movement and Meditation as Part of Healing with domestic violence survivors.
Each month since January 31, 2021, Leslie has produced a different Podcast, all designed to inspire “a community of like-minded souls seeking to understand the cosmic dance of co-creation through the sacred arts.” She wants to expand minds, ignite creativity and explore something new and something old.
Leslie is a sacred arts teacher, workshop leader, mentor and author of two books, The Alchemyof Dance and The Al-chemia Remedies. While she was born in Peru and educated in the United States, she lives in Egypt, where for more than 30 years she has supported women “to reconnect to the Divine Feminine within through the mysteries of ancient Egypt.”
The Podcast series covers a range of subjects. Some examples are: Let Your Yoga Dance; Sacred Self Care Chakradance; A Roundtable Discussion of the Importance of Movement and Dance in Children’s Lives; and Japanese Butoh.
While the Podcast is not done live, Leslie does no editing, so I knew that I had to be as clear and focused as I could be. When the interview was over, we had a few minutes to check in about how it went. I expressed my gratitude to Leslie for her warmth, and we both agreed we had fun sharing together. The interview is available to listen to as a podcast and to watch on YouTube.
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.
What a joy it is to now have Healing Voices-Personal Stories’s new film Out of the Shadow: Shining Light on Domestic Violence posted on Vimeo and our website. This project and resulting film were more complicated than our earlier films. The idea for the film was brought to us by HV-PS’s board member Leona Stucky-Abbott and grew into a Day of Action Against Domestic Violence held on October 5, 2019. Check out this website to see where events were held. In this blog I write about the role that movement and dance played in the Day and in the film.
One of the things we recommended for the Day of Action was a Die-In to remember and acknowledge the large number of women who have lost their lives to an intimate partner. As we began to share our idea with people, it became clear we needed to establish some basic guidelines for what we meant as a Die-In. It was not to be a protest but rather a time to remember those women who have lost their lives!! We gave a basic movement outline…. to have those women who were representing the victims enter first and lie down on the ground. Other women (who did not want to lie down) and men then made a protective circle around them. Once everyone was in place, all observed a minute of silence with no movement. After the minute, with the cue of a chime, one woman began to get up, then help another person up, with the two acknowledging each other before moving on to help another woman up. Once everyone was up, they affirmed, with dance and gestures, the celebration of life and the message that the violence has to stop.
We did a demonstration film of our model and provided it to groups so they could get an idea of what to do. We of course also suggested that they come up with their own ideas too. You can watch the demonstration film here. It was exciting to get the videos from the different groups and see what they came up with for October 5th.
We also suggested that each event plan something special to call attention to domestic violence. I was thrilled that we ended up with three specific dances that play an important role in the film. Two of the dance pieces were a part of the New York Day of Action held at St. Mark’s Church. Regina Ress, who organized the NYC event, describes them beautifully in the film and I strongly urge you to watch it. Briefly, one of the dances was performed and choreographed by Sonali Skandan, who has an East Indian dance company. It is about a courtesan who is trapped and longs to be free. The second dance, Ni Una Carmen Mas (“Not One More Carmen”), was performed by Ivanka Figueroa and choreographed by Gabriela Estrada who enthusiastically signed up to be a part of our Day of Action when we first announced it.
Screenshot of Sonali Skandan taken from Out of the Shadow
Screenshot of Ni Una Carmen Mas, performed by Ivanka Figueroa and choreographed by Gabriela Estrada from Out of the Shadow
Trapped is the third dance piece featured in our film and its history is very interesting. It is performed by Tiana Lovett with choreography by Lynne Wimmer. Lynne Wimmer is the co-director and editor of Out of the Shadow and a longtime friend. We have collaborated on lots of different projects. I suggested she read Leona Stucky-Abbott’s book The Fog of Faith. Leona is a board member of Healing Voices – Personal Stories, which produced the film. Leona also brought to us the idea of making a film related to how many women have died from domestic violence – nearly double the number of men who died in combat from 2001 – 2012. (6,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan while 11,700 women were murdered by intimate partners.)
Screenshot of Trapped performed by Tiana Lovett with choreography by Lynne Wimmer
In a recent email, Lynne Wimmer wrote:
Leona, your brave, blunt autobiography of your terrifying experiences was what directed me to paw through a collection of old (and I mean old – reel to reel 1 inch tapes) videotapes and discover that the first dance I’d ever choreographed had some purpose besides history. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such a talented, willing creature as Tiana. So, working on this project also sent me back into the dance studio as a choreographer for the first time in six years. I don’t know if I’ll ever venture there again, but it was a nice, short return visit to my former life.
Last year I visited Lynne and loved seeing her work with Tiana and how this very first piece she choreographed could have a wonderful place in the Day of Action or on its own. As it turned out, Lynne beautifully staged a Die-In in a church as part of a Day of Action event organized by the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Salt Lake City, and later filmed Trapped.
At some point as Lynne was editing she experimented with seeing how the Grimms’ tale “Old Rink Rank,” which Regina had told in NYC and which we had included (in a shortened version) in the interview we taped at Northern New Mexico College with filmmaker David Lindblom’s students, would work with her dance. When she shared it with me, I thought, “Wow did that work!” and so it became part of the film. Regina and Lynne are now thinking of developing this into a film of its own, and I hope they will do that. It is always very special and fun to see things come together that were not necessarily planned.
To conclude, I honor Lynne Wimmer and the amazing job she did to take a series of photos and video clips from many different groups and edit it into this film. Her artistic sensitivity, film editing skills, understanding of dance and the choreographic process took this film to a higher level than we imagined!! THANK YOU, LYNNE.
