New York Company - Mostly Dance

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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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.