Personal Life – Page 3

Dance and Poetry: An Elegy for Helen Tamiris

JoAnne Tucker / October 27, 2022 / Dance History, Perry-Mansfield, Personal Life, Poetry, Uncategorized

Recently I signed up for an Introduction to Poetry class. Several things motivated me. We had begun a writer’s group where I live, and I thought I would like to share poems. I have loved poetry since I was a teenager, and I have choreographed many pieces to poems.

In our very first class the teacher introduced us to the form of elegy and used Walt Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain! as an example. After going over the format and purpose of the elegy, he asked us to write one. As I reread O Captain! My Captain! I began reflecting on the experience of being in Helen Tamiris’s Dance for Walt Whitman at Perry-Mansfield during the summer of 1958. That was a defining experience in helping me realize that I wanted a career in dance, and it had provided an excellent example of how poetry can inspire a piece of choreography.

When I look back over my career as a choreographer, I realize how often I turned to poetry as the stimulus for movement. That idea had been introduced to me by Helen Tamiris, so it was no surprise that I decided to do my elegy for her and to use the structure and rhyming pattern of O Captain! My Captain! as my model.

Elegy for Helen Tamiris

By JoAnne Tucker

A frayed program, carefully saved, recalls long ago days

There is still time to remember and sing your praise

You stood, arms outstretched, framed by aspen gently swaying

Directions given, challenges accepted, our energy outpouring,

Alas, a google search

Your name barely marked

Too many years have passed

Still a desire remains in my heart.

Those of us, hold tightly onto each other,

Make a chain, rock endlessly, calling the primal mother

We cannot forget, your teaching remains within us living

We have gone forth, as a curious child goes exploring.

Tamiris, O Tamiris

Fifty years since you departed

Your legacy begins to fade

Memories linger in my heart.

A legacy of movement and poetry continues still,

New writers and dancers passionate with strong will.

So this old crone will continue to sing your praise

Encourage, mentor and celebrate all my days

To dance to the spoken verse

To follow your pioneer art

Words carefully written

Danced from the heart

Helen Tamiris at Perry-Mansfield, July 1958. Photo taken by JoAnne Tucker.

The first set of poems I choreographed was for a school program in Pittsburgh shortly after leaving Juilliard. The dancers were six high school students, and the program toured several elementary schools and won a Carnegie Award. Later I would continue to turn to poetry with the Avodah Dance Ensemble, and during my thirty years as Artist Director of that company, I created dances to a variety of different poems. The ones that stand out the most in my memory are:

I Never Saw Another Butterfly, using poems written by children in the Terezin Concentration Camp
Shema, incorporating poetry of Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi
Let My People Go, based on James Weldon Johnson’s poem of the same title
In the Garden, drawn from several poems in the collection Wine, Women and Death: Medieval Hebrew Poems on the Good Life, translated by Raymond Scheindlin
Selichot Suite, a section of which uses Denise Levertov’s poem The Thread

I end by welcoming dancers and choreographers to share what poems they have enjoyed dancing to or creating movement for. If you haven’t used poetry and movement together, I strongly encourage you to try it!

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Five, four, three, two, one!

JoAnne Tucker / August 25, 2022October 27, 2022 / Costa Rica, Personal Life

I was shopping one day in PriceSmart in Costa Rica (like a Sam’s Club or BJ’s), when I passed an aisle of workout equipment. I had passed such displays before but I had never seen a recumbent bike available. I had sold mine before we moved, and I missed it. My hips don’t do well on a regular bike. A recumbent bike actually helps my hips. I feel less pain and best of all I get a workout!! Needless to say I bought it and was lucky to have someone put it together for me. That was in late May and I have now enjoyed riding it almostevery day, having logged in 71 rides.

“Five, four, three, two, one…. Now take the speed up higher and the resistance too! Ride at a higher cadence with higher resistance for a minute! Five, four, three, two, one… OK back to a slower pace with less resistance for a minute before we go again.” These are typical instructions from the IFit trainer. The bike is designed to go with programs produced by IFit. I had a 14-day free trial and after that I didn’t hesitate to sign up to continue on a monthly basis. A fun side benefit is that not only is the coaching excellent but the rides are filmed in locations all around the world. I have done rides in Fiji, Hawaii, National US Parks, Costa Rica, Italy and Turkey!

Now why am I writing about this? Recently, a writer was in residence at my home as part of the Artist in Residence program I offer. At the end of her residency she led a writer’s workshop and gave us the prompt of writing about transitions. First she asked us to list seven transitions that we had experienced in our lives and then to select one to write about. No problem, I certainly had lots of major life transitions to write about, several of which were very recent, like moving to Costa Rica and losing my life partner of fifty-six years. But what fascinated me at that moment was the little transitions I make each day related to aging, and I found the transition from slow to fast on the bike, and then back again to slow, a good metaphor.

In the last blog I wrote about finding a model of someone who has done new things in their 80’s. That is very important for me and equally important is how to do them. What I am taking away from the writing prompt, and using the bike experience to write about, is a way to pace myself. I want to be able to enjoy new and challenging things in a safe way. The bike exercise is a strong reminder that a push, whether it is physical or mental, needs to be balanced with a time of lower energy and relaxing!

In the biking workout it has been an equal balance of pushing heavily for either a half minute or a minute and then pedaling easier for the same amount of time. I do not know quite how I will carry this over into my life but I do know it is important and something I will keep in mind!

As I get nearer my eightieth birthday, questions on how to make this a quality time of life are often on my mind. I wonder what other readers might want to share about this, whether it is turning eighty or experiences they have had at a younger age. I welcome your feedback and thoughts in the comments!

Photo taken by Manrique, who helped to put the bike together!

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Felix Fibich – Aging with Grace and a Model for “You are Never Too Old to . . . ???”

JoAnne Tucker / August 4, 2022 / Dance History, Personal Life

I knew very little about Felix Fibich when I worked with him in the Children’s Theatre production I mentioned in my last blog. It has been great fun to learn about him now and to realize that he is a good role model for me as I am nearing my 80^th birthday! In fact, it was when he was 83 that he had national visibility.

Marsha Leon describes this beautifully in an article she wrote shortly after his death in 2014 at the age of 96.

But it was in 2001, with the widely aired sidesplitting Cingular TV commercial, that Fibich got national visibility. Looking like a bald leprechaun in a black body-fitting leotard, he attempts to teach a group of 300 lb. football players how to perform plies (elegant balletic squats) and entrechats (a balletic feat that involves twice crossing your legs at the ankle in mid-air). He exhorts these gravity-bound Sumo size athletes “to strut- trut-strut like a peacock” to “walk like a camel in the desert” and “sway like a Redwood tree.” https://forward.com/schmooze/195544/remembering-felix-fibich-yiddish-choreographer-dan/

And here’s the link to watch the actual commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28xAjbdiZCM

But that is not all that Fibich accomplished in his 80’s. In an essay which was based on a February 1997 interviewconducted by Judith Brin Ingber for the Oral History Project, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, New York City), Ingber wrote:

In the 1990s, by then in his middle eighties, Fibich experienced a renaissance as both a dancer and choreographer. He performed a lead role in the musical Planet Lulu [directed by the Belgian Michel Laub]7 which toured extensively throughout Europe in 1998 and 1999; and because of his acting skills and facility with French, Yiddish, Polish and English he acted simultaneously in all those languages in the 1998 full length French feature film, XXL. His homecoming to Poland as a dancer/teacher at the famed Krakow Jewish Cultural Festival in July 1996 resulted in a Polish television special about him and requests for him to appear again in Poland. He has also taught for the last decade under the auspices of KlezKamp at their annual New York Yiddish Folk Arts Program, their master teacher for “Interpreting Jewish Dance,” as part of their “Living Tradition Meetings with Our Masters.” http://www.jbriningber.com/Fibich_Apr_18_07.pdf

I highly recommend using the link to the full essay and interview if you are interested in learning more about Fibich!

To add to Judith’s article about things Fibich did in his 80’s, there were several other theatre performances, and appearances in Law and Order on television.

In learning about Fibich’s early life, several themes became apparent! He loved Jewish culture and Yiddish theatre, where he found ways to express himself. He also was consistently challenged by changes in the world happening around him, fleeing and escaping, often leaving everything behind!

He was born in 1917 in Warsaw, Poland. He began participating in theater in the 1930’s. He grew up with Polish as his main language, so in order to audition for the theater company he wanted to join, he learned Yiddish. It was in the theater company that he met Judith Berg, who was choreographing for the company and would later become his wife.

After Poland was invaded by the Germans, Mr. Fibich and his parents were sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. In 1940, Mr. Fibich escaped and traveled to Soviet-controlled Bialystok. It was there he reconnected with Judith Berg who was working in a Yiddish revue. They toured with the troupe and were married before returning to Poland when the war was over. His parents died in the Holocaust.

Once back in Poland, Fibich and Berg developed a dance program for orphaned children, before fleeing again — this time to Paris in 1949 when the Communists took over Poland. A year later they came to America where they toured, taught and choreographed, becoming an important part of Yiddish Theater in the U.S. over the next several decades.

In Daniel Lewis’ book A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance, Danny describes working with Felix beginning when he was in High School in 1961. He continued working for him until 1967, both in the actual Yiddish Theater on the Lower East Side and also in classical concert performances as part of the Fibich Dance Company. Danny relates how Felix always went to the High School of Performing Arts and Juilliard to find and recruit dancers. Danny goes on to say that Fibich had a huge effect on many young dancers and actors, giving them employment and a salary in the early part of their careers.

It is indeed fun to see how one thing can lead to another. An email letting me know that the National Dance Education Association was doing a panel discussion on Jewish contributions to dance in the United States led me to hear Danny Lewis speak about Felix Fibich. Not only did it bring back recollections of time spent in a Children’s Theatre production but it led me to do research about him. I have a lot of respect for how Fibich conducted his life, and he is now a role model for me, reminding me of all the possibilities in the coming years! Thank you, Danny, for your presentation and your book, and thank you Felix Fibich for your passion and determination!

Felix Fibich being lifted by a football player in the Commercial he made for the Super Bowl!

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A Performing Experience Long Forgotten is Remembered!!

JoAnne Tucker / July 9, 2022 / Dance History, Personal Life

When I saw that the National Dance Education Organization was having a panel discussion entitled “Celebrating Jewish American Contributions to the Field of Dance,” I marked the date (May 24th) on my calendar to make sure to zoom in! I missed the actual time, but it was recorded, so I watched a day later. I was half listening when one of the panel members, Danny Lewis, mentioned being a part of the Yiddish Theatre and said how much he enjoyed working with Felix Fibich! Wow… I had worked with Fibich too and hadn’t thought about that experience in years!

In the fall of 1961, a friend from Juilliard, Margaret Gettleman, recommended me to Fibich because she was participating in a children’s theatre production he was choreographing, and he needed another dancer. That’s how I became a wood sprite named Yok Tan in the Jewish Theatre for Children’s production of “To Wake the King.” Each Sunday from November to April we performed for a large audience of nearly 1,000 children between the ages of 8 to 14 at a theater on the Upper East Side.

The Jewish Theatre for Children was founded and directed by Samuel J. Citron. I have a vague memory of his role as director of “To Wake the King” and found it interesting to Google and learn a little bit about him. Born in Poland in 1908, he immigrated to the United States when he was thirteen. He became a lawyer in New York and then earned a Hebrew Teacher’s License and transitioned into Jewish Education full time. Employed by the Jewish Education Committee, he directed its School Dramatics Department and was chair of the Audio-Visual Materials Committee. For twenty years the theatre he founded presented programs for children each Sunday. He was also often the author of the plays, as was the case with “To Wake the King” which was based on an old legend that says King David is really not dead but asleep in a cave!

I must admit I don’t remember much about Felix Fibich’s choreography other than an emphasis on how we used our arms and hands as wood sprites, and I think some of it might have been improvised. I do remember it was great fun to put on the makeup and costume each Sunday and to receive payment for the performance! I seem to remember that we received $25 for each performance. That was pretty good considering it was 1961-62. We also received reviews in New York City papers.

Photo from my scrapbook taken by the photographer of the Jewish Theatre for Children, November 1961. Can you find me in the picture??

In my next blog I will share more about Felix Fibich. Danny’s presentation as part of the panel “Celebrating Jewish Americans Contributions to the Field of Dance” is motivation to learn more about the person I worked with 60 years ago.

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Beyond Van Gogh: How It Was Created

JoAnne Tucker / June 19, 2022 / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

About a month ago I saw a sponsored post on Facebook that Beyond Van Gogh would be here in Costa Rica, and I immediately made plans to attend. I was delighted for several reasons. First of all, since moving to Costa Rica at the beginning of 2020 I had not been to a cultural event here, in large part due to COVID. Now things were opening up. I also have always been a fan of Van Gogh and the period in which he painted. And third, I had seen some favorable posts of friends of mine in the US who had gone to the exhibit. Here it was in Costa Rica, and I definitely wanted to go. It was scheduled to be held in a large convention center that was about 45 minutes away so it was definitely doable. Tickets were already selling and some weekend dates were already sold out. I made arrangements to go during a weekday with two friends.

Tickets were spaced 15 minutes apart and we got there a little early and had fun taking some pictures outside.

Outside Beyond Van Gogh. Photo taken by my friend.

Soon it was time for us to enter, and I loved the experience from the moment we officially entered. Slowly we walked through a path filled with quotes exchanged between Van Gogh and his brother Theo, giving us information about Van Gogh’s life. We zigzagged along the quotes separated by empty picture frames and it definitely was setting a mood.

Photo I took of one of the panels. I love that the quotes were in both Spanish and English, as it gives me a good opportunity to practice my Spanish. I took lots of pictures so I would have lots of quotes to practice.

I knew some things about Van Gogh’s life from reading Irving Stone’s book Lust for Life, published in 1934 and based on the letters between the two brothers. And I also was aware of how many people have been fascinated with Van Gogh’s life. The movie Lust for Life starring Kirk Douglas, based on Stone’s book, was released in 1957. It won Douglas a Golden Globe for Best Actor as well as an Oscar nomination for his role as Van Gogh. Anthony Quinn, who played his friend Paul Gauguin, received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. That is not the only movie about Van Gogh. In a blog posted by Molli in Discover Walks Blog, she shares four other worthwhile films about Van Gogh: Vincent and Theo (1990); The Eyes of Vincent (2005) about his time in a mental asylum; Loving Vincent (2017), an Oscar nominated film which features a lot of animation and raised the idea that his death was an accident and not suicide; and At Eternity’s Gate (2018) which looks at the final years of his life. Here’s the link where you can learn more and see some trailers of the films.

https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/paris/the-5-best-movies-about-vincent-van-gogh/

Clearly Vincent Van Gogh’s life and work have fascinated and served as inspiration for many other people in their artistic expression, including the creators of Beyond Van Gogh.

Now back to our experience at the exhibit. Following the space filled with quotes, we wandered into a dark space with a bit of animation and two black boxes which turned out to be the entrance into the main room. It was a bit disorienting until we realized the black boxes were actually the entrance. We must have stood there for several minutes with quite a few other people until someone walked through the boxes and then of course we all followed and were treated to a very spacious room filled with animation on the walls, floors and panels that were placed in central areas. Animation inspired by Starry Night paintings filled the space and then shifted into a number of Van Gogh’s self-portraits. For the next 35 minutes we were dazzled with over 300 hundred of his paintings appropriately grouped. As a choreographer I was fascinated by the movement and energy that was created, as well as the unique way one set of images transitioned into another. Sometimes the walls faded and new images appeared… other times it was like a large wave swept through the room.

Some people sat on the floor, others stood in place or wandered around, and some of us were able to sit on the few benches or beanbag-like chairs. I was pleased to see how many young people attended. Lots of Ticos in their twenties, thirties and forties. We found two beanbag chairs to sit on and our third person sat on the floor. We stayed there totally fascinated and in wonderment at the way Van Gogh’s images were being presented until the program began to repeat. Then as we stood and began walking we realized that the experience was a bit different in each place and so we stayed for nearly the full next set moving about the large room!

Photo I took shortly after entering the large room.

It was indeed an immersion into a world creatively inspired by Van Gogh’s painting and as the title suggested,beyond just the images. It was very different than going to an exhibition of his actual paintings in a museum, which itself is an outstanding experience. For me it was a different kind of creative adventure inspired by his work — animation (inspired by an artist) with its unique timing, spacing and invitation to step into a new dimension. I knew that as soon as I got home I wanted to learn about the people who created it!

A quick Google search led me to all the information I wanted to know. Beyond Van Gogh was created by Mathieu St-Arnaud and his team at the Normal Studio. St-Arnaud and a partner founded Normal Studio in 2009, and a trip to the website provided lots more information. The home page describes their mission to “transform urban spaces into full-on immersive experiences…. 360 projection and architectural mapping, we spark wonder into people’s everyday lives.” They are a multi-disciplinary team of 30 professionals combining creativity and tech.

They describe their aim in creating Beyond Van Gogh:

Expanding Vincent’s universe to a sharable and lively 360 projection environment requires a different way of thinking, like Vincent himself. While certain paintings are presented in all their simplicity, others have been enhanced, expanded, enlarged and juxtaposed in order to fill the space with life, texture and colour. (https://normal.studio/en/)

Other projects include: another artist-inspired project – Beyond Monet; a corporate creation for a Toyota Dealer Meeting; the set for La Traviata for the Icelandic Opera; and a stage production of Diary of Anne Frank created by Lorraine Pintal for a theatre in Montreal.

Of course it is still very meaningful for me to have the “classic” experience of seeing the original paintings in the museum setting, but I also adore and am inspired by the blending of the classical with the latest technology. Thank you, Normal Studio, for creating a wonderful experience, and I joyfully celebrate being able to see it here in Costa Rica with two delightful friends!!

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Casa Uno – Labyrinth Number 26 – Camino del Artista (Part 3)

JoAnne Tucker / May 2, 2022 / Costa Rica, Personal Life

With the design created for the Labyrinth, it was now time to focus on the building process. The first step was to trace the pattern on the ground. We had already decided that the path would be outlined with red bricks, so the same day that the tracing happened, the red bricks were delivered! A team of three men came to help with the tracing and moving of the bricks. Ronald Esquivel, the designer, was here for the tracing and supervised work for the next two days. The rest of the week the men were here on their own working a full day to place each brick where it needed to be and to regularly check the measurements. Slowly I could see the path developing. I regularly took pictures of the process.

Part of the completed Labyrinth as it winds its way through the garden.

In the next blog I’ll share the opening celebration and thoughts on regularly walking the labyrinth.

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Casa Uno – Labyrinth Number 26 – Camino del Artista (Part 2)

JoAnne Tucker / April 26, 2022May 2, 2022 / Art, Arts in Education, Costa Rica, Personal Life

Knowing I wanted a labyrinth in my garden, I Googled “Costa Rica Labyrinths” to see if I might get some help in creating one at my home in Atenas, Costa Rica. I was surprised when the search generated a lot of information. The very first link was totally fascinating. “Costa Rica is home to the World’s Largest Labyrinth.” It’s called La Senda and it is located about a four- to five-hour drive from where I live. There is a website all about it and several articles online about how it was created. (https://lasendacostarica.com/en/). If you are interested in knowing more about it, please check out the website, and do a Google search for additional articles. Among the names associated with this labyrinth is Ronald Esquivel, who was contacted to design the labyrinth related to two energy vortexes. Ronald is a Costa Rican architect who specializes in sacred geometry and labyrinth design.

So, of course, my next Google search was “Ronald Esquivel” and again I was rewarded with lots of information both about him and about the different labyrinths that he has designed. Instead of the usual circular ones that I was familiar with, his designs were totally different, and each one unique. He has built labyrinths for public parks, universities, a prison, a children’s hospital, a yoga center and private homes. There was also a lot of information on YouTube where his channel has over 69 videos, many of them examples of the different labyrinths he has created. I was totally fascinated. He was a keynote speaker at the 2009 Labyrinth Society Gathering in Portland, Oregon as well as a speaker for the Society again in 2020 when he was interviewed in a program called “Creating Balance in Unbalanced Times.” I listened to the interview and read his kindle book Labyrinth Design and The Energy of its Geometry. When I found an email address for him online, I decided to send him an email and see if he helped private homeowners like myself create labyrinths for their gardens.

I was delighted when I got a response the next day, and a few emails followed. We set up a time for him to come and visit the garden and to make some suggestions. After reading his book, and in particular an article that he and Jan Hurwitch wrote in 2013, I knew that he creates different designs unique to the environment he is working in. For example, at the time of this article he had created 14 labyrinths including a Wisdom Labyrinth, a Growth Labyrinth, and a 4 Element Series. For more information I suggest reading the article. http://gaiacr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Labyrinths-of-Costa-Rica.pdf

In my mind I was beginning to think about a labyrinth here as part of the Artist Retreats I was thinking of offering on my property in Costa Rica! When Ronald arrived, I felt an immediate connection to him as we walked the garden. He asked questions and I shared how I envisioned using the labyrinth for both myself and for guests at the Artist Retreats. Soon we were talking about the creative process and how the labyrinth might represent different stages of the creative journey. I also talked about how important the diagonal line was to me as a choreographer and in my paintings! Over the next few weeks, we continued emailing and discussing the different stages of creating something, whether it is a dance, a painting or a musical composition.

Another visit followed, during which Ronald took careful measurements of the garden, and I finalized my decision that he would design the labyrinth and we would use his team to chalk it and create it! We also determined that the borders of the path would be red brick, and when the work would begin.

The next step involved Ronald submitting the design for my approval and asking if I wanted any changes. I loved it and we had fun following the design and envisioning how it would be on the property.

Design of the Labyrinth: “Camino del Artista” by Ronald Esquivel

Ronald also showed me where each of the physical places of the creative journey we had agreed on would be located.

The stages we had determined were:

First you must show up!! – that’s the beginning point, from which the two diagonal lines go out, and where you walk to enter the labyrinth.
Then one tends to go inward to see what it is one wants to create. That’s a place in a corner which is very private and somewhat hidden.
Next step is gathering all the tools and research one needs to make the vision happen. That is represented by the curves and twists in the labyrinth as one moves from one side of the garden to the other.
There is a point where one looks outward… and begins to share, and this is represented by a corner where one can view the mountains in the distance.
And of course, there is the center which the path reaches. I view that as the first draft!
The return journey is all the editing that one does to complete a project.

Ronald’s friend and co-author of the 2013 article, Jan Hurwitch, joined him as we reviewed the draft and she brought with her 5 crystals that would be buried on the path, representing different relevant emotions. They are:

A black Onyx to repel negativity
Aquamarine for courage
An Orange Agate to reduce stress
Crystal Quartz for healing and spirituality
Rose Quartz for love and compassion, particularly starting with oneself.

The crystals will be buried once the labyrinth is completed, at the inaugural ceremony.

Coming next will be Part 3 – Building the Labyrinth!!

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Casa Uno – Labyrinth Number 26 – Camino del Artista (Part 1)

JoAnne Tucker / April 11, 2022May 2, 2022 / Costa Rica, Dance Programs in Prison, Personal Life

One morning following my meditation I looked out at the garden and thought, “What this property needs is a labyrinth,” or laberinto in Spanish. Hum…I wondered if there were many in Costa Rica and how I might go about having one here. So of course I Googled “labyrinth, Costa Rica” and yes a lot of links came up. It would be possible. First let me back up a bit and share how my interest in labyrinths began.

While I knew about the difference between a labyrinth and a maze I can’t remember if I had ever walked one before 2012. Just a reminder, a maze, often made with hedges or walls, is a convoluted path that the walker needs to solve, leading to a goal. In contrast, a labyrinth doesn’t have a hedge or wall but rather a defined path on the ground that twists and turns and eventually leads the walker into the center. The following description is from the Labyrinth Society:

A labyrinth is a meandering path, often unicursal, with a singular path leading to a center. Labyrinths are an ancient archetype dating back 4,000 years or more, used symbolically, as a walking meditation, choreographed dance, or site of rituals and ceremony, among other things. Labyrinths are tools for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation. (https://labyrinthsociety.org/about-labyrinths)

My real interest in how the labyrinth could be a tool for meditation and growth didn’t happen until I was volunteering in a meditation and movement program with Aine McCarthy in the Santa Fe County Women’s Detention Center beginning in 2012. Aine was in the chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center and we had met at a retreat. During a breakfast at the end of the retreat we learned that two dancers had stayed at her house when the Avodah Dance Ensemble had spent a week in residence at York Correctional Institution. (See blog https://wp.me/p9Mj5D-gM) Aine was then a teenager… now over 10 years later here we were sitting across from each other at a breakfast table at Upaya. When Aine shared that she was in the chaplaincy program I asked what she wanted to do as a chaplain, and she said she wanted to work possibly as a chaplain in the correction field and was planning to do a project in the Santa Fe County Jail. She then asked, much to my surprise, if I might be interested in joining her and suggested we could develop a movement and meditation program for the women in the jail. I thought, “Why not!” And so we began working together.

We did the training program to become volunteers in the jail and developed a curriculum for guiding the women in an hour-and-a-half session once a week. Working in a jail is very different than the previous work I had done in a prison. First of all there is a much greater level of anxiety, as the women don’t know how long they will be there. Maybe they will soon be out on bail. When will they get a court date? What kind of sentence will they get? They may also be dealing with coming down from drugs or regular alcohol use. So the tension and stress level is very high.

We designed sessions integrating movement, meditation and writing. Soon we were leading sessions and each one was totally different and unique. Sometimes we just had 2 people and other times a crowded room of 7 or 8. Our space was small and so we began by moving the tables to the side and started with movement activities. Worksheets with quotes related to the session’s themes were shared and a writing or discussion prompt followed. Each session ended with the women meditating and then tracing by pencil a paper labyrinth. Here’s a link to where you can download and print out several to trace with a pencil. https://www.relax4life.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/papersimplechartres-.pdf

The Santa Fe County Detention Center has a yard where the women can spend some time outside each day. Aine and I thought it would be quite wonderful if we could paint a labyrinth on the floor so the women might have an actual experience of walking it. Again there were lots of hoops to jump through but finally we were able to do that. Several women who had been regular participants were able to join us and it was an excellent event with Aine guiding us inmeasuring and then painting the lines.

Aine measuring the distance between lines for the labyrinth.

When Aine and I began working with women in a domestic violence center we again used ideas from the curriculum we had developed for the jail program. And then when I made a film called Through the Door: Movement, Meditation and Healing, we filmed a session of the women from the Esperanza Shelter walking the labyrinth at Upaya Zen Center. Aine had spearheaded the project to get that labyrinth built.

Screen shot from *Through the Door: Movement, Meditation and Healing*

In the next blog I’ll share what I found out when I Googled “labyrinth in Costa Rica.”

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Dancing with the Penguins

JoAnne Tucker / March 18, 2022March 18, 2022 / Personal Life

Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration! I love the scene in Mary Poppins where Dick Van Dyke dances with four cartoon penguins. And no, Murray and I did not become transformed into Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, but what we did do was go to an island where we could walk with and near the penguins. A limited number of people each day are allowed to enter the island and walk within a few feet of the penguins.

We left Ushuaia, the southern most point in Argentina, by a minivan of 12–15 people, and after an hour or two of driving east along a scenic highway we came to Estancia Harberton where we had a bathroom option before we boarded a small zodiac-type boat to Martillo Island for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I knew that we would see penguins but I had no idea how many, or that we would literally be waddling right beside them.

After getting off the boat on a sandy and pebbly beach we were greeted by mainly Magellanic penguins. From September to April this is their home and there are over 1000 nests. There are also a few Gentoo Penguins who nest there. Much to my surprise they did not move away from us but basically welcomed us as a natural part of their environment.

For an hour Murray and I quietly wandered among the penguins, mostly in silence, photographing and observing. Later I would return home and make pastel paintings from several of Murray’s photographs.

Arriving on Martillo island. Photo by Murray Tucker

Two penguins along our walk. Photo by Murray Tucker

A pastel painting that I did several months later based on one of Murray’s photos.

On our return to Estancia Harberton we had time to wander the gardens and old buildings and enjoy lunch at the restaurant. Murray was fascinated by this bent-over tree.

Three other excursions stand out: a visit to the national park, a cruise on the Beagle Channel and a ride up the ski lift close to town.

Getting to the National Park was an easy bus ride of just a few kilometers going west of town. The park entrance is at the end of the National Highway and the other side of the park is the border with Chile. We had a delightful walk along the main trail in a forest of beech and evergreen. The trail borders the water and there are side trails which take you down to the water. We enjoyed seeing the various waterfowl that were along the water’s edge.

Murray took this picture of me at the entrance to the park.

On another day we took the ski tow up to an alpine area and enjoyed wandering around and getting a different sight of the town below and the mountains above. We walked back to town.

Finding the path to begin our walk back to town. Photo taken by Murray

And of course, no trip to Ushuaia would be complete without a cruise around the Beagle Channel. This is a favorite picture of Murray and me aboard the boat and then another of the sea lions we passed by.

A close-up taken by Murray during the cruise on the Beagle Channel.

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Argentina – Spanish School for Murray and Painting for JoAnne – Part I

JoAnne Tucker / February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 / Personal Life

The 10 weeks we spent in Argentina during the winter of 2006 were filled with different unique experiences somewhat representative of the natural diversity of the country that extends from a subtropical north to a sub-Antarctic south. Considering that Argentina is the 8^th largest country in the world, we were able to enjoy and explore the country a lot by flying from place to place. We found in our early research that if we flew into Buenos Aires internationally on Argentina’s national airline, Aerolineas, then there were discounted fares for flying between places within the country. From our homebase in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, it wasn’t easy to connect to Aerolineas in the US so we flew to Santiago, Chile, I think on Delta. We didn’t have to go through immigration and easily connected to an Aerolineas flight into Buenos Aires. Now we qualified for the discounted fares which made a significant difference in cost and time so we could see more of Argentina!

Our trip was framed by a few days in Buenos Aires at both the beginning and the end. We loved wandering the streets, sampling the excellent food, attending a tango show and visiting Eva Peron’s grave. While it was lots of fun it wasn’t very different from the excellent experiences we had had visiting other major cities.

Picture taken by Murray when we visited the cemetery.

What was very unique was the month we spent in Ushuaia. Ushuaia is sometimes referred to as the “end of the world” as it is located at the southernmost tip of Argentina. It is the “gateway” for Antarctica cruises. It is located on the Beagle Channel with the Martial Mountains behind. I have very vivid memories of seeing both the Beagle Channel and the mountains behind as our plane landed at the airport.

We had a wonderful hostess for the month. She was a retired teacher who earned extra income by hosting students studying at the Spanish school. A comfortable room, a good breakfast and dinner, and a drive to the school located up on a hill made it easy for us to quickly settle in. While Murray was in school in the morning I would usually set up somewhere close by on the sidewalk and just enjoy painting. I got very comfortable with people looking over my shoulder but conversations were limited as I had so little Spanish, and that suited me very well. Among my favorite paintings done on the street were paintings of the mountain peaks, the huge lupine flowers and the view into the channel.

View of the Beagle Channel. Pastel Painting by JoAnne Tucker.

Pastel painting of lupine flowers by JoAnne.

Mountain peaks with snow and clouds. The days were often cloudy and grey yet still very beautiful. Pastel painting by JoAnne.

Following our mornings in school we would wander down the hill and find a cozy restaurant for lunch. Sometimes we were joined by some of the students at the school. I remember one lunch at an informal pizza place with a couple in their 30’s from Germany. They were taking a half year off to begin a bike trip from Argentina to Alaska and decided to begin by reviewing their Spanish. Murray and I were both surprised and thrilled to hear about their plans and the trip. What an amazing, ambitious undertaking. We learned that others had actually done the trip and that they were going to do it in stages. We did follow their blog at first and know that they made it the length of Argentina riding their bikes. A quick Google search couldn’t find anything about their trip but I did find some blogs of people that actually completed the trip and I include them here for your reference.

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/theredbulletin/michael-strasser-ice2ice-pan-american-highway-ride-stats

http://www.scc2ush.com

https://3boondogglers.com/20-questions-pan-american-bicycle-tour/

After lunch we would sightsee downtown and walk along the harbor until we got to the street where we lived and then follow it, arriving home in time to relax before dinner.

We did have a few dinners out. One related to the Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Seahawks on Sunday night, February 5, 2006. Murray and I had both grown up in Pittsburgh and Murray’s dad was Joe Tucker, the very first sports announcer for the Steelers. He began broadcasting on radio in 1936 and his last game was on television in 1968. Murray never missed a game and usually I was right there with him so it was only natural that we would find a place in Ushuaia to watch the Super Bowl. The week before, we visited several places that had TV’s and sport events on and did find one place that promised that they could get the game and we could have dinner and watch it there. We did and it was great fun to see the Steelers win, 21 -10 over the Seahawks.

Our other very memorable dinner out was at an elegant restaurant that prepared a five-course meal, each course served with a special wine. Our hostess told us that whenever a major cruise ship was in town, the captain of the ship usually dined there. It lived up to its reputation.

Picture taken by Murray when we arrived in Ushuaia. It was either taken during a cruise on the Beagle Channel or from the airport right after we arrived.

Picture taken by Murray of a typical lupine garden in Ushuaia

The next blog will share some of the special sightseeing that we did while in Ushuaia.

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