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.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might have noticed that I haven’t been writing as much as usual. The last two blogs were a review of a book, and they took a lot longer to write than other blogs. The second reason is that I have been doing a lot of dancing in the kitchen! Chopping, sauteing, spinning around and chopping some more. The chopping seems to go on and on forever. The reason behind this is I am now eating a totally plant-based diet.
Here are some bowls of chopped veggies and beans ready for an eggplant recipe.
In March I noticed some swelling in my ankles, and I decided to do some research on the best way to eat in order to keep my health good and strong. Everything I read led me to a vegan way of eating. I did that for about a month with some help from an English-speaking general nutritionist here in Costa Rica, who had only some idea of what a good vegan diet is. I decided to get my blood tested. I wasn’t pleased with the results and soon began to realize I was eating too many processed vegan products. So I searched for a doctor either here in Costa Rica or online who could help me with the proper way to go on a vegan diet.
Much to my delight I found an excellent doctor, Dr. Miranda Graham, who calls herself a VeganMD and lives less than an hour from my house. I have learned so much from her. My first visit was in person. She suggested using Cronometer, which is a website for a computer (or there is an app for the phone). I am under her account, where I log in, and she monitors what I am eating and makes suggestions. There is a free version one can use on their own. It has been very helpful. For example, I love it when she says my Vitamin A is too low, so make sure I add some carrots to my daily diet. I am now at the point where I can look at my food page and see the kind of foods I need to add in my diet for dinner to make sure I am getting all the nutrients that I need for the day.
The result is that my blood work has improved, I have more energy and I weigh less. I don’t think of this as a diet. Rather I think of this as my new lifestyle. I am enjoying finding new recipes and trying different foods. There are so many wonderful resources on the Internet. My favorites are https://foodrevolution.org, https://www.drfuhrman.com, and https://www.forksoverknives.com.
Living in Costa Rica makes plant based eating easy, as there are always lots of fresh fruits and vegetables available. Each Thursday I enjoy going to the Feria (Farmer’s Market), and as a regular, I always get a friendly greeting from the various vendors.
Shopping at the Feria del Agricultor de Atenas. Photo by ManriqueHere I am, with energy and a slimmer look, leading some guests on a walk on the labyrinth. Photo by Ed Needham
I never would have imagined that I would get to see the Ballet Nacional de Cuba here in Costa Rica, but I did, and what a delight, for several reasons. First, going to theatre and ballet is what I miss most in my life here. When I saw a sign advertising the Ballet Nacional de Cuba for two performances here, I knew that I wanted to go. Second, there were some unexpected surprises in the repertory and third, it was a fun evening, providing a chance to experience a different side of life in Costa Rica.
Checking online, I was able to find that the repertory the company would be doing here was a mix of classical — which they are well known for — and some new pieces which looked intriguing. There was even a YouTube video of one of the new pieces, and after watching it I knew for sure I wanted to get tickets. I asked a friend who I thought might be interested, and sure enough she was and even offered to drive. Since I knew I would be having a guest at my house on the date of the performance, I also asked if she wanted to go. She did, and so I went online and bought three tickets in what we would call the mezzanine. The tickets were appropriately priced but the service charge for buying them online was outrageous. Alas, there was no other way to buy them, and you are not told about the service charge until after you have paid and see the separate amount on your credit card.
We did a bit of research on possible parking lots and decided we also wanted to have something to eat before attending the 5 PM performance. With the help of Google Maps we made it into the area and were immediately impressed by the stature of the theater – and this wasn’t even the National Theatre. The Melico Salazar Theatre is built in the European Baroque style. Originally called the Raventos Theater, the building was completed in 1928. Various restorations were done over the years, and in the mid-1980’s the government bought the theatre. By law it became a “cultural institution especializada” of the Costa Rican State. In 1986 it was renamed to honor the famous Costa Rican tenor Manuel “Melico” Salazar.
We drove around the area, but no parking lots were open, even though some had indicated they would be open for theatre performances. So we pulled up in front of the theatre to ask where to park. There were several cones blocking the direct entrance but a gentleman, clearly part of the theater staff, moved the cones. When we asked where to park, he said that for 5,000 colones (around $9), right where we were. We were thrilled and my friend Cynthia, who had driven and who speaks perfect Spanish, had a fun conversation with Hugo. And to make things even easier for us, the theatre has a lovely Café Raventos with a menu that worked perfectly.
Following a wonderfully relaxing late lunch, we entered the theater. I felt my usual excitement at attending dance and theater events. The theater definitely had a feeling of grandeur, and we found our seats. As the theater filled, it became clear that even though we were in the 4th row of the mezzanine the slope wasn’t steep enough for us to have a clear view. Luckily there were empty seats behind us and even one on the aisle in front. So we each were able to get a good view of the entire stage.
The first half of the program was my favorite. It opened with The Shape of Red, a recent addition to the repertory, by choreographer Ely Regina Hernandez. While I found an interview online where she talks about the piece, I was unable to find her bio. There were no printed programs. With a QR code I was able to download the program, but it contained no bios, and dancers who perform main roles in pieces are not named. The choreography incorporated a lot of modern dance moves typical of choreography in the mid-20th century, and then suddenly there was a pointe solo added in. That was a bit surprising, but as a whole the piece’s theatrical portrayal of the color red was very satisfying, including the ending where the lead character grabs hanging fabric and is lifted into the air. If you are interested in watching the piece, it is available on YouTube, and here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxGkxIfHH2A&t=745s
My overall favorite piece was La Muerte de un Cisne, (The Dying Swan). Choreographed by Michel Descombey (1930-2011), it opened with the roaring sound of wind blowing, and what a surprise for me to see that the Dying Swan was a male dancer in bare feet. This was clearly going to be a different version than the original one created by Michael Fokine for Anna Pavlova in 1905. Descombey’s choreography worked with some very interesting and original dance phrases and it was beautifully performed! Alas there was no information about Descombey on the Ballet Nacional de Cuba’s website nor do I have any information about the dancer. The audience loved the work, and the performer received lots of bravos. From some research online I learned that Descombey was a French ballet dancer, choreographer and director. Most of his career was in France but the last part of his career was in Mexico. There is a video of La Muertede un Cisne on YouTube. Here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RphILIjOL0
The dancer in Ballet Nacional de Cuba caught the fragile quality much better than the performer in the link.
The other piece that that I really liked in the first half was Tres Preludes by Ben Stevenson. A trio, it was beautifully danced by two men and a woman. It had a simple quality to it, cleanly and playfully performed.
The rest of the program was what I had expected to see — well-trained dancers performing classical material, some of it credited to Alicia Alonso’s variation, such as the duet from Swan Lake.
The company is much loved in Cuba and the final curtain call showed that they are used to much adoration. The Costa Rican audience was generous with its applause, but I got the feeling that the company is used to more.
It was a very special evening and a real treat to see a fine company here. I hope there will be other opportunities!
We were allowed to take photos, as long as we didn’t use a flash. I enjoyed photographing the final curtain calls; here is the male dancer of the Dying Swan taking his solo bow.
Nine months ago, I had never heard of the word “Ekphrastic.” In an Introduction to Poetry class that I took last fall, I learned that the word means “description” in Greek. According to The Poetry Foundation:
An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning. A notable example is Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ekphrasis
We were assigned to write an ekphrastic poem, and I had fun writing mine inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s Abstract White Rose, 1927. Here’s a link where you can see the painting: https://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/abstraction-white-rose.jsp
A Single White Rose
Petals curling and blending
Into each other. Unclear
Where one begins
And the other ends.
Grays become white
And white becomes grays
With a touch of yellow
Or maybe lavender or blue.
Circling into the center
And then back out again.
Like breathing in and
Catching one’s breath
And breathing out again.
Curving, circling, catching,
Breathing, weeping, centering,
A single white rose
Awakens a sadness
Deep within.
A second poetry course followed, led by Pam Wax, and later I showed her this poem and appreciated her feedback, which helped me to edit the poem to the version I just shared. Pam also talked about ekphrastic poetry and told us about Rattle, an online website with the mission of promoting the practice of poetry. Each month Rattle has an Ekphrastic Challenge where they share a piece of artwork and invite poets to submit poems inspired by the visual image. The artist whose artwork is featured gets to select a favorite poem, as does the editor, Timothy Green. I was fascinated and enjoyed exploring the website, seeing different artwork and the winning responses. As I continued exploring, I came across a request for artists to submit artwork for the Ekphrastic Challenge. Twelve pieces would be selected for the coming year.
Soon I was browsing through digital images of my artwork and came up with five pieces I thought might inspire poems. What a delight to get an email a few weeks later that The Kitchen Goddess had been selected for the February challenge.
In mid-March I received an email from Tim with an attachment that had 25 poems for me to select from. While 455 poems had been submitted, Tim had chosen just 25 for me to read. I read and reread the twenty-five submissions, and clearly one kept standing out to me. Before making my final decision, I went back and read them all again to see if I would change my mind. Here is what I wrote about my experience and the poem I selected, The Rebirth of Venus by Luisa Giulianetti:
I was delighted and surprised at the range of emotions and different journeys that were expressed in the poems which I reviewed. The pastel painting was part of a show calling for work on the theme of the kitchen goddess. I approached the painting from a whimsical point of view placing a dancer in a frying pan. The poem that I have selected captures the playfulness of the painting. It is called The Rebirth of Venus and the opening lines refer back to the painting Birth of Venus by Botticelli. I have fond memories of seeing that painting when I visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. I laughed with delight with the phrase ‘found new digs.’ While the Botticelli painting was not on my mind when I created my kitchen goddess, the reference shows how two paintings inspired the poem, and I love that. In the poem, the poet has the dancing goddess opening a scallop and of course the original Venus is standing in a scallop shell. In addition, the poet also captured so well the feeling of the dancer in the kitchen ‘reigning supreme.’
Mostly Dance’s editor, Kezia Gleckman Hayman, was with me when I saw the painting Birth of Venus. We had spent time in Italy setting some of Avodah Dance Ensemble’s repertory on local dancers for a Jewish Film Festival. When our work was done we had a few fun-filled days sightseeing in Florence. Kezia reminded me that we were so fascinated with the painting that we went back to view it a second time. Here’s a link to see the Birth of Venus:https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/birth-of-venus
I was curious which poem the editor would choose, and I had to wait almost a week until it was published also as a poem of the day on March 30, 2023. He chose Joy by Melissa Madenski.
Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “The best ekphrastic poems expand on their source image, pushing the experience in a new direction. Joy does that by finding all-too real grounding for the rich symbolism of JoAnne Tucker’s painting. Rather than describe the woman dancing in the frying pan, the poem describes the emotion she represents—and through the otherwise unrelated metaphor of the train. As a result, the poem enriches the painting while the painting enriches the poem, as if the two pieces of art were bound in their own dance together, exploring the complex transition from the darkness of grief back to the brightness of joy.”
I was fascinated by his selection and that he focused on the emotion my Kitchen Goddess represented.
I encourage Mostly Dance readers to follow the link to the poems and not only to read them but to hear the poet read them. It adds another dimension. I am most grateful to Timothy Green for selecting The Kitchen Goddess for the February Ekphrastic Challenge, as it was fun, and an excellent learning experience. I look forward to following the Ekphrastic Challenges each month and reading the selected poems. I might even get brave enough to write a poem and submit it.
I have always been fascinated with the short poetic form of Haiku and how much meaning can be put into just 17 syllables. During the pandemic I took a weekend Haiku workshop at Upaya Zen Center via Zoom. I had fun exploring the form and enjoyed reading Natalie Goldberg’s Three Simple Lines. However, it wasn’t until we began the Atenas Writers’ Group in Costa Rica that I was motivated to write Haiku on a regular basis. At the same time, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review was offering a six-week online Haiku course, “Learn to Write Haiku: Mastering the Ancient Art of Serious Play,” taught by Clark Strand. I quickly signed up. Most sessions were prerecorded but a few were live sessions where we could ask questions. Clark encouraged us to have a daily practice and to write lots each day! What a great opportunity to learn from Clark, as he is totally dedicated to Haiku, with a big commitment to write Haiku himself, translate classical and contemporary Japanese Haiku and to encourage others to write Haiku. Here is the bio that Tricycle has online:
Clark Strand is a former senior editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. His books include Seeds From a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey and The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, which was co-authored with his wife, Perdita Finn. He teaches the popular group “Weekly Haiku Challenges with Clark Strand” on Facebook and leads Tricycle’s monthly haiku challenge, as well as the Tricycle Haiku Challenge Facebook group. (From Tricyle.org ‘s website)
The medium of watercolor has always both challenged and fascinated me so I decided I would choose the best Haikus that I wrote each week and do small watercolor paintings including the text in the painting. Since mid-August I have completed 35 painted Haiku ranging in size from 6” x 8” to 9” x 12”.
I also made the decision that the Haiku had to be inspired by what I saw in my own backyard. Living in Costa Rica, that’s not a problem. My husband used to say that we were living in our own National Park. In Clark’s course we were not only to follow the form of 3 lines with 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the last, but also to include a seasonal word. I decided to follow the traditional style as much as I could, including a seasonal word as it related to Costa Rica. I also thoroughly enjoyed the different samples of classical Haiku that we were exposed to.
It has been great fun to do this practice, and I have been quite consistent until recently, when I started writing prose to share with the Writers’ Group. I look forward to getting back to my Haiku/watercolor practice on a regular basis. Meanwhile, here are eight favorites. To see more, visit my Facebook page – JoAnne Tucker Art – where you can see all 35.
Some memories stay vividly with you even after 67 years. The memory of my first visit to Jacob’s Pillow in 1956 is such a memory.
I was attending Belgian Village Camp located in Cummington, MA. While I was only thirteen, a close friend of my Mom’s knew of my strong interest in teaching dance. She had a good friend who ran the camp and contacted her, sharing my interest. I was given a scholarship with the understanding that I would teach the younger kids dance. I was thrilled.
It was a wonderful summer and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the young girls creative movement, much as I had learned from my teacher Genevieve Jones. And the highlight was when a group of us was taken to Jacob’s Pillow for an afternoon performance.
In a rustic theatre, the performance began with Ted Shawn introducing himself to us and telling us about Jacob’s Pillow. I don’t remember his exact words, but my thirteen-year-old self knew he was a very important person and spoke to us in a very dignified manner.
Later I would learn just how important a figure he was in the creation of American modern dance. A New York Times article written by Clive Barnes shortly after his death gives good insight into his role:
THE death of Ted Shawn shortly after his 80th birthday brings to an end a whole era in American dance. Shawn, together with his wife, the late Ruth St. Denis, was largely responsible for the creation of American modern‐dance.
It was in 1915 that Shawn and his wife started the original Denishawn School in Los Angeles, and from this school emerged the first generation of American modern dancers, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. These were the new pioneers of American modern‐dance, and Shawn was their spiritual father. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/16/archives/ted-shawn-18911972.html
The current Jacob’s Pillow website points out that in 1930 Shawn purchased a “rundown farm in the Berkshires known as Jacob’s Pillow … and that laid the groundwork for both his revolutionary company of men dancers and America’s oldest dance festival.”
When our camp visited the Pillow, Shawn said the performance that day would let us see three different kinds of dance: modern, ethnic and ballet. I do not remember the modern or ethnic dance performances at all, but having the opportunity to see Alicia Markova dance “The Dying Swan” was breathtaking.
Markova was 46 when I saw her perform, and the emotion and delicacy that she exhibited, especially in her arms, stood out. She had begun performing when she was just 14, discovered by Diaghilev. After her time with the Ballet Russes she moved to London and danced with the Sadler Wells Ballet Company and was noted for her partnership with Anton Dolin. On YouTube you can find excerpts of her dancing The Dying Swan and also Giselle with Anton Dolin as her partner.
The summer at Belgian Village opened my eyes to new possibilities ahead and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to begin exploring my teaching abilities and to visit Jacob’s Pillow.
Age 13 at Belgian Village Camp
Now living in Costa Rica, I don’t get many opportunities to see dance, so I am very glad that Jacob’s Pillow is now making so much available online. Some videos and films are free and that includes the short films that are a part of Inside the Pillow Lab and some longer films that are part of Pillow Talk. It is a great resource both for gaining a historical perspective and for knowing what is happening now. For example, one film of historical note in Pillow Talk is “Ann Hutchinson Guest: A Century +”:
Celebrating the life of dance notation pioneer Ann Hutchinson Guest (1918-2022), her legacy and deep Pillow roots are explored by friends, family, and fans including Norton Owen, Michael Richter, Tina Curran, and Melanie Dana, with many video clips of Guest herself. (1:00:37)
The Pillow Lab videos are short interviews with choreographers, about the work they created while at Jacob’s Pillow. While they are talking, we see dancers moving with phrases from the developing piece. The videos are short and informative with a diverse group of choreographers.
There is also a pay-for-events section where one can select films of past performances at Jacob’s Pillow. Currently streaming now and available for a fee of $15 is the Limon Dance Company which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary. It was added on January 9th and will be available until February 19th. Once you pay you may watch the performance as many times as you like. Also available are pre- and post-show talks related to the performance, and these are free.
So even if you can’t make an in-person trip to the Pillow, you have lots of options to watch, many for free and some costing $15.
If you have studied at Jacob’s Pillow, performed there or attended a memorable performance, I invite you to add a comment — or better yet, to contact me to do a guest post about your experience.
On October 26th, I Zoomed an interesting dance history presentation by Wendy Perron at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, part of the New York City Library System. This was the third part of Perron ‘s series “The Dance Historian Is In,” and it focused on Pina Bausch’s years at Juilliard, 1959-60 and 1960-61, when she worked with Paul Sanasardo and Paul Taylor. Perron included pictures and focused a lot on Pina’s work with Anthony Tudor when she was at Juilliard. Perron pointed out that these two years had a strong influence on Pina’s work, more than most critics mention.
It was during this time that Pina got to know Alfredo Corvino, and when he retired from Juilliard, Pina asked him to be the ballet master for her company. He held that position until his death, and then his daughters continued working with the company.
One of the most interesting things I learned during the hour-and-a-half Zoom program was that Juilliard has photos and scrapbooks online that are available for anyone to look at or use for research. I went to the site, and the opening page clearly states the purpose of the website:
Welcome to the Juilliard Archives
Discover Juilliard’s rich history, from the school’s opening in 1905 to present, by exploring a selection of materials from our digital collections. Please see our Featured Collections at the link above.
I had fun looking at the Dance Scrapbooks which go from 1951/52 to 1990/91. Of course I was most curious about the years that I was there. What a delight and surprise to see all the different pieces that I performed in workshops from Louis Horst’s Modern Form Composition Class. A few I remember but some I had totally forgotten about. It was also a trip down memory lane to see what other classmates had done and performed in the same workshops.
Screenshots from the Juilliard Scrapbook 1961-62, (Klineman is my maiden name.)
Finding the Juilliard archives online made me wonder what other resources there are for dance history enthusiasts! Here are a few that I found:
Wendy Perron’s website is filled with lots of things she has written about dance, with an archive that is worth exploring. She also lists her upcoming events and some that have already happened and are still viewable online.
I was surprised to see what was available at The Library of Congress website. Their digital collections have “dance materials which represent genres including worldwide traditional dances, European and American social dance practices, ballet and modern dance, and more! Digitized items include choreographic notes, photographs, musical scores, moving images, sound recordings, rare books, and artwork.” Among the collections online are:
Martha Graham’s work between 1918 and 1949. Objects include concert programs, clippings, press announcements reviews, libretti, scripts, and photographs.
Selections from the Katherine Dunham Collection
Digitalized items from Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev
200 collection items from Bronislava Nijinska
And of course, the best place for on-site research is the New York City Library for the Performing Arts, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. I have spent some time at the library researching and learning about various dance figures. I have also enjoyed watching various videotapes. I highly recommend a trip there for fun or if you are seriously researching something in dance. There is both a phone number and email address online so that one can inquire what the library might have in the area of one’s research before making a trip.
There are also lots of specialized collections at various universities or local libraries where individuals have donated their scrapbooks, photographs etc. For example, when I moved to Costa Rica, I decided to donate all the material of the Avodah Dance Ensemble (up to when I retired as founding director) to the American Jewish Archives, located in Cincinnati and connected to Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. Avodah regularly performed at HUC-JIR in New York City,
Hanya Holm’s papers are at Stanford University, and there is information about them at the Online Archive of California. It doesn’t look like any actual material is available online, rather a list of the different boxes.
Most other dancers I Googled left their collections to the NY Performing Arts Library.
If you know of a collection that might interest Mostly Dance blog readers, please leave a comment sharing the name of the collection and any contact details to find out more information. I will review and maybe do another blog sharing the information I receive.
Let me close by thanking Wendy Perron for her excellent presentation, letting me know about the Juilliard online Archives and piquing my interest to see what else might be available.
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!
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!
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 80th 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/
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!
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.
Program that I saved in my scrapbook!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.
