Category: Personal Life

Lessons Learned from the 2020 Olympics

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

Delayed a year, the “2020” Olympics in 2021 were different than past Olympics, with no visitors in the stands, COVID testing regularly for the athletes and the chance to see family members of the athletes watching from home.  They were also very different for me on a personal level.  This was the first year that I watched alone without Murray, my husband who died in October 2020 and who dearly loved the swimming.  And it was the first time I ever had a family member competing (a distant cousin on my father’s side).  I also was very proud that Simone Biles chose to take care of her own mental health rather than risk injury. That’s an important lesson for all of us to learn.

Let me begin by sharing a few of my reactions to Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the team competition. Surprised, of course, but once that reaction passed I thought how wise she was and also how wise it was that she was not pressured into changing her mind.  Gymnastics has come a long way in respecting her decision. Too often with dancers and athletes the emphasis is on having to stay the course without taking into account both the physical and mental damage done. And her teammates stepped up to the plate.  They competed well that evening, not dwelling on anything other than the job they needed to do, as she cheered them on!!  The result was that they won the silver medal.  As the week continued and Biles cheered from the stands for the individual events, some of her teammates went on to win gold medals. And then she came back to compete on the balance beam winning a bronze medal.  She simplified her routine dismount and yet it still earned her the bronze!  There is no question about her talent as a gymnast, and now she is showing us a courage and talent way beyond that, by causing us to stop and think about the importance of mental health in athletics and beyond. Certainly there is a strong lesson for the world of dance in this too, and teachers of dancers at all levels should please take this to heart!

An excellent piece of journalism by Dan Rather and his team at Steady, published by the website SUBSTACK.com, provides insight and commentary on this, and I strongly urge readers to check it out. I end this section of the blog with the following quote from the article:

Simone Biles forced us to pause to think about sports and life, at least for a moment, through a different lens. And for that we should all be thankful. If she has courage to stand up, we should have the courage to stand with her.  https://steady.substack.com/p/a-profile-in-courage?fbclid=IwAR341pTQVPnPvvtutJlDeRLY8vJwzi1sZUzPpoAv_OfDMaxDoSfOA9VWjcM

Up until this year I enjoyed watching the Olympics with Murray.  Since he passed I wondered how it would be watching without him.  His main interest was always the swimming and I went along watching it with him.  This year I didn’t have to watch it but found that I wanted to.  For one thing I just found it fun and interesting to watch.  The other reason was that it just plain felt good to do something that I knew was important to Murray and that we had shared together. I felt his energy present and it brought back so many good memories.  Murray loved to swim and he swam three times a week for as long as I knew him.  During the time we lived in Tallahassee, Florida he was a part of a Masters Swim Team and Program and even traveled to different parts of the state to compete.  I loved watching his body move rhythmically and powerfully through the water, even toward the end, when due to heart problems he didn’t have his usual energy. I am so glad to have this video of him enjoying our pool here in Costa Rica and that he got to enjoy a little bit of swimming here.

Murray swimming in our pool in Costa Rica, April 2020. Video by JoAnne

What also kept me glued to the Olympics was watching Alix Klineman compete in beach volleyball.  My Dad and her father, Michael, were cousins.  Michael and I have kept in contact and I was aware of Alix’s talent. When she was on the Stanford indoor volleyball team and they came to play the University of New Mexico, Michael came to see her play and invited Murray and me to the game.  It was great fun to watch and afterwards Michael introduced us.

Since then Michael has kept me up to date on her career, specifically playing for a professional team in Italy and then later in Brazil.  I was also aware when she transitioned to beach volleyball and I knew that she and April Ross were doing well as a team.  So it was with much enthusiasm that I started watching the first match they played in the Olympics and then of course continued watching all the matches through to the last one where they won the Gold medal.

As I watched interviews of the two women there were several things that resonated with me and which I want to keep in mind for myself.  First of all Alix shared that when she was younger she was uncomfortable or self conscious about her height.  Now of course it is a major asset.  So important for all of us to keep in mind that some of our natural physical nature that we are uncomfortable with may prove to be an asset.

For me personally, I have loved to watch and to work with tall dancers.  When they are wonderfully coordinated and know how to use their body there is nothing more beautiful.  I am reminded right now of Judith Jamison and in particular the beautiful solo that Alvin Ailey choreographed for her called Cry.  There was a point when Rick Jacobs was a part of the Avodah Dance Ensemble which I directed for over 30 years, and he is about 6’4”. Sometimes when he was in the company all of the women were 5’10” and over.  It was a challenge to keep up with them when we walked down the street.

Another important thing that Alix shared was that when she wasn’t selected for the 2016 indoor volleyball team she was able to realize her goal of going to the Olympics by moving into beach volleyball.  A recent New York Times article pointed out:

In 2017, Klineman envisioned a future in beach volleyball and dreamed of the Olympics. She began to study the craft.

Ross, a two-time Olympic medalist, was watching. She saw potential with Klineman, 31, citing a list of attributes: her physicality, work ethic, intelligence and intensity, to start.

“Alix did study the game more than anyone else I’ve ever known,” said Ross, 39. “She’d go home and watch a ton of video, and I’d be like, ‘Well, I’ve got to go home and watch video, too.’”  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/sports/olympics/olympics-beach-volleyball-alix-klineman-april-ross.html

A good reminder for all of us is that if one way isn’t working out figure out another. Once you have a new plan it is important to learn as much as you can to accomplish what you want.

Ross is quoted in the same New York Times article as saying, “Our communication and respect for each other is off the charts.”

One of the most important things I learned directing a dance company and also in working in film is that putting together the right team is all important.  When there is mutual respect and the chemistry is right between colleagues so much more can happen.  “The A-Team,” as April and Alix like to be called, provides us with an excellent example of how this works at the highest level!! Congratulations to April and Alix.  Thank you, Michael, for keeping me up to date on your daughter’s  career and for introducing me to volleyball on your trip to New Mexico.

If you watched this year’s Olympics did you have a favorite moment or something that resonated with you?  Please feel free to share it in the comments!

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Agnes de Mille and The Dream Ballet in Oklahoma

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Dance in Film, Musical Theater, Personal Life

Much to my surprise and delight I found that Disney+ was streaming the 1955 movie of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma (that duo’s first musical, created for the stage in 1943).  When the movie first came out I wasn’t a big fan, as I didn’t like the casting of the main leads. I loved the original Broadway cast album of Oklahoma that featured Joan Roberts, Alfred Drake and Celeste Holmes. None of them were in the movie so I did not see the movie until many years later.  What attracted me to watching the movie this month was that it is one of the few examples of Agnes de Mille’s choreography that we can see today.  Since I was a teenager and read Dance to the Piper (published 1952) I had always admired de Mille, who despite being discouraged by her parents from becoming a dancer, and facing numerous struggles as a dancer and choreographer, achieved success through her sheer determination.  

De Mille choreographed the movie just as she did the Broadway show. She was hired by Rodgers and Hammerstein following the 1942 success of the ballet Rodeo which she choreographed for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She asked Aaron Copeland to create the score for the piece.  It premiered in the fall of 1942 at the Met in New York City with deMille dancing the lead cowgirl.  She received 22 curtain calls, and the ballet’s success led to her choreographing the Broadway show which changed the use of dance in musicals.  For her, dance was not just an entertainment but rather a way to advance the emotions of the characters and the plot. 

The original lead dancers in the dream ballet were Marc Platt, Katherine Sergava and George Church.  They doubled for the leading actors, and John Martin in a review in The New York Times wrote that Ms. Sergava, dancing the alter ego of heroine Laurey, “with her strangely remote quality of beauty becomes the ideal heroine of a rather terrifying dream.” Neither Katherine Sergava nor George Church was in the movie.  Marc Platt was, but not in his original role of Curly.  Instead he had a role dancing and speaking as one of Curly’s pals.  The dance leads in the movie were Bambi Linn as Dream Laurey and James Mitchell as Dream Curly.  Bambi Lynn made her debut in Oklahoma as a dancer and later went on to a career as a ballroom dancer with her husband Rod Alexander.  James Mitchell began as a modern dancer and for 25 years was an assistant to de Mille.  

In the movie there is a very graceful transition from the actress Shirley Jones to the dancer Bambi Lynn where for just a moment they mirror each other and then the dream ballet really begins as Laurey runs into and is lifted by Curly and the two dance a very lovely duet.  A chorus of women soon joins in and it is a celebration with Laurey imagining her wedding, with a veil that floats down and is put on her head.  The scene builds as townspeople gather and an imaginary wedding is about to take place.  Curly begins to lift Laurey’s veil when suddenly instead of Curly it is Jud. Laurey flees from Jud and ends up running into a scene of women dancers (women of the night) doing the cancan as Jud watches and at times joins in with them.  Laurey continues to be a part of the scene, confused, sad and bewildered, and at times even trying to dance with them.  One of the dancers puts Laurey into Jud’s arms and Laurey flees from him and up an open stairway that dramatically is a dead end into open space. 

A transition within the ballet is then made with sound effects and lighting suggesting a thunderstorm or tornado, and a trio with Curly, Jud and Laurey begins.  Following their struggle, townspeople enter as the energy builds, ending with Jud killing Curly and lifting and carrying Laurey off.  This is where the dream ballet ends and the actor Jud appears ready to take the actress Laurey to the party as she awakens from her dream terrified!

As I watched the ballet several times I was struck by what a beautiful ballet de Mille created and what a wonderful score Richard Rogers created using melodies from all different songs in the musical.  The dancing is well executed and the way it was filmed added to the richness of the choreography.  I also

noted that it was danced on a good soundstage so the dancers could be at their best.  We are so lucky to have this available to watch, and I hope I have whet your appetite and you might watch this very well done sixteen minutes of dance.  I think that Disney+ still might have a 7-day free subscription trial.

There are other good dance moments in the movie too.  One comes about 24 minutes into the film, beginning with a kind of two-step which becomes a vigorous tap dance solo building into a full ensemble dance taking place at the train station. The ending is fun as three of the dancers end up on the roof of the train and two women dancers jump off the train into the arms of waiting men as the train leaves with the male dancer still dancing on the train’s roof!!  Another lovely moment is a women’s ballet to the song “Many A New Day.”  A square dance in Act II to the “Farmers and the Cowboys Should be Friends” is lively and is used to point out the tension that exists between the cowboys and the farmers, ending with a well choreographed full stage brawl!

While I have to point out that the story doesn’t really work for me anymore the dances sure do, along with the songs!  I grew up listening to the music and also remember my Mom mentioning how she had seen the show shortly after it opened with my Dad, who was in the army about to be shipped overseas. She had loved it and talked about the enthusiasm of the audience.  I wanted to know more about Oklahoma’s impact at the time related to World War II and found two excellent pieces online related to this.  In a blog written by Ryan Raul Banagale he points out that “Oklahoma can be seen as a work that captures an optimistic vision of America at a moment when its future remained very much up in the air.”  (https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-at-75-has-the-musical-withstood-the-test-of-time-94110 )

In an article in The New York Times, Todd S. Purdum mentions that “at every performance, there were rows of men in uniform, sitting in seats especially reserved for them, or taking standing room before shipping out overseas. 

Both of these articles clearly point out how Oklahoma changed musicals and how the show remains relevant today. I am thrilled we have this example of de Mille’s choreography to watch today.  Reading her book, and learning about her, strongly impacted my decision to be a dancer.  

In searching for a picture to include I found this wonderful interview of Agnes de Mille talking about the stage version of Oklahoma.  While it was uploaded to YouTube in 2013 it is actually from a PBS series done in 1979.  We see excerpts from the stage version.  It is curious that she never mentions the movie.  While the choreography in this clip is similar to the movie I think the movie is actually more interesting and stronger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW35nQUZdk4&list=RDiW35nQUZdk4&index=1
Screenshot from YouTube interview of de Mille in 1979 PBS program

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A Trip to Bali

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance Midrash, Multicultural Programs, Personal Life

Memories of a trip to Bali resonate strongly, even though it was nearly 30 years ago that I spent 6 amazing days exploring the island, totally fascinated with the different sites we visited.  Murray and his colleague had wandered into a tourist agency on a lunch break during their work trip to Singapore.  They saw a great package for 6 days in Bali with airfare and hotel.  Liked it and bought it.  A few days later we were on the plane for the 3-hour flight to Denpasar Airport.  We were met, part of the package, and driven to the resort hotel in Nusa Dua, by far one of the most beautiful hotels we had ever been to.  While the resort was very modern, it displayed the traditional beautiful sculpture and art work that the Island is famous for – a nice blending of traditional and modern styles. The rest of the first day we totally enjoyed hanging around and swimming in the very large pool!

The next morning we piled into our small van and the four of us were joined by one other couple.  Following a morning concert of traditional music and dance, our guide took us to Ubad (the cultural center) and we wandered in and out of lots of tourist type shops that were at least tasteful and did have some interesting things.  In one of them I found a percussive instrument, made of wood – a face with a wooden knocker as the tongue. It was similar to one of my favorite instruments on Newman’s accompaniment blanket, and I was very excited to find it.  (Newman, mentioned in other blogs, is the musician who accompanied many workshops and the piece “Let My People Go.”  He would set out his wide variety of instruments around him on the stage floor, on a piece of fabric which I came to call “Newman’s Blanket.”) I was thrilled to make the instrument my first purchase and enjoyed using it for many years!  There were quite a few Batik stores and I also purchased in one of them a round placemat that I still enjoy using.

As we walked from store to store we were greeted by a number of vendors selling various handcrafted things.  Often they started by quoting a very high price, expecting us to bargain. When we walked away they would offer the item for a realistic price where the bargaining could begin. Murray and I saw some interesting small carvings and learned they were carved cow bones.  We were first quoted a price of $100 but didn’t counter it and just walked away.  Before we knew it, the vendor had said we could have each one for $10.  We ended up buying 3 of them, each for $1. The vendor was happy to have sold them, and we were happy to have bought them.

While the shopping was fun, what really fascinated me happened the next day as we were driving up in the mountains.  It was a festival day and many Balinese were dressed in traditional clothes.  A number of the women were carrying – balanced on their heads – baskets of fruits and flowers arranged in beautiful and intricate patterns.  Our tour guides explained that the women were on their way to a sacred site and the baskets were offerings.  

I vividly remember a visceral response in my body, and thinking this is exactly the kind of thing that is described in the Torah, and further explained in the Talmud, about how during the time of the Temple’s existence, the Jewish people made offerings. For example, Deuteronomy 26:2 says:  

you shall take of the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in from your Land that your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that your God will choose.

If you would like to learn more about this ritual, here is a good link to check out: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/first-fruits/

I was seeing something similar in a totally different culture, and I was totally fascinated.   

Once back home, I would learn that 90% of the Balinese practice Balinese Hinduism which:

 is a mixture of years of contact with different cultures, most notably the Indian one. Traders introduced their faith to Bali between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago.

Apart from Hinduism, the Balinese have aspects of other beliefs in their religion: Buddhism; Malay ancestor cult or the reverence of dead ancestors; and animistic beliefs.  (“Lisa’s vivid writing” in Medium.com – see link below)

If you want to learn more about Balinese religious practices, rituals and festivals check out these websites:

https://medium.com/bali-in-a-few-words/balinese-hinduism-explained-e3316a16a535

https://www.villa-bali.com/guide/offerings-canangs

/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/indonesia/articles/traditional-rituals-in-bali-you-should-know-about/https://theculturetrip.com/asia/indonesia/articles/traditional-rituals-in-bali-you-should-know-about/

And then we visited a temple and saw a sign outside that said something like “Women:  If you are menstruating or pregnant please do not enter.”  When I asked our guide about it, he shared that women who are menstruating, pregnant or have just given birth are considered “ritually unclean.”  Here was another example of something that had been part of the Jewish tradition, well documented in Leviticus Chapter 15 beginning with verse 19:

If a woman has a discharge, her flesh discharging blood, she shall remain in her state of menstrual separation for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be come unclean until evening.

There are many others examples of times when someone or something is considered unclean in Leviticus and in other parts of the Torah.  Now, here I was, in another culture and religion seeing a similar practice in action. I was surprised to find this in Bali.  

The trip to Bali took on a whole new significance for me.  It was not just the beautiful scenery or tourist shops or sightseeing.  It was about seeing the rituals and culture in practice.  The similarity between the rituals I was seeing and the passages I was reading in the Torah (and using as a basis for leading “dance midrash” workshops in Jewish religious schools) was clear. It gave me new ideas for my teaching.  It was also an awareness of how similar cultures can be and a reminder that we may all be more alike than different.  

Here I am sightseeing in Bali and loving the rich greens of the rice fields.
Murray and me visiting Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave.  To learn more about
this site check out this link:
https://www.tripsavvy.com/goa-gajah-eerie-elephant-cave-in-bali-1629094

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A Trip to Bangkok and Reflections on The King and I

JoAnne Tucker / / Childhood, Musical Theater, Personal Life

A business trip back in the early 1990s, on which I was able to accompany my husband Murray, still has special significance to me.  Murray had a case in Singapore that required him to travel there for some onsite research.  We decided to begin our trip with a five-day visit to Thailand.  After a long day of flying, which included changing planes in Tokyo, we arrived around 1 AM in Bangkok. I still have a very vivid memory of our taxi ride from the airport to our hotel as traffic was bumper to bumper! And that is how it seemed all the time in Bangkok – never a time when there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the roads. A quick Google search as I am writing this post shows that traffic in Bangkok is still a major problem.  Murray and I soon learned that many of the tourist sites were close to one another along the river and that it was possible to take a water taxi on the Chao Phraya River that connected The Grand Palace, Temple of the Reclining Buddha and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  We also took a river trip to the old capital and another river trip in smaller canals to get a flavor of local life.  While we did not stay at a hotel on the river we determined that should we ever return, we would certainly do that, to radically limit our time on traffic-filled streets.

While the trip to the old capital was very interesting and I loved the various Buddha statues, my favorite part of the trip was the time in Bangkok at The Grand Palace.  Upon entering the grounds my immediate reaction was that I was on the set of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s play The King and I.  Everything felt so familiar to me, having been such a fan of the musical.  Of course I realized that this was where so many of the set ideas had come from.  And for choreographer Jerome Robbins, the position of the figures in many of the facades were woven into the dances.

My own history with The King and I goes back to shortly after the original production starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner opened on Broadway in March 1951. My good friend Regina had an original recording of the show.  We would dance to the songs in her living room.  In 1956 the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical came out, and what a dazzling production with amazing sets! Jerome Robbins recreated his ballet Small House of Uncle Thomas for the film, and I loved that ballet.  

In 1964, after returning to Pittsburgh following my two years at Juilliard, I was asked to choreograph a production of The King and I that was being done at Taylor Allderdice High School, the very high school that I had attended.  I had a wonderful time doing it. There are three wonderful dance moments in the musical:  of course, the sixteen-minute ballet Small House of Uncle Thomas; The March of the Children, when they are introduced to their new teacher; and the duet between Anna and the King.  Working with the two leads in the high school production was particularly fun and they were very appreciative of my help.

Over the years I have enjoyed watching the movie quite a few times and seeing revivals of the production. While I didn’t see the 2015 Broadway revival with Kelli O’Hara I was pleased when it won a Tony for best revival.  There is even talk right now of a remake of the film. What a great contribution Rodgers and Hammerstein have made to musical theater!  

I conclude this blog with a few pictures from our trip to Thailand and welcome your comments related to your connection to the award-winning The King and I.

Photograph taken of a Buddha during our tour to the
Old Capital
Images on a façade at The Grand Palace that might have inspired 
Jerome Robbins’ choreography.
Murray and me on the grounds of The Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

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Doing Taxes Takes on A Whole New Meaning

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

One of the highlights of the meaningful Zoom memorial service that good friend and spiritual leader Jimmy Levinson led for my late husband Murray was when he shared some of Murray’s hobbies and then invited each of those present to raise their hand if they also had that hobby and would think of Murray when they did that.  Among Murray’s hobbies were hiking, gardening and photography.  While taxes were certainly not a hobby, Murray always did ours, first by hand and in later years using Turbo Tax.  

While this year was a bit more complicated due to his passing I decided that a way to honor Murray was to continue with his tradition and to do the taxes myself using Turbo Tax instead of organizing them and sending them off to an accountant.  I am really glad I did.  As I worked on them I felt a real closeness to Murray and a satisfaction of knowing that I was honoring the way he did things.

Now…. Let me be honest, Turbo Tax has an upgrade where they offer 24/7 chat or phone calls and I took that upgrade and did I use it.  I never hesitated to call them or chat whenever I had a question and they took their time working me through the questions and the inputting of information.  Numbers and math have never been my thing but I did do the easy 990 form for my non-profit dance company and the financial statements for both the dance company and Healing Voices.  

It has now been just over 6 months since Murray passed.  I miss him a lot and find ways to both keep him in my memory and to honor our years together.  This May 6th would have been his 81st birthday and I wanted to make a contribution in his memory.  With the devastating news out of India I knew I wanted to make a contribution to an organization in India.  I reached out to my good friend Jimmy Levinson to ask what his son Noah’s organization, Calcutta Kids, was doing related to COVID and Jimmy shared that they were setting up a vaccination site.  I decided to donate to Calcutta Kids knowing that it was a small organization that I have supported in the past and that they have made and are making a difference in young children and moms’ lives starting with pre-natal care.  Here’s a link to their organization in case it interests you: https://calcuttakids.org

I close this blog with a few favorite recent pictures of Murray! (Photos were taken between 2015 – 2018.)

Visiting Fallingwaters, Achitect Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous house outside of Pittsburgh, PA
At Morraine Lake, Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.  Murray and I visited there on our honeymoon and always talked of going back.  We did, 53 years later.
Murray sipping a drink around the pool at a resort in Cancun!

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Last Thoughts on International Touring

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life, Touring

In this concluding blog about our Italy tour Kezia and I share some of our favorite non-dance memories.  Certainly one part of touring is when we have a free day or two.  On the tour to Pitigliano, Kezia and I arranged to have several days to sightsee after the performance before returning to New York. 

One of Kezia’s favorite memories is having to stop the car for a significant time on our way to Pitigliano to allow a flock of sheep to cross the road.  She remembers that their bells made wonderful music, and that Deborah spoke to the shepherd and translated for us.  He was carrying a little lamb because he said she was tired and kept lying down in the road and crying when she couldn’t keep up with the other sheep.

View from the car when we encountered the sheep in the road.  If you look carefully
you can see a figure in the very back carrying the lamb.

A favorite memory of mine was watching Deborah’s mother-in-law make gnocchi from scratch and of course getting to enjoy eating it afterwards. 

Deborah and her mother-in-law.  We all watched enthusiastically 
as Jeevan’s mother make the gnocchi!

 I also loved our time soaking in a hot spring,

JoAnne and Deborah in the hot spring!

In the February 2000 Avodah Newsletter, Kezia wrote about some of our adventures sightseeing:

As tourists in magical Florence, we strolled into innumerable churches, each graced by masterpieces of art, so much a part of their surrounding spiritual home and purpose that often no nameplate is even provided to identify the artist.  And regardless of one’s religion, when the church bells ring at twilight in Florence, one is filled with joy.  In stark contrast to the gentleness of Florence, the astounding massiveness of Rome was like walking at the feet of elephants.  Surprisingly, St. Peter’s, even more enormous than it appears on television, by genius of design, offers an undeniable sense of embrace, even to these two Jewish visitors.

On Shabbat, JoAnne and I attended services in the old Jewish section of Rome.  The architecture of the temple was of a style similar to that of churches we had visited, and the unexpected acoustical effect of this kinship was that the chanting in the service took on a nearly Gregorian quality.  The text of individual prayers and readings was indistinguishable, replaced by an engulfing hum.  The women’s section, up a long flight of stairs, was separated from the downstairs men’s section by an iron gate so densely and intricately patterned that one could barely see through it – as intended.  But I suffered no shortage of spiritual sustenance in this country where religion has been the inspiration for glorious architecture, serene and achingly sad painting and sculpture, heart-soaring music and people of deep warmth and courage.  When I looked out my window during the flight back to New York and saw how easily the Italian Alps reach right above the clouds, I was not in the least surprised.

Closing thought from JoAnne: I am so grateful for the dedication of the dancers who were part of Avodah, both when they were in the company and afterwards.  In particular, to Deborah — who organized and made this tour possible, including rehearsing her dancers and performing in the concert —  and to Kezia — who shared this experience with us, helping in staging and performing, and then sharing time together sightseeing with me – a deep bow of gratitude.  

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Seeds for a Later Tour – Visiting a Former Avodah Dancer in Italy

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life, Touring

For seven years Deborah Hanna was a part of The Avodah Dance Ensemble.  If you skim through the blogs of Mostly Dance you will see lots of pictures of her, as she played a key role in collaborating on pieces that became an important part of Avodah’s repertory.  In particular, Deborah was in the original cast of Let My People Go, and she and Kezia collaborated on Sisters.  At some point, I shared her with the Martha Graham Ensemble and loved how well trained she was in Graham technique, which I totally adored!  When she decided it was time to leave the company and move to Italy with her husband I was both sad to see her go and also excited for her new adventure.  We might even have joked a bit about Avodah coming to Italy, as she did not intend to stop dancing.

Two years later, in 1995, I saw Deborah on a trip to Italy.  My husband, Murray, had a business trip to Rome, related to his job as economist with the IRS.  I was able to go with him and we decided to travel a few days early so we could spend some time visiting Deborah.

A day or two after arriving in Rome, Murray and I took the hour-and-a-half train ride to Tarquinia, where Deborah and her husband, Jeevan, were living.  Tarquinia is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, known mainly for its ancient Etruscan tombs.  We stayed in their sweet country cottage and loved going sightseeing in the area with them.  Tarquinia is Jeevan’s hometown and his family owned a wonderful restaurant there.

Top Picture: Deborah and I have fun posing at one of the Etruscan Tombs.
Lower Picture: Deborah and Jeevan, Murray and I, enjoying being together. 

Deborah had begun to teach dance shortly after she arrived in Italy in February of 1993.  She taught Graham technique and choreographed for the end-of-the-year concerts in her local community.  Deborah shared with me that “The Graham Technique made a big hit as quite a novelty and the first piece I did for them to the music of Carmina Burana received a loud “ANCORA”  from the audience – which I just took as a wonderful sign of appreciation, but quickly found out meant we had to repeat the piece again immediately – which we did.”

Deborah choreographed for this group of dancers when she first arrived in 1993.

By the time of our visit with Deborah she had not only continued teaching but had expanded with in-school performances and workshops in the local grade schools and middle schools and had won best choreography awards at the Viterbo Dance Festival.

Before we left Italy Deborah joined us in Rome and ended up going out to dinner with us and charming some of Murray’s business colleagues with her excellent Italian. We talked about projects between Avodah and Italy, and the seeds were planted for what would happen several years later.

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Reaction to the Inauguration as a U.S. Citizen in Costa Rica

JoAnne Tucker / / Costa Rica, Personal Life

As I write this blog it is with a lighter heart and a sense of joy, filled with so many poignant memories of Wednesday’s inauguration. With COVID and security concerns the day was beautifully choreographed and the inaugural committee is to be commended. As a United States citizen now living abroad in Costa Rica, my connection to the democratic ideals of the United States remains deep, as do my concerns and hope that healing of long-time wounds will be addressed.  I am also very interested in how other countries react to what is happening in the United States.

On Thursday morning I read with delight an article in the Tico Times which I want to share with you, as it gives insight into how Costa Rica views the U.S. inauguration.   The headline itself says a lot:  “‘Multilateralism is back!’ How Costa Rica’s leaders celebrated U.S. inauguration.”  The article mentions that in a Tweet President Carlos Alvarado thanked President Biden for rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, and that he also assured cooperation with the U.S. in “pursuit of ‘shared principles.’”  

What was most meaningful in the Tico Times article was what I learned about the Vice President of Costa Rica.  Her name is Epsy Campbell and she was elected in 2018.  An article by Brendan O’Boyle in Americas Quarterly (Oct. 19, 2020) notes:

Epsy Campbell Barr became the first Black woman in Latin America to be elected vice president – despite the fact that Afro-descendant women comprise up to 17% of the region’s populations. . . . [She] began her career as a human rights and environmental activist and an economist researching women’s inclusion.  As vice president, she has led a working group to try to close the gender pay gap, and also launched a program offering credit to rural women working in conservation.  

The Tico Times article reported that Campbell “shared a letter she had sent to Vice President Kamala Harris”:

In the communication, Campbell referenced her Afro-descendant grandmother, who “did not live to see her dream made reality,” but who worked to ensure “her daughters and her granddaughters could enjoy the rights she always wanted but never had.” 

“As Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica, and as a Black woman, I have joined the celebration of Afro-descendent towns and communities across the world that appropriate this accomplishment as an example to advance on the path to equality,” Vice President Campbell wrote.

Photo by Stefano Martin of Epsy Campbell from the Americas Quarterly

Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry is also quoted as saying: 

Costa Rica celebrates the solid ties of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which have cemented its 170 years of diplomatic relations. In this sense, we will work actively and constructively together with the Government of President Biden and Vice President Harris and their teams, to strengthen the recovery process in the face of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and energize the bilateral, regional and multilateral agendas, promoting political dialogue, cooperative actions, and the promotion of commerce and attraction of investments.

So today I not only celebrate the inauguration but I have learned more about the country I am living in and its relationship with the U.S.  Murray and I were always aware of the good relationship that existed between the two countries when we decided to move here although we knew that Trump was damaging and isolating the U.S. relationships with many places.  So it is with delight I read the Tico Times article and learned about Vice President Epsy Campbell.

For as long as I can remember I have always been interested in traveling both in the United States and internationallybecause not only is it about sightseeing but it is about what we learn about ourselves and our relationship to others. Sometimes I’ve traveled alone, sometimes with the dance company and sometimes with Murray.  In our international travel we were both fascinated with how citizens of other countries viewed the United States both positively and negatively.  I remember seeing negative things written on walls on a trip to a university town in Germany back in 1987. Traveling during the George Bush administration between 2005-2008 we heard and saw negative things.  (Now, of course, the Bush administration is looking amazingly good, after what we have just experienced with Trump.)  Living now for nearly a year in Costa Rica I was well aware of the negative attitude toward Trump and the disappointment that Ticos felt for what was happening in the U.S. 

I was particularly made aware of that on January 7th when the young man from a restaurant/bakery that I regularly order from made a delivery to the house.  The young man asked me how I was doing.  I told him that I felt very sad and upset about what had happened at the Capitol in the U.S. the day before. He shared that he was upset too and that it was very troubling what had been happening in the U.S. since Trump had been elected, as he and most Costa Ricans looked to the U.S. as a model and since Trump that wasn’t possible.  He hoped it would be possible again.  Luckily the young man spoke English very well because while I am progressing in learning Spanish a detailed conversation like this would not have been possible.  

I was glad I watched the inauguration with my Costa Rican friend and helper.  First of all, I missed sharing this with Murray as he would have been thrilled to witness Biden and Harris sworn in and so I was glad not to be alone.  And second it was wonderful to know how a Tico was experiencing the transfer of power.  We both had tears in our eyes when Vice President Harris was sworn in, as I did later during the beautiful poem written and read elegantly by 22-year-old American Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. 

I loved the images of both Biden and Harris immediately going to work.  Maybe eliminating Inauguration Balls is even a good option for the future. 

Here’s a link to the article in the Tico Times: https://ticotimes.net/2021/01/20/multilateralism-is-back-how-costa-ricas-leaders-celebrated-u-s-inauguration

Here’s a link to the article in Americas Quarterly https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/aq-top-5-champions-of-gender-equality-epsy-campbell-barr/

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January 6th – the New Date for History Books

JoAnne Tucker / / Costa Rica, Personal Life

While I was in the midst of writing a blog related to dance company touring, I had my iPad tuned to news programs mainly to hear about the results of the Georgia runoff elections for the Senate.  I was feeling pretty excited hearing that Ossoff was pulling ahead in the GA race and Vice President Mike Pence had made an opening statement indicating that he would be following his appropriate role in receiving and registering the electoral votes.  Then the mob breached the Capitol and my energy changed.  I could no longer concentrate on writing the dance company blog.  The rest of the day and into the late evening I was focused on the news, mainly listening to MSNBC.  I found myself deeply sad and at times tearful.  

My interests and background are in the arts and I am not usually a news junky.  That was what my life partner/husband Murray did and he passed away just over two months ago.  Perhaps because I knew I couldn’t turn to ask him for an update, I needed to watch for myself.  I did that and now I am left with a strange and uncomfortable feeling of how to react and what to do.   I paint, I write and I used to direct a dance company, and so when I find myself having strong emotional reactions I know that I am also looking for a way to express them.  So here I am writing.

Among the many senators’ speeches, one of them used two phrases which I could relate to.  9/11 was a time when the action came from outside the country while today the action was from within the country.  Outside and inside forces.  And the inside force came from the strong encouragement of the President.  Images of the people inside the building, especially one person sitting at a desk in the House Speaker’s office had almost a clown feeling to it.  Almost someone doing mischief.  Efforts were to be disruptive and that they were. It could have been a lot worse. What it did show was how fragile the country is, how poor security was at the Capitol and how democracy is something we cannot take for granted!!

It felt good to see the proceeding resume after the building was secure, and while there were four deaths it could have been many more.  By the time I got up this morning, Biden and Harris were formally elected and there was a message from the President there would be an orderly transfer of power.  Yet I still have this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, and while my unrest is not at the level I felt after 9/11, it is here.  On 9/11, living in Jersey City, I saw the second tower collapse, with my own eyes, walking the few blocks from our house to the river.  I was with a neighbor and I knew that all of my family was already safe. Yet that day changed me. It took a few months before the direction was clear to me, and how I ran my dance company and what I decided to choreograph evolved in a different direction.  I have written about that before and so I will just summarize by saying that the Forgiveness Project happened shortly after that, and my focus on work shifted from emphasis on Jewish themes and performances in synagogues to work relevant for working with women in prison.

So I know I have a need to be patient with myself, not discount my feelings and give myself time to see what evolves.  My circumstances are different as I now am far from DC where the action happened.  I live alone in Costa Rica in a beautiful setting.  Yet I am hearing a voice inside me saying that this threat to democracy in the United States is very real and not over and that it does affect me and those close to me. This fight of the white men to keep control is not over.  Racism is a key part of it. And I can’t be silent about it! 

In 2003, the teacher I had for life drawing at the Art Students League in New York City (I am embarrassed not to remember her name) talked about how important it is to use your art for political statements, particularly related to feminism.  So maybe thinking about how to bring these feelings into my art will be important to me. 

We have so many outstanding examples of visual artists, musicians, and performing artists responding to the politics and challenges of their time.  I ask myself and I ask you how are we going to respond to what we saw yesterday and the reminder of how fragile our democracy is, and how racism, anti-Semitism and feminism fit into this picture!  For a brief moment yesterday we got to celebrate two new senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff elected from a Southern state.  Ossoff is only 33 and Jewish. Reverend Warnock is African American.  The fact that the Southern state of Georgia elected them and is giving the Senate back to the Democrats is a major tribute to Stacey Abrams who,  along with other women of color, dedicated herself to changing the state. That gives me hope.  

I am privileged to live in a beautiful home in Costa Rica. Part of the reason Murray and I moved here was because of our fear of how the election of 2016 pointed toward increased anti-Semitism, racism, and loss of democracy.  Yesterday was a major test.  Even though I don’t live in the United States right now I am still a citizen and care.  So I am asking myself, “What can I do as an artist from right where I am????”

Today I decided I want to do original sketches of women I really admire for my
wall of Sheroes.  This is a very rough sketch of a portrait that
I will be working on for the next several days. 

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Celebrating Light and Darkness

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Movement Workshops, Personal Life

I am writing this on December 21, the winter solstice, in Atenas, Costa Rica.  When I lived in the United States this was the darkest point in the year and also the point where each day began to get brighter until June 21.  Living in Costa Rica the shift is very small.   For example, there is just about a half-hour difference in sunrise and half-hour difference in sunset over the full year.  So the range is about an hour difference maximum for the year, compared with nearly a five-hour difference in Santa Fe, the last place I lived. I am not a morning person.  For as long as I can remember I have loved to stay up late, often getting a burst of creative thinking or loving to watch a movie and just relax, sometimes going to bed around 2 AM.  Now that doesn’t work so well here, as the mornings are so beautiful.  Murray loved the mornings and often got up shortly after sunrise while I continued to sleep.  Perhaps I will experiment a bit more, seeing if I can go to bed earlier and get up earlier to enjoy the morning –  maybe seeing if I can turn my internal clock around and be creative first thing in the day. 

One of my favorite activities that I did in dance workshops, for participants ranging from young children to adults, was to explore ideas related to light and darkness.  Often we used a line from Genesis to get things going: “And G-d separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4) There are so many easy and wonderful ways to quickly motivate movement with this line of text, and activities for this line as well as other suggestions can be found in the book I co-authored with Rabbi Susan Freeman called Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash which I am pleased to say is still available on Amazon.com. (Link to book.)

For today’s blog I want to focus on how I relate to light and darkness at the present time!!  First of all I find things to celebrate about light and darkness in nature and in my art.  I also find a negative side. When the light is too bright I find it very uncomfortable.  Darkness can be scary at night, especially with strange noises.  On the other hand darkness can be very comforting.  A dark night allows us to see the stars more vividly and there is a wonderful joy in that.  The few times I have been up to see the sun rise there is something very welcoming and satisfying in that.

When I first studied art at the Art Students League in NYC I was required to do charcoal studies of gradation from very dark to very light and then look carefully at the model and start with the darkest shadow first.  I still use this concept when painting.  I am beginning to explore watercolor and am learning to decide where the lightest point might be and to leave the paper paint-free with the white showing through.  This came in very handy when making some holiday greeting cards where the white became a very important part of the design as illustrated in the photo of this holiday card.  

Greeting card I created this December
A favorite painting I created in 2009, in which I particularly like how I used
light and darkness.  I am pleased to share that this painting sold in Santa Fe back in 2011 and continues to be one of my favorite paintings mainly because of the contrasts in it

I close wishing you a very happy holiday season and hoping this coming year will be a healthy and creative one for us all as we explore our new normal. For me, I might focus on enjoying more of the daylight here in Costa Rica, maybe welcoming the sunrise, finding opportunities to be creative in the morning and learning to go to bed earlier!!  And then again my body and mind may just not want to change, no matter how good it sounds.

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