Category: Personal Life

Finding my Creative Voice in Costa Rica

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

We have now been in Costa Rica for just over six weeks.  The first four were particularly challenging.  We furnished our house with the basics, deciding not to get fancy or spend lots of money.  We learned how to pay our bills, estimating colonies to dollars so we could understand the cost of things in a way we were used to. We are still figuring out how to manage our house and the swimming pool with its solar heating and infinity design which still remains a puzzle to us. During these first four weeks I often woke up with, and experienced at other times, a huge knot in my stomach.  The last few weeks I have begun to get back to painting and that has made a major difference. Particularly the past week I have made it a point to have at least two hours a day devoted to my quiet creative time, mainly painting but sometimes writing.  The knot in my stomach is rarely there now.  Yes, regular meditation helps some too.  For me something additional happens when I am using my creative voice.  Fears, concerns, planning all drop away and I become one with my painting, just as I did with dance.

I am aware that I am experimenting right now, not sure what style, medium, or subject matter will dominate. The views from each room in our house are breathtaking.  When I think about what I want to paint I have tons of choices.  Where to begin… what to key in on… how to simplify and yet capture the spirit of what I am seeing — these are some of the thoughts that are going through my mind.  Of course, at this point all that is important is that I show up and just see what happens — no criticism, just being present and finding the creative voice.

For years I have taught and encouraged teachers to find their creative voice, and guided them on how to help children keep their creative energies, which seem to drop off around 4th grade. When I lead workshops for teachers I particularly focused on the research of E. Paul Torrance and the wonderful way he defined elements that make up the creative process. He also developed creativity tests.  I am thinking that it will be useful to remember some of Torrance’s ideas as I explore my creative voice in this new chapter in my life.

When I first became familiar with Torrance, he drew on J.P. Guilford’s thinking and defined creativity as having 4 components –  fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration:

Fluency. The total number of interpretable, meaningful, and relevant ideas generated in response to the stimulus. 2. Flexibility. The number of different categories or shifts in responses. 3. Originality. The number of unusual yet relevant ideas and the statistical rarity of the responses. 4. Elaboration. The amount of detail used to extend a response. (From Ellis Paul Torrance – The Father of Creativity by Sergey Markov, June 2017) https://geniusrevive.com/en/ellis-paul-torrance-father-of-modern-creativity/

Sergey Markov’s article is excellent and I learned lots of new things about Torrance.  I recommend reading it if you have a strong interest in creativity theory and testing.  For the purposes of this blog I just want to say I will be exploring and guiding some of my painting by keeping these ways of thinking in mind.  Of course… it will be important for me to not get caught up in an intellectual way but rather to simply explore and not judge.

I’ve completed one 9” x 12” oil focusing on one of the plants in a realistic way. 

First Painting

Now I’m working on another painting and am approaching it by doing a larger scene but with less detail and looking at it as large blocks of colors. It’s also a 9” x 12” board. 

My second painting. Is it complete?

In an earlier blog I wrote about the encouragement I got from my Mom in being creative, and the model she provided by completing a lovely watercolor of her dog just three weeks before she died at the age of 90. Certainly Genevieve Jones’s creative dance classes were a wonderful guide, as was my work in creative dramatics with both Dr. Barbara McIntyre and Dr. Joe Karioth.

For now the creative time is helping me settle in Costa Rica and truly see and appreciate the beautiful landscape we are surrounded by. Indeed, the beauty of our location was one of the guiding forces that brought us here and it could be so easy to get caught up in the overwhelming process of adjusting to a new country and forget that.  The two hours of my own quiet time, sometimes in writing and mostly in painting (as non-verbal creativity is more target to me), is so important right now.  

End Note (written Thursday night, March 12) This blog was written last weekend. Since then, our community of Atenas has been experiencing major fires due to the heat and high winds. On Tuesday, Murray and I had to leave the house in the late afternoon because the smoke was so intense and large flames were very visible and close to our house.  Luckily so far we have been spared any damage. We returned last evening and most of today was spent cleaning. Creative endeavors sometimes have to be put on hold and I am reminded of Rollo May’s hierarchy of needs. Life is certainly a balancing act.  After posting this blog this morning on Sunday, March 15th I am going to spend several hours painting.  It is not just an option… it is a necessity to keep my balance!!!

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Tuesday Night Dance Classes: Thank You, Jeanne Beaman

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Personal Life

To get ready to write this blog I googled Jeanne Beaman hoping to find some pictures and a good bio online.  Instead I found an obituary. I knew Jeanne was getting up in years but somehow I didn’t expect to find that she had died just this month, having lived to be a hundred.  And an even bigger surprise was that she died in Bernallilo, New Mexico. My heart sank. Up until the end of January I had lived within a 40-minute drive of where she had lived. I could have visited her if I had known.  I hunched that one of her children must have moved to New Mexico and that she had been living with them.  Googling some more I discovered it was her son, Peter, and that he lived in Placido having moved from Pittsburgh. So… this blog takes on a special meaning for me. Not only do I want to share the strong impact she had on my development as a dancer and person but I deeply want to honor her.

Jeanne Beaman https://obituaries.gloucestertimes.com/obituary/jeanne-beaman-1078445337

I was probably about 14 when I began taking an adult modern dance class that met on Tuesday evenings in Genevieve Jones’s Oakland studio. Luckily a friend of my Mom’s regularly took the class and offered to drive me to and from the class until I was 16 and could drive myself. I was the only young person in the class and it was quite a wonderful group of adults, many of whom still stand out in my mind as if it were only yesterday.  Fran Balter, the friend of my Mom’s, had children close to my age and had studied dance at Bennington and the Martha Graham Studio. She was a tall, stately, elegant woman.  And then there was Cecil Kitcat. She taught dance at Carnegie Mellon (then called Carnegie Tech).  She had a strong British accent and was probably in her 60’s.  She seemed very old to me and quite a character as she enthusiastically attacked the movement.  Several other women were regulars, and I don’t remember if we had any men in the class. 

Jeanne led the class with focused intent.  Small, with her hair in a tight bun, she guided us through a serious modern dance class, drawing from several different modern dance pioneers and putting together wonderful combinations of her own.  The class was well thought out, beginning with standing stretches, progressing to sitting-on-the-floor work that included Graham contractions and turns around the back.  When we stood up again, with pliés and tendus we were ready to go across the floor.  And that was what I loved most.  I remember one combination that had a super fun fall in it where we ran and lunged with an outstretched arm taking us to the ground followed by a roll and getting back up.  I later used that fall in an audition at Perry-Mansfield Dance and Theatre Camp and it got the attention of Helen Tamiris and earned me a spot in a piece she was setting.  Tamiris even asked me to please repeat the fall again at the audition. Many of the campers/students had put together a short dance before they came.  I hadn’t, so I put together some of my favorite across-the-floor combinations of Jeanne’s, ending with the fall. 

For me, Jeanne wasn’t just my modern dance teacher, but someone who could understand my drive and determination to be a dancer and my desire to have a career in dance.  Sometimes when I was being challenged at home and discouraged from a dance career she would speak with my parents, helping them to understand my love of dance and encouraging their support.

When Martha Graham’s film A Dancer’s World was made and first broadcast at WQED in Pittsburgh, Jeanne held a reception at Chatham College where she was teaching at the time.  Graham was there and I remember being introduced to her and saying that I so wanted to come to NYC and take her Xmas intensive course.  And of course she assured me that was indeed possible even for a person as young as I was at the time. (Probably 14 going on 15 at the time…. it would take me until I was 16 to go.) 

Later Jeanne left Chatham College and began teaching at the University of Pittsburgh.  By then I was in NYC and Juilliard.  When I came back home from Juilliard to attend the University of Pittsburgh, the university wouldn’t accept the ballet or modern dance classes from Juilliard to fulfill the required PE credit.  So I took Jeanne’s modern dance class in the PE department and served as her demonstrator for the semester. It was kind of our joke that here I was in this beginning modern class to fulfill a PE requirement.

Among my many memories is the composition assignment based on computer-assigned movement. Unexpected movement sequences challenged us.  Jeanne was a pioneer in working on using the computer and dance together.

As my dance career developed and Jeanne and her husband had retired, moving to Rockport, Massachusetts during the year, and in the summers to an island in Maine, we kept in touch.  She came to a dance performance by Avodah when we were in Boston, and on another tour when I had a day off I visited her in Rockport.  One summer when Murray and I planned a Maine trip we had a delightful time visiting her and Richard on their Maine Island.

Murray and I with Jeanne, summer of 1990
at their Maine Island.

We kept in touch, occasionally talking and writing, through the early 2000’s. At some point I knew that her children were encouraging her to leave Rockport where she was then living alone since her husband had died.  She wrote that she wasn’t ready yet.  

The dance world is small with lots of overlapping connections. At a conference in October of 2018 (when Elizabeth McPherson and I were presenting a workshop on Helen Tamiris), Elizabeth, Lynne Wimmer (a dancer/choreographer/teacher from Pittsburgh) and I were having dinner together.  Somehow Lynne and I began talking about classes with Jeanne Beaman.  Elizabeth perked up and shared that she had interviewed Jeanne for a book she had written about the early Bennington College summer program.  We had fun sharing our memories of Jeanne and marveling at Jeanne’s dance history from starting in ballet with the San Francisco Opera Ballet, then studying with the early dance pioneers, training at Mills College, teaching for many years, and advocating for dance, particularly in Pittsburgh and New England.

There is a strange empty feeling in me right now knowing that she has passed.  I send heartfelt love and condolences to her family and am deeply grateful for the role she played in my life.

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First Dance Classes: Remembering Genevieve Jones

JoAnne Tucker / / Childhood, Personal Life

My cousin Maxine, who is a year younger than I am, started taking dance classes when she was 4 or 5 and my family would drive to Uniontown, which was about an hour from where we lived in Pittsburgh, to watch her recitals.  These were long evenings with kids in satiny, glittery costumes doing various routines.  Usually the kids had several costume changes since they were in quite a few numbers.  So when my Mom wanted to expose me to dance classes she selected Kelly’s School of Dance, which was in our neighborhood and run by Louise Kelly.  Louise was one of Gene Kelly’s sisters.  Gene had grown up in Pittsburgh and now was in his prime in Hollywood. It was somewhat similar to the kind of dance school that Maxine had gone to, with the emphasis on recitals and costumes and young kids being exposed to tap, acrobatics, and a kind of intro to ballet.

My cousin Maxine in one of her recital costumes. (When I shared this picture with Maxine she remembered the following about the picture and the role her dance classes played in her life.)

My recollection is that this was taken when my ballet dance class performed Swan Lake. I think somehow we must have had individual photos. I was definitely in the chorus of ballerinas and sort of remember being in a semicircular formation with the other dancers. Note the braces so I think this was towards the end of my involvement with dance training 6 days/week when I decided as a teenager that I liked academics a lot more than dance and did not have the talent or the desire to be a ballerina or a dancer.

Today, I am most grateful for the self discipline, the coordination, mental development, the muscular training and the appreciation for the art of dance that I received from all of that hard work. My involvement with Tai Chi over the past 10 years brings back so much of the joy of dance – practicing steps, being graceful and remembering combinations. I also attribute my physical strength and my ability to comeback from my traumatic brain injury to this early training.)

Once I got to know my friend Regina and learned about the dance classes she was taking I thought I would like to try the kind of dance she was doing. Regina was studying with Genevieve Jones and had recently been in a delightful production of Johnny Appleseed. She was invited to play a skunk with an older group of kids. Genevieve had a totally different approach to working with kids.  Students were encouraged to make up their own movement, usually to a story she shared.  The music was mostly live accompaniment.  I wanted to do this instead of learning routines!!

Genevieve was a real pioneer in modern dance in Pittsburgh.  She was born in 1906 in Pittsburgh and attended the University of Wisconsin, majoring in dance.  (The University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to its website, offered the first university dance degree program in the country.)  Genevieve brought her love of modern dance back to Pittsburgh.  In the 30’s she began bringing such dance legends as Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, and Jose Limon to her hometown.

I soon was loving the creative movement classes she led, and I remember one dance program in which I was an Irish Lady and we danced a poem about the Irish famine when people only ate potatoes.

Practicing in costume for the Irish Lady, in the living room of our house on Shaw Avenue in Pittsburgh. I think I am about 10 in this picture.

In addition to the children’s classes that Genevieve taught, she also conducted quite popular ballroom classes for pre-teens.  Five of us from Shaw Avenue carpooled to these classes. One of our parents would drive us to the class and another would pick us up.  Jimmy Levinson, Joan Davis, Regina, Bobby Moser and I would pile into a car and off we go to her very large studio with chairs all around the room.  I seem to remember we had to wear white cotton gloves and it was all very formal learning how to do the basic ballroom steps.  We learned to graciously accept being asked to dance, and when it was women’s choice, to ask someone to dance.  Afterwards we would go back to one of our houses and have fun hanging out together.  While I didn’t keep in contact with Joan Davis, I do know that Bobby Moser took over his father’s interior design business in our neighborhood of Squirrel Hill. He died in his sixties. Jimmy and I have kept in contact through the years.  He has done amazing things in agricultural economics and with work in India. His son is part of an amazing non-profit in India which works with pregnant women and their newborn infants. And of course, if you have been reading this blog you know that Regina and I continue to enjoy both our friendship and working and collaborating together.

As a teenager I began teaching classes in my basement as a way to earn some money and found myself using many images and ideas from Genevieve Jones’s classes.   And many years later when I had a full-grown practice working with children in Tallahassee I again turned to ideas I had experienced in Genevieve’s classes.  By that time she had published a book sharing her stories, telling how she guided children in using them in movement, and providing original music from the person who had accompanied her classes.  Her materials were wonderfully useful, especially for working with children ages 3 to about 8. 

I also remember the simple imagery she used when doing some warm-up exercises like saying hello and goodbye as we pointed and flexed our feet!!

Teaching in Tallahassee, Florida, saying “hello and goodbye” with our toes. Picture taken around 1975.

Genevieve was a wonderful influence in helping me develop my creativity and starting me on a fun journey in dance.  As I became a teenager I wanted something different and found other dance teachers with a more disciplined and structured approach. 

As I was going through my scrapbooks getting ready for our move to Costa Rica, I came across an obituary that I had saved, written when Genevieve died in 2002.  In it she is quoted as saying, “Dance (always spelled with a capital D) is a sacred thing, a great and wonderful thing.” 

I very much wanted to find a picture of Genevieve Jones to include in this post.  I wasn’t able to, but what I did find, in a literary journal, was a wonderful piece entitled “Letters to Genevieve,” which describes her beautifully and shows the profound impact she had on one individual’s life. The work was written by Sarah Golin, and here is the link to it. https://blackbird.vcu.edu/v18n1/nonfiction/golin-s/letters-page.shtml.  Thank you, Sarah, for writing this. 

Regina Ress has also written about her experience in dance and the influence of Genevieve Jones. Here’s a link to it. Thank you, Regina, for sharing this.

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Putting Together the Right Team in Selling and Buying A House: Part 2

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

We had no intention of buying a home in Costa Rica when we visited in late October.  We were here to check out how we could handle the high humidity in rainy season. We did think it would be useful to get a sense of the real estate market with the thought we might buy at a later date, and to get to know the different neighborhoods in the community of Atenas where we thought we might like to live, so we reached out to Marian Veltman to show us around.  We had rented a house that was managed by the company she is connected with. In fact, her husband had picked us up at the airport and when I asked him about Marian showing us around, he commented, “She won’t just sell you a house, she will make sure you are really settled in it and know your way around the community.”  Hum, I thought, that is an interesting comment…

So Murray and I began going out with Marian and getting to know the different neighborhoods.  We saw lots of homes that didn’t interest us.  As we went around, I was impressed that Marian was listening and paying attention to our interests.  Murray really loves his swimming workout,  and finding a house with either a large enough pool or easy access to a neighborhood pool was taken very seriously.  When we heard about a community that was over a half-hour drive away and where Marian had a house listed, she even enthusiastically contacted another real estate person to make sure we could see a second available house in the area and drove us down.  That was a fairly challenging drive, especially when we got near the community and drove a very narrow, rough, dirt road.  But we didn’t like either house.

And then one day when we were looking at homes, we drove up a very lovely driveway to a house that we both loved and everything changed!

View from the top of the driveway.

For us and our needs this house really stood out! Now we began to think differently.  We calculated our budget and put in an offer based on what we could afford, knowing that it is much easier to buy in Costa Rica than to sell.  We learned more about closing and the taxes you have to pay along with lawyer fees in Costa Rica.  The closing costs are actually higher than in the US. We took all these costs into account.  Marian was respectful of our thinking, not pushing us to go higher in any way, which we really appreciated.  It took a bit of negotiating and we liked the very personal way she worked with us and the seller, and we came to an agreement which was in our budget.  So this stage of getting an offer accepted was complete and it had all been extremely positive, working with a very professional, knowledgeable person who had lots of energy and positive outlook.  When we left to go back to the US, she said she would be at the airport to pick us up when we returned to Costa Rica.

And 2 ½ months later she indeed was there, along with Piet, one of the property managers whom we had also met.  We indeed needed two cars for our 8 very large bags and 4 additional carry ons!  (We decided not to send a container but to take only what we could fit into suitcases. We were flying Southwest, which allows you to check 2 bags each, along with paying for extra bags and overweight.  It was well worth it to have our stuff with us right away.)

Murray and I at the airport (photo taken by our son-in-law who helped us to get to the airport with all of our bags.

Three days later, we closed on the house.  Marian had carefully prepared a list of useful numbers for us and promised to take us shopping the next day.  In the meantime (and over the next few days), we enjoyed some wonderful pastries that were a gift from her.

Bright and early the next morning, Marian picked us up and we spent all day shopping, going from one store to another to make sure we had the basics to get started in the new house!  Beds for all the bedrooms, a sofa and a TV for the living room, pots and pans for the kitchen, dishes and glasses and on and on went the list.  By the end of the day we had all the basics that we would need!  She promised to take us again.  We were deeply grateful for her help.  It didn’t end there.

Murray and Marian after our long day of shopping. Murray was exhausted! Marian still had lots of energy! I was somewhere in between.

Among the many challenging things for new expats is banking.  When we had gone to contract on the house and expressed some of our concerns about how we would function in a new country, our lawyer had said that his secretary would help us set up a bank account. She did, and she set up some of the bills, like electricity and phone, so they would be paid automatically.

Other bills, like our homeowner’s fees and water bill, would have to be paid differently and not online. Until one has some form of residency here, banking is limited.  I found myself very overwhelmed about how to pay the bills at another bank.  Marian and I had emailed back and forth and we had planned that we would do another shopping trip together.  When she picked me up I expressed my concern about paying these bills and so we decided to stop at the bank where they could be paid and she could show me how.  It ended up being very easy and I was so excited and relieved that I just wanted to hug her and do a dance of joy!!  The transition was getting easier, thanks to her generous help. 

Among the things she knew I was looking for was an inexpensive coffee table.  A few days later Marian texted to say she thought she had found one when she was out shopping.  She sent us a picture and we said “Yes! Buy it!”  She even had it assembled for us.  It works perfectly in our living room.

And of course she knows the local vendors and how and where to get things.  She helped Murray get his cell phone.  She recommended someone to upholster the well-worn dining room chairs. (The previous owner had agreed to leave a few things such as the dining room table and chairs for us.)  She is very fluent in both English and Spanish and that makes it very easy for her to help those of us who have very limited Spanish. 

I’m used to being in charge. I am learning to ask for lots of help as we make this transition to a new country.  We feel so fortunate to have the help of Marian and indeed the comment that her husband made about her not just selling us a house but also helping us to adjust and become a part of this new community is very true!

More lessons learned.  When you find the right person, welcome them into your life, don’t be afraid to ask for help and most important let them know how grateful you are for their help. A deep bow of gratitude and thanks to Marian Veltman.

https://www.godutchrealty.com/costa-rica-real-estate-agents/atenas-real-estate-agent/
Marian Veltman of GoDutch Realty

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Putting Together the Right Team in Selling and Buying a House – Part I

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

It should not come as a surprise, yet it still does amaze me, that the many experiences I had directing the Avodah Dance Ensemble (and then being part of a team producing and directing short films for Healing Voices-Personal Stories) are so relevant in other aspects of my life.  This was especially true recently when we sold our Santa Fe house and bought a new one in Costa Rica.

I’ll begin with selling the home in Santa Fe.  I thought it would be a breeze to find a listing agent, and wow was I wrong.  We asked around, looked at reviews online and then finally decided to interview two or three agents.  The first person we arranged to see had very high reviews online and so we called and she came over.  She had a lovely personality and gave us a listing figure that surprised us at how high it was.  She also said we didn’t need to do anything to put the house in order.  Hum…. That didn’t seem too realistic.  She was overpricing, and when I went to explore her website I saw quite a few homes that had reduced their price. 

Our neighbors across the street raved about their realtor so the next appointment was with her.  Exactly the opposite of the first person.  As we walked through the house together she pointed out all the things that were wrong.  When we sat down to discuss it further we could see she was undervaluing the house and was really acting like a buyer’s representative, not a listing agent.

We were somewhat frustrated and not sure where to turn next.  Then I decided to call a realtor friend that I knew from being on the Board of New Mexico Women in Film.  I hadn’t called her before because she was new to real estate.  She asked if she could bring a friend who was mentoring her. They came together but the mentor totally took over and my friend never had an opportunity to say much.  The mentor nailed the price as to what we hunched it was worth and had a nice positive attitude.  Unfortunately, she started pressing us to immediately sign the listing agreement which she had brought.  Three times we told her that we wanted to think it over first!! She continued to press us. There were follow-up calls from my friend, who was clearly being directed to press us, too.  Well… that wouldn’t work for us.  The thought of her bringing us an offer that we might be hesitant about and having to deal with pressure from her was just not to our liking.

We were now getting more discouraged.  We had never imagined that it would be hard to find a listing agent.  A day or two went by with both of us wondering what to do.  Then I remembered that our Healing Voices intern had worked part-time for a realtor at Sotheby’s.  I texted our former intern, and she highly recommended the realtor, Emily Garcia, so we put in a call.  Emily set up a time to visit our home. When she arrived she set a relaxed and friendly mood and said this visit was just to get to know our house.  She wouldn’t even quote a listing price until she had a good sense of the house, and then she would go back to her office and research it.  It was a lovely experience walking her through the house.  She was very positive and said she would help me stage it so it would have the most impact for showing.  At the end we shared the price that we thought was right.  That evening we got a call back from her saying we had nailed the exact price!! Yeah!  She then asked us to come down to her office to go through things.  We did.  There was absolutely no pressure to sign and we liked that.  She introduced us to other members of her team that would be working with her.  It was clear she was very well organized and had put together a good team to handle all the details of selling and closing!

Whew… we had found our right listing agent.  The next step was to stage our house.  One of our daughters clearly told me to listen to whatever Emily said — she knew best and it would work to our advantage to just follow her instructions.

Emily Garcia our listing agent
http://emilygarcia.com

Emily returned and I walked with her through the house, pencil and paper in hand, making notes of all the things that she said needed to go, and of the different places for pictures to be hung to enhance the Southwest look of a Santa Fe home.  Those things that were easy to do, we did right away.  I had a pretty long list of things I would be needing to do.  For example, reducing the bookshelves by at least one-third.  Some of the things on the list involved moving furniture that was too heavy for Murray and me.  Emily gave us names of several people who could help us. I called one on the list and set up a time to meet with him. Emily joined us that day, continuing to tweak her instructions on how to make our home look its absolute best.

OK…..  how did it feel to have someone staging our home? Well I think it was a little hard for my husband but again my theatre/film experience came in handy.  Our home was now a set for a performance that needed to look just right.  Emily was my set designer and my job was simply to follow her instructions.  I could tell she had a real sense of design and what would work, so it made it particularly easy to just do it. 

The day photos were going to be taken Emily again joined us and tweaked a few things to get everything just right.  I also immediately connected to the photography. 

I was impressed how Emily approached the write up. She had us fill out a questionnaire and write down the things we really loved about our house.  Murray and I each did it separately and some of our phrases became part of the description.

Once the house was ready for the photos to be taken I knew it was time to immediately put it on the market.  We had considered waiting until we moved out, but some quick research showed there was very little for sale in our price range and no home as lovely.  So pictures were taken on Monday. They were available on Thursday. Thursday night our house was MLS listed. Friday and Saturday we had to be out of the house most of the afternoon as we were getting quite a few showing appointments each day.  By Sunday morning we had an offer that we later in the day learned was slightly over the asking price.  WOW…. It had worked.  We had found a good listing agent and had followed her instructions. It was worth interviewing four different people and taking our time to find just the right person. 

Through the next few weeks other members of Emily’s team stepped up and proved how valuable they were.  Lesson learned and reminder to myself… just as I carefully auditioned to find a dancer to join the company, it pays to take my time to build the right team in all aspects of my life. Thank you, Emily Garcia for the great job you and your team did!


Picture taken right after we signed the papers to close on the house.  From l. to r. Murray, JoAnne, Diane Woods from the Title Company and Emily Garcia

Pictures from the brochure show how beautifully Emily helped us stage our house.

What to do with 10 scrapbooks, a box filled with videos of performances and a pile of files?

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

As Murray and I have decided to move with just suitcases to our new home in Costa Rica, we have been going through drawers and bookcases and finding new homes for so many things. From 1972 to 2004 I diligently kept Avodah scrapbooks filled with flyers of performances, reviews, photographs of fun times on tour, shots of workshops/performances and professional photographs of different pieces.  Suddenly I was faced with what to do with them.  As they also are providing an important resource for this blog, I immediately decided that the most important thing to do was to scan each page so I would have the information but could then let go of the actual heavy and bulky scrapbooks.

And so several weeks ago I began scanning each page, sometimes even opening up a program or an article to scan that part which wasn’t visible on the page. One night when I went to bed I noticed that I had a queasy knot in my stomach.  I wasn’t sure what that was from. 

Kezia had encouraged me to find a place to donate the scrapbooks.  I wasn’t sure where.  I did drop an email to two people asking for suggestions, but didn’t get a response.  Kezia suggested the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, but I didn’t think that was realistic since I wasn’t a mainstream dance figure. And then I thought maybe the Dance Library of Israel, but I didn’t pursue that.

Then, as I was scanning yet another volume it dawned on me that one of the most consistent things in the history of The Avodah Dance Ensemble was that from the company’s beginning, it had been a part of the reform Jewish movement, and in New York our home base was Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.  We had collaborated with many professors there, and both rabbinic students and cantorial students had played important roles in the company,  so HUC-JIR seemed the most likely place for an archive.  Kezia had already suggested that possibility, but the problem was that most of the people I had worked with had retired or were no longer there.  But now I went to their website in search of some ideas.

At the website I found the American Jewish Archives which are housed at the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR.  They have their own website and of course I went there.  It mentioned that they have a collection of papers, scrapbooks and music related to reform Judaism and Jews in America.  They list their collection on one of the pages in two ways.  One is alphabetical and the other is by collection number. This sounded like a match.  I jotted down their phone number and first thing the next morning I called.  I was put through to a delightful woman, Dr. Dana Herman, who, as soon as I explained the different people at HUC-JIR that Avodah and I had worked with, said they would be thrilled to have the collection.

Much to my surprise, the weird pit in my stomach eased.  I hadn’t realized that I was very concerned about where the materials would be housed. As I was scanning the pages I was reminded of the many outstanding scholars, musicians, writers, dancers and fellow choreographers who are a part of Avodah’s and my history.  The number of reform congregations in the US where we participated in Shabbat services, performed concerts, or led workshops was surprising, in addition to the Hillels, JCC’s, conservative and even occasional orthodox communities. (We also performed and taught in interfaith programs, correctional facilities, universities, public and private schools, and arts venues, among other settings.) 

And each year we presented several programs at HUC-JIR in New York. There were at least two occasions when we presented at the LA campus. The Cincinnati campus had its own special leader of dance, Franchon Shur, and I was lucky to meet her and interact with her on several occasions.  

It was at the HUC-JIR campus that we held classes for children living in temporary housing. The college generously allowed us the use of classrooms, the kitchen and sanctuary for the 5-week program which met twice a week.  It was one of our favorite teaching situations and we were fortunate to receive the grant from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for a few years.

In the late 90’s when (at Kezia’s urging) we began doing an annual week-long adult  summer workshop on dance as part of a synagogue or church program, it too was held at HUC-JIR, in June when the regular college wasn’t in session.  

There were even several years when I taught “liturgy” as part of the Doctor of Ministry program. Indeed the relationship with HUC-JIR was a very deep one and so I am thrilled that the collection will be housed there and available for anyone who wants to do research related to The Avodah Dance Ensemble and my role as founder and artistic director.

Pictures representing many different dancers and pieces. 
I organized them into different piles for the archives.    

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Thanksgiving 2019!

JoAnne Tucker / / Personal Life

Wishing all of Mostly Dance readers who celebrate Thanksgiving a very meaningful day. I am particularly grateful for the amazing time Murray and I have had in the ten years we have lived in Santa Fe. We are now in the midst of organizing to move to lower elevation and no snow!  Once settled, I look forward to resuming weekly writing of this blog.   For now, it will be fairly irregular… maybe once every two weeks, or even just once a month. 

We have so enjoyed our time here, particularly exploring all the unique places in this “Land of Enchantment.”  This past weekend we visited one of our very favorite places, Bosque del Apache.  The sand hill cranes and snow geese were in full residency and what amazing “ballets” they presented.  I loved watching how the cranes land at sunset and here are two pictures I took this Sunday with my IPhone.  One is of the number of people with their various photography equipment lined up, mostly in silence, all enjoying the spectacle together.

A Half Parachute and a Large Living Room

JoAnne Tucker / / Childhood, Healing Voices - Personal Stories, Musical Theater, Personal Life

In an earlier blog I wrote about an intensive discussion I had at about the age of 8 with Regina, a very good friend who lived down the street from me, about who was the better ballerina, Moira Shearer or Margot Fonteyn.  In this blog I want to share the great fun I had dancing in Regina’s very large living room.

I am not sure where Regina got the half parachute that we played with, but what a joy it was to wave it, dance under it and use our imagination to turn it into whatever we wanted.

We lived on the same street about a half a block from each other. Regina is only about two months older than I am, but because her birthday is at the end of November and mine isn’t until January and the cut off date for kindergarten was December 31, we weren’t in the same grade.  She was a half year ahead, having started kindergarten in September while I began in February.  (The Pittsburgh School district had admissions to start in both September and February, and one could even graduate in February from High School.  I doubt this still exists.)

Anyway, back to the living room.  It was very large, reminding me of the living room in my grandmother’s house that I use to dance in as a toddler.  There was lots of open space for us to move in. I remember in one part of this magical space, close to where you entered, was a record player along with lots of musical theatre records.  During our grade school years and into the beginning of middle school I remember spending so many afternoons listening to musicals of that period such as The King and I,  Oklahoma, and Kiss Me Kate.  Regina had a lovely singing voice and she would sing along.  I did not, so I was strictly about dancing. We talked about a favorite actress, Gertrude Lawrence, who was the original Anna in The King and I and was on the recording we regularly listened to.  Her biography, Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A, became a favorite of mine. I saved that book for many years, occasionally returning to re-read it.  That book and Agnes de Mille’s Dance to the Piper were major sources of inspiration during my pre-teen and early teen years.

Another favorite actress that I remember liking during this time was Celeste Holm, who was the original Ado Annie in Oklahoma. With my awful, out of tune voice, I sometimes tried to sing I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No. Alas… even this kind of song did not work for me.  It was a good thing I liked to dance, ‘cause a triple threat (singer, dancer, actress) I would never be.

l. to r. JoAnne, JoAnne’s sister Peggy, Regina at Peggy’s birthday party.  The only photo I could find of us at the age when we were having fun in Regina’s living room.

Those early after-school/weekend times influenced me in several specific ways.

Many years later, when I built the Creative Dance Center in Tallahassee, Florida (See https://mostlydance.com/2018/11/09/feminism-meets-the-bank-building-a-dance-studio/) one of the first things that I made sure to have was a parachute as a prop to use both with children and adults. This time it was a full parachute that I was able to purchase from an Army Surplus Store.  It was an all-time favorite of all ages.  Sometimes we just made a large circle and watched the wonderful waves it made.  Other times we lifted it as high as we could, making the shape it would be in when it floated down from the sky and then brought it back to the ground. Sometimes I would invite a child to be in charge of how she wanted the rest of the class to hold the parachute so she could dance under or around or what she was imagining it to be, such as a roaring ocean waves.  

When I do a search for creative movement with a parachute, the results are usually focused on pre-schoolers or young school-age children, and there are lots of fun ways the parachute has been used. However, nothing comes up for use with adults, and I found that use equally  satisfying. Leading adult workshops, particularly in Tallahassee when I was doing “permission” workshops as part of Transactional Analysis Training (that’s another later blog), I used it with great success especially with encouraging adults to find or rediscover their inner child.

Clearly those afternoons fostered and reinforced my love for musical theatre, which led not only to attending theater but also choreographing and directing some musical theater.

Regina and I continue our friendship and creative journey to today.  Over the years we have led workshops together, and sometimes as we are dancing around a room with 20 or so participants, we pass each other and smile remembering those times so many years ago when we were doing something similar in her living room. 

Regina and JoAnne attending a film festival, September 2014.  JoAnne and Regina are Board Members and filmmakers with Healing Voices – Personal Stories. The organization was honored that its film “Jessica’s Story” was selected for the Festival and won best LGBT film in the Festival. Photography by Murray Tucker.

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My first ballet and a debate about which ballerina is best!

JoAnne Tucker / / Dance History, Personal Life

In the last blog, I wrote about the first Broadway show I saw.  In this blog I share the first ballet I saw, and it was one of the best.  I am not sure what my exact age was but I hunch I was about seven.  Doing a little research on the Internet I found out that the Sadler’s Wells Ballet made its first tour to the United States in 1949.  The tour was highly successful and yearly tours continued in the early 50’s. Since the ballerina I saw was Moira Shearer in Swan Lake and she retired in 1953, it was somewhere during these four years.  

A little history about the Sadler’s Wells Ballet.  During its first tour the company traveled with 75 people and 7,000 items of scenery and costumes for 12 ballets. Both Moira Shearer and Margot Fonteyn were ballerinas with the company at that time.  My mom decided to take me to see a matinee of Swan Lake when Moira Shearer was dancing the lead role of Odette/Odile. I don’t remember much about the experience but I do remember that my good childhood friend  Regina also went to see the production of Swan Lake but in the evening and the ballerina she saw was Margot Fonteyn. The result was a lively discussion of which ballerina was better.

Reviews praise both of them highly and of course we know that Margot Fonteyn went on to a very long career as a ballerina while Moira Shearer’s fame was mainly for her role as Victoria Page in The Red Shoes.  The Red Shoes premiered in 1948 and is still one of the classic dance films. While I don’t think I saw it until my teens, it is a film that I love to return to every now and then and I do marvel at the beauty, grace and passion of Moira Shearer’s dancing.

Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes 

How wonderful to have been exposed to such an outstanding first ballet, with a recognized ballerina by a first-rate company. I did get to see Fonteyn dance while I was a student at Juilliard when she had just begun a partnership with Rudolf Nureyev. Alas the ballet I saw them do was Marguerite and Armand choreographed by Frederick Ashton based on a book by Alexandre Dumas called La Dame Aux Camalias. I would have preferred to see another ballet with less pantomine. We were encouraged to attend by one of our ballet teachers at Juilliard and we were given free standing-room tickets to the old Met on 39thstreet.  I found this review of the ballet which pretty much says it all.

The finished ballet capitalized on Fonteyn’s natural talents as an actress, and its depth lay less in the choreography than in the performances, the character and electric connection of the two lovers, played by the volatile 24-year-old in Nureyev, whose raw charisma unleashed a new wave of passion and freedom in the poised, 43-year-old English ballerina.

On opening night, the ballet was greeted with a rapturous response and 21 curtain calls, and it went on to become a signature piece for the couple and was performed around the world.  (Royal Opera House website https://www.roh.org.uk/news/how-fonteyn-and-nureyevs-electric-ballet-partnership-made-marguerite-and-armand-into-an-icon)

Fonteyn and Nureyev in 
Marguerite and Armand

Fast forward to many years later when our daughters were around seven and nine and we visited New York City.  I took them to see Alicia Alonso at the Met (by then at Lincoln Center), dancing Giselle. I remember their surprise when the very large chandeliers of the Met automatically lifted up right before the ballet began.  Of course Alicia Alonso was quite wonderful even though she was well into her fifties and this was her last tour to the United States. Many Cubans were in the audience and the curtain calls at the end were a show unto themselves with so many bows and flowers being thrown onto the stage.

Alonso receiving flowers after a performance in her last NY tour, 1976.  (She recently passed away at age 98.)

I stand in awe of these three outstanding ballerinas and am very honored that I got to see each of them in person.  Do you have a favorite ballerina and/or a performance you particularly remember?

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What Was Your First Broadway Show?

JoAnne Tucker / / Musical Theater, Personal Life

I am a regular listener to Sirius, Channel 72, playing Broadway music, and while I have never recorded and sent in an answer to this question that they regularly ask, I often smile when I think of my first experience.  I was about five years old and my grandmother took me to see Peter Pan with Veronica Lake.  When I recently mentioned that to Murray, he joyfully shared that was also the first Broadway show he saw.  We both remember sitting in very good seats at the Old Nixon Theater in Pittsburgh when the production toured back in the late 40’s.  It was a glorious experience for me and started my love of live theater.  Of course, it was not the musical we are all familiar with but rather the original drama of 1904, written by J.M. Barrie.

Veronica Lake in Peter Pan.  Found on the Internet.
Photographer unknown.

In 1954 the musical version of Peter Pan premiered on Broadway with Mary Martin and Cyril Richards, featuring the wonderful music of Mark Charlap with some additional music by Jules Styne.  Lyrics were by Carolyn Leigh with additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.  And of course there was the wonderful direction and choreography of Jerome Robbins.  The television audience was first introduced to Mary Martin and Cyril Richards recreating their roles in 1955 on NBC and again in 1956, live in color.  The 1955 TV program had the largest TV audience ever, with 65 million viewers. 

In 1960 they videotaped a slightly longer version in color and this was rebroadcast often, first by NBC and then by the Disney Channel.  I saw the TV version many times and at some point, probably in the 80’s, we videotaped it.  When our first grandchild, Jessica, was about 2 we introduced her to the taped version of Peter Pan and it was one of her favorites when she came to visit.

Mary Martin as Peter Pan. Photograph found on the Internet.
Photographer unknown.

Then in 1999 when the production with Cathy Rigby was playing on Broadway, three generations went together. Jessica, her Aunt Julie, and I (Grandma) were caught up in the magic created on Broadway.  Since Aunt Julie (our daughter) is a casting director we had perfect seats and she had arranged a backstage tour for us.

The Broadway cast was used to children coming backstage and had designed a perfect way to introduce the new theatergoers to the magic of Broadway.  Jessica was given a small cup with fairy dust in it and cautioned in its use.  We then met the actor who had played Captain Hook.  When Jessica took a step away from him, he reassured her that in real life he was really a very nice person.  I am sure that I had as much fun as Jessica. 

Many times since then Jessica has attended Broadway shows and the last show that we attended together, along with her Mom and Aunt Julie was Finding Neverland with Matthew Morrison.  When I knew we would be in New York City at the same time, I asked what Broadway show Jessica wanted to see.  With no hesitation she suggested Finding Neverland with Matthew Morrison, as she was a big fan of his from the television show Glee.  I hadn’t even heard of the show, or of Morrison.  We got tickets and I loved the show.  Of course, Julie arranged for us to go backstage and meet Morrison.  Here’s a fun picture of us all together with Morrison.

From l. to r, Rachel, me, Matthew Morrison, Jessica and Julie after seeing
Finding Neverland in 2015.

I end by asking if you remember your first Broadway show or musical and whether it made you a fan of later Broadway productions?

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