JoAnne Tucker shares her experiences in dance from directly a modern dance company to leading movement activities for women in prison and domestic violence survivors.
One morning I got a text from a dancer who had performed for two seasons with The Avodah Dance Ensemble, saying that she was planning a trip to Costa Rica. If you are a regular reader of this Mostly Dance you know that I was the founder, and Artistic Director and choreographer of Avodah for over 30 years. I was delighted to hear from Kerrie and told her I would love to see her.
It worked best in both of our schedules for her to plan on visiting at the end of her trip. Kerrie arrived late Thursday afternoon, stayed overnight and then later the next morning caught her flight back to the United States. It gave us plenty of time to catch up on the events in each other’s lives.
Kerrie was in Avodah at the time of a major transition for the company. For the first time, we had received sufficient grant money to hire dancers full time for a sixteen-week season. We also had a major new work, The Forgiveness Project, that was going to take us to weeklong residencies in four different places, including our first visit to a women’s prison. (See blog.) I found this prison experience to be life changing, as did Kerrie, who continued with Avodah for the next season. Here are some pictures of her performing with the company.
Kerrie in Balancing Act. Photo by Tom Brazil
Kerrie in Balancing Act with Sidra Bell. Photo by Tom Brazil.
I loved learning about what Kerrie is doing today and was in awe of her good business sense in running a performing arts school, Forevermore Dance & Theatre Arts, located in the outskirts of Chicago. The school includes three studios for dance classes, two music studios and an area that can be used as a black box for performances. Her management skills are impressive, as well as the way she was able to keep her business open during COVID. A particular highlight for me was when I shared that I couldn’t figure out how to build a real dance studio here on the property, and she came up with a wonderful idea. There are two open spaces – one outdoor and one indoor – that are plenty big enough for a small class or group to work. Neither is ideal,but they could work. One is where cars park, right by the entrance to the house, and the other is the atrium of the house, where there are plants and easy-to-move furniture. Next problem… tile-on-cement floors. I showed Kerrie some 2 ft.-by-2 ft. pads that I had found at the store and was using for yoga. They are designed to be put together, and we tested 4 made into a large square and saw that it could work if I purchased enough. Granted … not a real dance studio but still a place for movement activities that would be safe. I am very grateful for her suggestion.
Not only did we have fun catching up, but we both gave each other ideas for the future. The visit was meaningful and reminded me, especially at this time with so much world stress, that we definitely need to reach out to people who played important roles in our lives even if we haven’t seen them for a very long time. It was over twenty years ago that Kerrie danced with Avodah. When we work as a team in the arts, a bond develops that provides a rich connection. It stays strong over time and provides purposeful further interactions many years later.
Kerrie and I on her visit to Costa Rica, November 2024 Photo by Manrique
On October 22, I streamed the funeral service of Dr. Walter Jacob. My cousin Maxine, who knows what an important person Rabbi Jacob was to me and my family, shared a notice that had gone out to congregants with a zoom link. Tears often steamed down my face as I heard rabbis he had mentored, and his family members, share the important role he had played in their lives. They pointed out that Dr. Jacob was a unique rabbi, combining outstanding scholarship with compassionate pastoral care. He encouraged others in simple, direct ways. As I write this, I am filled with many memories of how he helped me to find my path as choreographer/director of The Avodah Dance Ensemble. He also was very much our family rabbi.
Photo provided by Rodef Shalom
“It’s OK if the new piece doesn’t work. Sometimes we fail.” Dr. Walter Jacob shared these words with me many years ago as we walked through the beautiful garden at his house a few days before we were due to premiere a new piece at Rodef Shalom as part of the service. It would be the third time The Avodah Dance Ensemble performed at Rodef Shalom. I expressed concern that I thought we were trying to do too much in the new piece. I don’t remember exactly what he said next, but it was something about how we learn from all of our experiences. Wise words that helped to guide me through the years.
I attended Rodef Shalom from the time I entered kindergarten until confirmation at age 16. Dr. Jacob was named Assistant Rabbi following his graduation from Hebrew Union College in 1955, and he remained at the congregation, except for the two years when he served as a US Airforce Chaplain in the Philippines. He became Senior Rabbi in 1966 and served in that position until his retirement in 1996 when he was named Rabbi Emeritus and Senior Scholar. My first contact with Rabbi Jacob was probably shortly after he returned from the Philippines. I was 14 and participating in the youth group. As he was guiding us in planning a Havdalah Service I must have mentioned my interest in dance, because he encouraged me, along with another member of the youth group (Suzan Fischer), to create a dance for this sweet service which marks the ending of Shabbat.
I don’t remember what the dance was like, but I do know that experience planted the seed that would later lead me to create and direct the Avodah Dance Ensemble. For the next 35 years, Dr. Jacob (Walter, as I grew to call him as an adult) would play important roles in my family’s life and in my professional dance life.
In a blog published on October 12, 2018, I described the performance of In Praise at Rodef Shalom in 1974. Its first performance had been as part of the dedication service of Temple Israel in Tallahassee, where we lived at the time. On a family visit to Pittsburgh shortly after the Tallahassee performance, my husband and I visited Walter. When I shared information about In Praise, Walter suggested doing it at Rodef Shalom. The performance on Sunday morning, January 27, 1974, stands out as a peak experience and turning point in my life and in the development of The Avodah Dance Ensemble. It became clear to me how I would use my dance talent. Walter helped to reinforce that, not only by inviting us to perform In Praise as part of the service, but by welcoming Irving Fleet (the composer) and me to stand with the clergy in a receiving line. The feedback, while overwhelming, was inspiring. I don’t know how many people came through the line, but it was a lot. (The synagogue seats 900 people on the main floor with a balcony for 300 more, and the downstairs was particularly full due to some excellent publicity in the days before the performance.) Then an amazing column by Milton Susman in The Jewish Chronicle closed by expressing gratitude to Dr. Walter Jacob, “for surrendering his pulpit to a happening that was couched in velvet.”
Lynne Wimmer and JoAnne Tucker on the bema, in front of the ark at Rodef Shalom. Photo by Morris Berman for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1974).
A letter from Walter, after the event, reinforced the impact the piece had, and soon Irving Fleet and I were working on a new piece. As the repertory grew over the next two years, it became clear to me that running a Jewish liturgical dance company from Tallahassee, FL was not ideal, and I began thinking of a New York City-based company. When I shared that idea with Walter, he offered to reach out to Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City to see what relationship we might have with the college. The result of his opening the door in 1976 was a long-running relationship for me with HUC-JIR, through 2004. The company performed in the chapel, first on 68th street and then quite regularly at 1 West 4th Street where HUC-JIR is now. The company was often invited to perform or teach a workshop in a rabbinic class. Later I taught in the Doctor of Divinity Program. All of this was made possible by Walter’s initial contact with Dr. Paul Steinberg, the Dean of the New York campus in 1976.
Walter was a board member of Avodah from the very beginning. He wonderfully encouraged Vigdor Kavalier, Executive Director of Rodef Shalom at the time, to also become a Board Member. Vigdor had a passion for dance and regularly attended New York City Ballet performances at Lincoln Center, flying in from Pittsburgh for a dance-filled weekend.
On a personal note, Walter married my husband and me. As a couple we kept in contact with Walter whenever we traveled to Pittsburgh and loved visiting first the garden in his home and then later the Biblical Garden. When I lost a sister to suicide and none of my immediate family was in Pittsburgh that particular day, my Mom’s secretary called Rodef Shalom and Walter simply came and sat with my Mom until a family member could be with her. My Mom worked in special education and had worked with Walter and Irene with their daughter Claire. Our daughter Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah was at Rodef Shalom. Although she studied with our rabbi in Tallahassee, due to family illness we moved the actual ceremony to Pittsburgh at Rodef Shalom with Walter officiating, so an important family member who lived in Pittsburgh could be part of the event. The depth of Walter’s quiet compassion and presence was indeed a gift to our family and to those of us at Rodef Shalom. For that I am deeply grateful.
This recent post in the CCAR newsletter remembers Walter’s role as a leader of the rabbinic community, a scholar, and a compassionate family rabbi.
As the years passed, I began to be aware of Walter’s outstanding scholarship and his vision to develop a rabbinic school in Germany. An article in Wikipedia is a resource to learn more about Walter, as is his obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Thank you, Maxine, for letting me know of Walter’s death. That it happened during Succot, the harvest holiday, provided a meaningful background so fitting for Walter, who loved nature and gardening. His memory is indeed a blessing, and will continue to be a blessing, for many of us whose lives he touched.
One evening, just a few weeks ago, I opened my email to find a short message from Kezia: “Odd Thing to Find on Ebay,” with an attached link. (ebay.com/itm/354622198330?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28.) Of course, my curiosity was strongly triggered so I followed the link and was surprised to find a 1983 photo of The Avodah Dance Ensemble. The photo was for sale from a company called Historic Images.
I immediately recognized the photo, as it was one of my favorites, taken by photographer Amanda Keglow, and I regularly used it for publicity for several years. It was both amusing and surprising to find it on eBay and realize that it was considered a vintage object. I wondered how it got there, and notes on the back of the photo referred to a Jewish Community Center in January of 1983, and correctly identified the four dancers in the picture. It did not say which Jewish Community Center. I wondered which tour it was. Luckily, I had email addresses for, and had remained in contact with the four dancers who were in the picture, so I put together a group email to them: Rick, Lynne, Roberta, and Nanette, to ask if any of them might remember which JCC we performed at in January 1983. It wasn’t long before I got an email from Rick: “JCC New Orleans??”
Aha… now I could easily check that information and learn more about the tour by going to the digital images of the ten volumes of Avodah scrapbooks now housed at the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
The first thing I discovered was that the four dancers in the photo were not the ones on the tour. Rick and Roberta were, but Lynne and Nanette were not. I had contact information for Roberta so I immediately added her to the email chain. Luckily, even though she had recently retired from her job, her IT person kindly forwarded my email to her. I wasn’t so lucky with the other dancer, Dircella. While I had an email for her and added her to the chain, it wasn’t until several weeks later that I researched and found her on FB, messengered her and got her correct email. The fourth dancer was Naomi, and I had not kept in touch with her. I Googled and found that she had passed.
The tour began on January 21, 1983, in Birmingham, AL at Temple Emanu El. Roberta’s mother had sung in the choir at this Temple. Roberta was currently in Tallahassee, FL, where I was also living, so we drove to Birmingham together. The other dancers were due to fly from New York and join us. Their flight was late, but they made it in time for us to have a quick rehearsal.
Following the Friday night performance, which was part of the Shabbat service, our next performance was in Montgomery, AL. It was my 40th birthday, and the dancers arranged for cupcakes backstage and sang “Happy Birthday” at some point during rehearsal. Rick and I were staying in a lovely house, and we fondly nicknamed the owner “The Mayonnaise King of the South,” as I think that was his business and he must have talked to us a lot about it. There was also a review of the Saturday night concert in the local Montgomery newspaper. The review, by Judith Helms, commented on the “strong modern dancers” and said, “Kaddish with the accomplished dancer, Ms Mindlen as Soloist, was the most beautiful and powerful of the dances.”
We were up early Sunday morning to drive to New Orleans, where we performed at the Jewish Community Center that evening. And that is where the photo on eBay was part of the publicity for the concert. What stands out in my memory of that performance was that the technician running the lighting board left in the middle of one of the pieces, either to go to the bathroom or have a cigarette, and left me not only to call the cues but to figure out how to handle the light board.
After an intense three days with performances each night in a different city, the rest of the tour was easier. Monday was a day off, followed by a performance on Tuesday in Baton Rouge.
On Friday night we were part of the service at Temple Beth El in San Antonio, and having had some days off, we were refreshed for the performance. We also had some very nice home hospitality and got to enjoy a bit of sightseeing in San Antonio. A piece that Rick Jacobs and I had collaborated on, M’Vakshei Or, was a featured part of the service. That week’s Torah portion was Beshalach from Exodus which tells of the Jewish people’s crossing of the Red Sea. M’Vakshei Or had set choreography that opened and closed the piece. The middle section was an improvisation based on the week’s Torah portion. It was always great fun for me to watch these improvisations. I remember vividly Rick leaping off the bema and dancing up the aisle, bringing to mind the traditional midrash of Nachshon who, while others hesitated, boldly jumped into the water, helping the waters to part and the community to follow.
Our final performance was in Galveston, Texas and I remember how wonderful it was that after the performance we got to hang out in a hot tub and relax. Rick, Naomi and Dircelia flew back to New York City, and Roberta and I drove back to Tallahassee, during which trip we experienced a pretty intense rainstorm.
It has been very meaningful to me to keep in touch with dancers who shared their talent with Avodah. So let me catch you up on what the dancers mentioned in this blog are currently doing.
Di Rodin (Dircelia) lives in Hawaii and is the owner of Dance Movement Academy and K-Bay Gymnastics.
Lynne Elliot is a graphic designer living in New York City.
Nanette Joslyn King is a retired lawyer living in California.
Rick Jacobs (Rabbi) is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism based in New York City.
Roberta Behrendt Fliss was former Director of Production for Young Arts and now has her own company, Moonstone Management, and lives in Florida.
I close with these lines that Rick shared as part of our email exchange:
In my current role I’ve been back in many of the congregations and JCCs that we performed in. People still talk about our performances and services. Grateful for all the hearts Avodah opened.
And here is the original photo, from the Avodah Scrapbook:
From l. to r. Rick Jacobs, Lynne Elliott, Roberta Behrendt, Nanette Joslyn. Photo by Amanda Keglow.
After earning her B.F.A. in dance at The Juilliard School in New York, Dina performed in the downtown and Off-Broadway scene. During over four decades in the dance world, she has been a contemporary dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director (LEAVING GROUND/DANCE) and writer. Her books include A Dancer’s Diary: Around the World in Thirteen Dances (see excerpt below) and Birds of a Feather, a Memoir. Additionally, her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Dance International and on criticaldance.org. She has served on the faculty of Pacific Northwest Ballet School since 2001.
_________________
After I graduated from The Juilliard School Dance Division in 1981, I auditioned and was accepted into the Avodah Dance Ensemble, directed by JoAnne Tucker, Ph.D. Tucker’s movement vocabulary showed a distinct influence of Graham technique, so I felt right at home, having studied at both the Martha Graham School and Juilliard. I dove right into learning the repertory – “Kaddish,” “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” and “Noshing,” among others. The company toured throughout the U.S, performing in reform temples and Jewish Community Centers. Although I was raised Roman Catholic, I was fascinated with JoAnne’s weaving of movement from Jewish liturgy and ritual; it was definitely a learning experience at the intersection of dance, religion and culture.
I danced with Avodah for two years, and then took an offer to join the Easy Moving Dance Company based in North Carolina for a short tour, then returned to New York City to dance with the Douglas Hamby Dance Company, Chen and Dancers, and Dance Circle, directed by Ernesta Corvino. Fast forward to forty years later – JoAnne and I reconnected on social media, and upon my visiting here at her hacienda in Costa Rica, she has kindly asked me to be a guest blogger for mostlydance.com. I am happy and honored to both renew our friendship and to oblige her as a guest blogger on mostlydance.com.
Whereas most of my fellow dancers at Juilliard and later at graduate school at Arizona State University loathed any writing assignments, I relished them. I have always been a voracious reader and in recent years, I came to identify as a dancer who writes. In the early 2000’s, I became a moderator on the website criticaldance.org (it’s still going strong – check it out!) during its formative years, a site featuring reviews and feature articles, curated from around the world. After returning from a cultural tour of Cuba in 2014, I wrote a review of the National Ballet of Cuba’s transcendent “Swan Lake” production for criticaldance.org. I later contributed reviews of the works of Akram Khan, Crystal Pite, Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet and classical Balinese dance. A friend, mentor and set designer, Bou Frankel, suggested I collate these reviews and articles from criticaldance.org into a book, and so my first book, A Dancer’s Diary: Around the World in Thirteen Dances, was born.
_________________
In today’s blog post, I share the Introduction of my book. I want to invite you on a journey with me through the mesmerizing and memorable world of dance, with stops along the way in thirteen different countries/choreographers.
Dina McDermott and Marty Ponte in Mandala. Photo: Shaun Parkhurst
Dancer’s Diary
Introduction
Like trying to capture a delicate butterfly, the art of dance enthralls yet eludes us. Like sand running through our fingers, it slips through our grasp when we attempt to quantify it. A dance performance can shock, bore or perturb us, but when the final curtain descends, it is gone forever, never to be repeated precisely the same way again. Dance embodies the elusiveness of time and memory, the impermanence of life.
As we tumble through the twenty-first century, globalization and the ever-widening influence of technology and social media render the art of dance ever more precious and necessary. Dance connects us to our humanity and helps us to locate our unique identity within humanity. In this book, I highlight some lesser known and distinct forms, choreographers and dancers, both theatrical and indigenous. Whether it be a specific Hindu view of the cosmos (Bali), an exquisite ballet tradition in an isolated, socialist country (Cuba), exploration of identity/sexuality (David Rousseve/REALITY), hybridization of Easter/Western forms (H.T. Chen/Remy Charlip) the Jewish/Arab conflict presented in We Love Arabs (Hillel Kogan), the tragedy of Betroffenheit (Crystal Pite/Jonathan Young), or the ancient spirit of duende in flamenco, (Spain), dance is rooted in the corporeal, but aspires to the divine. Join me on this terpsichorean journey, and together we will explore the sublime panoply of human movement-dance!”
A Dancer’s Diary: Around the World in Thirteen Dances, is available on Amazon. For further info-dinamcdermott.com. Questions or to purchase an autographed copy, contact Dina directly at mcdermott910@gmail.com.
While days on tour were demanding, with long hours spent in the performing space whether it was a synagogue or theatre, we occasionally had time to sightsee or just have a day off to relax! Most of those times were wonderfully refreshing, and right now I only remember one tour in which I was so exhausted I barely communicated with the dancers and was just glad to have time alone. This stood in strong contrast to most of the time when we had fun planning what we would do and enjoying each other’s company. With a small company and only one car, having a congenial group was important.
As this blog continues I’ll be sharing my experiences. I enthusiastically invite others to send their favorite memories of days off while on tour with a dance, theatre company, or music group You can just send a sentence or two or have fun writing a fuller “but brief” description. Pictures are always welcome. I’ll put some memories together for a community guest blog. You can share either anonymously or with your name.
One of our most frequent day-off decisions was whether it was best to stock up on food from a grocery store or plan to enjoy a restaurant meal (or a combination of both). (Kezia’s favorite description was from Ida Rae Cahana — that touring was “all about packing, unpacking and foraging for food.”) I can remember lots of meals where afterwards we would pass the one check around the table (‘cause many places would not do separate checks) and each person would calculate what they owed and also put in an amount for a tip. I learned to be a better tipper from those trips, as some of the dancers had been or were waitpersons and understood how important a good tip is!!
Quite often to keep costs low we did home hospitality. Some of these were wonderful experiences where we met people who became friends and contributors of the company through the years. Occasionally, hosted experiences were unpleasant but most of those times a dancer was not alone at a house, so the dancers could support each other and keep a sense of humor about the experience. On one such occasion, Kezia and I were in a house where a five-year-old child kept intruding into our space and asking repeatedly if he could see me naked because he wanted to see a fat person without clothes on! Yes I was heavy and the first time it was kinda funny but soon it became annoying. Kezia (though appalled) helped me keep my sense of humor on this occasion.
Our housing could be all extremes — from mansions to dorm rooms with a mattress on the floor and limited sheets/blankets. Luckily the mattress on the floor only happened for one night at a college booking. One time I spent a few nights in the home of the CEO of a cruise ship line in a beautiful separate guest house overlooking the water in a gated community in the Miami area. I remember a time when two company members stayed in a home that had actual Picasso works.
In the early days of the company one of my favorite trips was to Savannah, GA with Irving Fleet. We were there to stage In Praise as part of the service at Temple Mickve Israel and there had been wonderful publicity. We had the morning off and were wandering on a tour on Riverwalk which runs along the southern edge of the Savannah River, and we entered a touristy jewelry store mainly consisting of beads where you made your own necklace or bracelet. The person behind the counter got very excited and said something like “Oh I recognize you… you were in today’s newspaper!”
The California tours always provided a few fun days off. Once when we were in the Santa Rosa area several of us drove up to Calistoga and I did my one and only mud bath. Calistoga was an interesting small town at the end of the well known Napa Valley, home to hot springs, mud baths and wineries. I remember it as quaint and fun just to walk/drive around. I didn’t like the mud bath too much but was glad I had tried it!
Sometimes we went for gentle hikes or had a beach day or hung around a pool. On a Colorado tour we did a circle drive west of Denver that took us up to a snow-filled pass that had only recently been opened.
What follows next are some of my favorite day-off pictures. A few of them have been in earlier posts!! Some are new.
From an Avodah scrapbook. On the left is Kezia relaxing under a tree and Beth Millstein on the beach, both taken on a Florida tour.Colorado tour when we took a circle trip into the mountains west of Denver. From l to r Loretta Abbott, Newman, JoAnne, Deborah and Cantor Ida Rae Cahana. On a California Tour from l to r. Deborah Hannah, Beth Bardin, Kezia, Susan FreemanRick Jacobs and Bea Bogorad volunteer to be part of a demonstration on our day off tour of Universal City on an early California tour.
Our “Let My People Go” cast members of The Avodah Dance Ensemble are like a family. There is a special closeness, especially among those of us who worked directly with Louis. So it felt quite natural that the way I would hear about Louis’s passing this past Tuesday, March 31, was to get a message from Christopher Hemmans, who danced in “Let My People Go” while a student at Juilliard. He shared this notice, and a little later I got a text message from Freddie Moore, sharing the same link.
I am filled with so many warm memories of my collaboration and friendship with Louis and feel so blessed that he was an important part of my dance history. I have written many blogs about the collaboration, from the first blog of Mostly Dance (on June 1, 2018) to a most meaningful one on September 7, 2018 describing the last meeting I had with Louis. Kezia so beautifully wrote of Louis in 1999, and that is a part of the September 7th blog too. I encourage you to check it out along with all the other blogs from June 1 to September 7, 2018.
We are living in such a strange time with so many deaths that I fear that Louis’s passing will go without the proper honoring that he deserves. When Loretta Abbott passed we had a small but very special meeting together at St. Mark’s church hosted by Jeannine Otis. Now it looks like the way we can gather together is via a ZOOM meeting. So I am suggesting to our Avodah family that we do a ZOOM meeting to share our favorite memories of Louis. How about if we plan on doing that after Passover and Easter… on Tuesday, April 21st, the time to be determined by who wants to participate. Please leave a comment on the blog, or email me directly at jotuc122@gmail.com if you would like to participate.
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.
Fortunately, I don’t have to rack my memory to figure out the beginning steps for The Forgiveness Project, as they are well documented in the February 2001 Avodah Dance Ensemble Newsletter. Much of what I am sharing in this blog comes from the Newsletter’s opening article.
I did indeed read Desmond Tutu’s book No Future Without Forgiveness which Canon Lloyd Casson had suggested. Towards the end of the book Tutu has a paragraph related to the need for Israel to wrestle with forgiveness for Germany. He is not the only one to point this out. In January 2000, Elie Wiesel spoke of forgiveness in a speech he made on the German Day of Remembrance when he addressed the Bundestag. Simon Wiesenthal addressed this important question in his book The Sunflower. Certainly the question of forgiveness related to post-Holocaust German/Jewish relationships is one of the most challenging. My plan was for the dance company to wrestle with this difficult question in a new way through movement. There was no goal to come up with any one definitive answer, just to wrestle with the question.
We would also look at forgiveness from a variety of perspectives – forgiveness of oneself, forgiveness within a relationship, forgiveness as it relates to God and forgiveness between communities. We officially began our work on forgiveness for the project in the fall of 2000 when we presented a lecture demonstration on Yom Kippur afternoon at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion’s High Holiday Services for College and Graduate Students. For this presentation I decided to focus on forgiveness between self and God. To prepare I read the Book of Psalms and jotted down any lines that related to forgiveness. After much pondering I came up with four stages in the process of asking forgiveness of God: being aware of needing to ask for forgiveness; accepting the responsibility to do so; asking for forgiveness; and feeling certain expectations upon being forgiven by God. Three dancers, including Beth Millstein who had worked with Avodah for over seven years, joined me, and we explored the four stages with related lines of text from Psalms.
Much to my delight I have notes from this demonstration and I share them now. Readers who are interested in leading workshops on forgiveness are very welcome to use the text and ideas presented here.
Here are the stages of Forgiveness with supporting Psalm references
1. Reflect or ponder our actions
“So tremble, and sin no more; Ponder it on your bed, and be silent (Psalm 4:5)
2. Take Responsibility
“For my iniquities have overwhelmed me: They are like a heavy burden, more that I can bear.” (Psalm 38:4)
“I recognize my transgressions And am ever conscious of my sins.” (Psalm 51:3)
“I have considered my ways, And have turned back to your decrees.” (Psalm 119:59)
3. Take Action
“Then I acknowledged my sin to you; I did not cover up my guilt;” (Psalm 32)
4. Express how we feel/or anticipate how we will feel after taking action
“Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered over.” (Psalm 32:1)
“You are my shelter: You preserve me from distress: You surround me with the joyous shouts of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:7)
“God redeems your life from the Pit, Surrounds you with steadfast love and mercy.” (Psalm 103:4)
“Yours is the power to forgive So that You may be held in awe.” (Psalm 130:3-4)
We used some of these lines of text in our demonstration as part of the Yom Kippur afternoon service at HUC-JIR and I am most grateful for Rabbi Larry Raphael (of blessed memory) for inviting us to present. In the formal presentation at HUC-JIR the dancers improvised to the lines of text while members of the congregation watched.
As the Forgiveness Project continued we wove these lines from The Book of Psalms into future workshops guiding groups of various ages to explore them. Usually I started with the first stage, read the line of text and then asked each person to respond in movement to the imagery being expressed – for example, to imagine he/she is pondering on “his/her sins” and express what that would be like in movement.
We added other texts into the Forgiveness Project, including biblical texts, writings of Moses Maimonides, lines from the New Testament, a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh and a passage from Wally Lamb’s novel I Know this Much is True. I will be sharing more about these texts and how they fit into the Forgiveness Project in the next few blogs.
JoAnne, on tour in Florida in the fall of 2000, sharing text from the Book of Psalms with a group of religious school students.
Dancers improvising for the students, on lines of text from the Book of Psalms.
Last week I wrote about the company’s performance of Kaddish at a Central Synagogue Sabbath service in May 1985. We dedicated that evening’s performance to Ben Sommers, who had been President of Capezio, and who had died that week. I mentioned in the blog that Ben’s wife, Estelle Sommers, had told me afterwards how meaningful the service was. She also told me that we should get together for lunch after things calmed down for her. About a month or so later we had lunch together, and that began a very special friendship that strongly impacted both the Avodah Dance Ensemble and my life personally.
Estelle, like Ben, was a dancewearspecialist and managed Capezio stores:
Sommers made her career in retail dancewear as a designer, business executive, and owner of various ventures. She revolutionized the field of fitness clothing by introducing a new fabric, Antron-Lycra/Spandex, into her innovative designs for Capezio’s bodywear. (https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/sommers-estelle-joan)
At some point either before our lunch or after she suggested that I reach out to and meet Linda Kent. She mentioned that Linda (then with The Paul Taylor Dance Company) was also interested in liturgical dance. I knew who Linda was and had great respect for her outstanding professional career, first with the Alvin Ailey Company from 1968–74, and then as a principal dancer with the Taylor Company from 1975. I had often seen her perform. Estelle sent Linda a similar kind of note, giving us information on how to contact each other.
Linda and I did get in touch, resulting in a personal friendship and professional collaboration. Linda created pieces and helped shape Interfaith programs for Avodah, guest taught at our workshops, and at times performed with the company (including filling in for Kezia when she broke her foot performing Let My People Go). Linda also helped us find Avodah dancers by recommending students she knew from her position at Juilliard (where she had graduated in 1968 and joined the faculty in 1984), and she offered generous artistic and Board advice when Julie Gayer took over as Avodah’s Director. Linda and I continue our long friendship today. (See photo in blog on Juilliard homecoming. I will be writing more blogs later about Linda.) Introducing Linda and me was very typical of Estelle, as she was one of the best networkers I have ever known. In the same article I quoted above, Estelle was described as “one of the most enthusiastic advocates and patrons of dance,” sometimes referred to as the “empress of dance.” And I can affirm that indeed she was, for The Avodah Dance Ensemble.
Within a year of our meeting, Estelle suggested having a gathering at her apartment to introduce Avodah dancers and Board members to some of her influential dance friends. One very important contact we made that evening was Ted Bartwink. Ted served as Trustee and Executive Director of The Harkness Foundation for Dance from 1968–2014. The Harkness Foundation made annual contributions to most of the major dance venues in New York City. Following that evening he came to at least one performance that I remember and for a number of years we received funding for our educational programs from the Harkness Foundation.
At Estelle’s request, I often served on honorary committees for benefit events. I was always thrilled to see my name on a list with so many outstanding dance and theatre people. Murray and I enjoyed attending the events and below is the back of an invitation for a 1991 International Committee for The Dance Library of Israel which honored Stephanie French, the Vice President of Corporate Contributions and Cultural Affairs for the Philip Morris Management Corporation, a major supporter of dance in the New York City area.
Back of invitation for the Dance Library of Israel Event
Earlier that same year Estelle Sommers was honored with the 9thAnnual Dance Notation Bureau Award and I was thrilled to be on that Honorary Committee. I end this blog with this lovely picture of Estelle.
It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of Rabbi Larry Raphael. Larry was an important person in my life and in the Avodah Dance Ensemble’s life, from the time Avodah became associated with Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1978. At that time, Larry was an Assistant Dean. He stayed at HUC-JIR until 1996, leaving (as Dean) when he became the first Director of Adult Jewish Growth at the Union for Reform Judaism. He left the New York area in 2003 to become the 9thRabbi at Sherith Israel in San Francisco. He died this past Sunday.
I liked to refer to him jokingly as Avodah’s casting director, because he told Rick Jacobs (then a student at HUC-JIR) that Avodah was looking for a tall dancer. Rick auditioned and was an important force in the company for many years. He also recommended, when they were students, Cantor Mark Childs and Rabbi Susan Freeman, both of whom played very important roles in the company.
By 1983, Larry was a Board Member of Avodah, formalizing his enthusiasm and support for the dance company. As the company’s home address was HUC-JIR and I often stopped by to check Avodah’s mailbox, I was always glad to see Larry in the hallway or stop by his office and know that if there was something on my mind, he would be very welcoming and take time to discuss any challenges I might be facing with the company.
One of Larry’s roles in New York was to conduct High Holiday services for young adults living away from home in Manhattan. Well, Murray and I didn’t fit the category of “young adults,” but since we had a relationship with HUC-JIR, we were welcome to attend services there. Those attending weren’t a community, but Larry’s warm way of leading made us feel we were. The Rosh Hashanah service after 9/11 was a good example. Shortly after beginning the service, he invited us to introduce ourselves to someone sitting near us that we didn’t know and share where we were on 9/11. I will long remember the buzz in the room and the connections made instantaneously.
When Avodah created repertory related to Selichot, Larry invited us to perform that or any relevant dance midrash as part of the afternoon Yom Kippur service. It was never a full company, as some of the dancers were observing the High Holiday in their home communities, but there were at least two or three dancers who would join me to participate. It was a special feeling to incorporate dance into this most sacred time in the Jewish calendar, and I am very grateful that Larry gave us that experience.
I was honored to be on the faculty of several summer Kallot of the UAHC (now the URJ), where for five days adults gathered together and studied. I led dance midrash workshops. Larry, aided by Barbara Shulman, was in charge. These were very special programs, not only because we had very enthusiastic and dedicated adults in our sessions, but because I was learning from and connecting with some of the outstanding scholars and cantors of the 90’s and early 2000’s.
I am deeply grateful for Larry’s role in helping to build The Avodah Dance Ensemble, his friendship, his innovative approach, and his warmth. The Yiddish word “mensch” so beautifully fits him.
