Tag: Creative Dramatics

How the Avodah Dance Ensemble Got Its Name

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, Tallahassee

It’s late summer 1974 and the events of the past two years are serving as motivation to find a structure to expand and formalize what clearly feels like the right direction for my dance talents at this time. I think I want to start a non-profit organization with the mission of expressing Jewish liturgy, text and history through dance and music.  Several people, among them my musical collaborator Irving Fleet, have agreed to be on the board and we already have a lawyer who is donating his services to get us going.  Now we need a name.

For two years Irving and I had been studying the Jewish Siddur (prayer book) as explained by the very prominent Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, who had also been my childhood rabbi. His book The Small Sanctuary had been a wonderful introduction for us. Also helpful were discussions with Rabbi Stanley Garfein, of the Temple in Tallahassee, Florida where both of our families were members at the time.  One section of the Yom Kippur High Holiday service intrigued me because it was a retelling of Jewish history from creation to the sacred rituals done on Yom Kippur by the High Priest before the destruction of the Second Temple. It is called the Avodah Service and the word Avodah means “work” in modern Hebrew and “sacred work” in Biblical Hebrew.  In a meeting with Stanley he shared that the word was often used in a phrase: Avodah Sh’Balev meaning work of the heart!  All uses of the word Avodah fit for me.  Being a dancer and running a dance company is indeed WORK.  And in the context of what we had been doing for the previous year it felt like sacred work and work of the heart.  So the new organization would be called Avodah and the dance company The Avodah Dance Ensemble.  Adding the word Ensemble was especially important to me. Kezia just reminded me that I wrote about this in a 1989 Avodah Newsletter:

Back in 1974, when wrestling with a name for a dance company, I especially chose to include the word “ensemble” with Avodah. Ensemble—“a group of complementary parts that contribute to a single effect” – was the goal I had in mind, where the members of the dance company would balance each other and contribute dynamically to creating unity.

And indeed this proved to be very true over the years with an amazing group of dancers, musicians, writers, visual artists and storytellers sharing their talents.

But back to the beginning. My husband Murray and I moved to Tallahassee, Florida from Washington, DC in the summer of 1970.  Murray taught at Florida State University while I focused on settling the kids (then 1 ½ and  3 ½ years old) and writing my dissertation.  It was good fortune that my major professor from the University of Wisconsin, where I had done all my course work and taken exams, had also relocated to Tallahassee accepting an appointment in the Theatre Department.  Writing the dissertation was lonely and required all my perseverance skills and I was very glad that Joe Karioth was able to still work with me even though he was no longer on the Wisconsin faculty.  A year later I returned to Madison, to defend my dissertation entitled “The Use of Creative Dramatics as an Aid in Developing Reading Readiness with Kindergarten Children.”  Perhaps I will write more about Wisconsin and the work I did in Creative Dramatics, which naturally included a lot of creative movement, at a later time. Once the dissertation was done it became clear that there weren’t many academic teaching opportunities in Tallahassee and I would need to forge my own path.

Loving to teach and work with children in creative dramatics and movement, I focused on how I could build upon those interests.  With the encouragement and support of a friend, Carolyn Davis, I approached Temple Israel about whether I could direct dance and drama activities as part of their religious education program, and also use space in their building to teach regular modern dance and creative dramatics classes. And that is what I did and how I was asked by the sisterhood to be director of a mini-musical they wanted to do based on Fiddler on the Roof.

I agreed as long as I had a good musical director.  They had someone in mind right away.  I have saved the program from the mini-musical named “Tradition” and here is Irving Fleet’s bio:

Irving Fleet, our musical director, is an orthodontist who has always had a big interest in music.  He played the piano frequently as a student in Tallahassee schools and in college as a soloist and recitalist.  He was the first organist of Temple Israel and started playing for the congregation even before the present synagogue was built. He last appeared in Tallahassee as piano soloist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra in 1963-64. Presently, his biggest area of interest is composing, and he has written a number of songs for voice and piano pieces. 

“Fiddler on the Roof” has always been a favorite show of mine, ever since I saw it on Broadway during its original run.  I have also always felt close to the production because I knew two original cast members. Sammy Bayes, a townsperson who later played the fiddler, was at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp the same summer I was there and we had both been in a piece choreographed by Helen Tamiris. Sue Babel, who played Grandma Tzeitel, had been at Connecticut College Summer Program in Dance the same summer I was there.

With the script having been adapted to run about half of the time of the original show, Irving and I faced our first task: casting the production.  Lots of members of the community showed up and I was particularly taken with Rueben Capelouto’s audition for Tevye.  Irving agreed that his audition was great but was worried about the fact Rueben stuttered.  I was shocked … I didn’t know him outside of just meeting him for the audition and he never stuttered in auditioning for Tevye.  Others also kept cautioning me that he would be a poor choice.  My instincts kept saying that he would be perfect and so he was cast and indeed he was quite wonderful.

Rueben Capelouto as Tevye.  Photo by Evelyn Walborsky

“Tradition” proved to be a wonderful community success and gave me an excellent opportunity to get to know members of the community.  Many of them would continue to play a role in Avodah’s history.  For example, Marianne Mendelson, a high schooler at the time, played one of Teyve’s younger daughters.  Years later, while living in the New York area, she became Avodah’s treasurer for a number of years, a supporter of the dance company and a very good friend.

In going through my files to write this blog I found this poem which I read to the cast and which best describes what this experience meant to me.

When rehearsals first began
There were shouts… cries
Sarcastic utterances
“I can’t do that
I’m not a professional
She’s crazy
I’ll never learn my lines!”
Expression of fears and apprehensions of the task that lay ahead.

We’ve come along way from those first weeks
Lines have been learned
Characters developed
Scenes added
Change after change made
Always our goal clearly in sight “A production to make the congregation proud.”

As director, the bulk of my task is done
Thursday nite, after final dress
I sat down, reflected
And made these notes
No matter what the final outcome, applause great or small,
There are certain thoughts which I have to share with this cast.

Each and everyone, from page turner, technical crew, villagers to Tevye,
Deserves praise for a job well done
Often I’ve been harsh
Critical and outspoken
Free with criticism
But limited with praise
Trying to fulfill my role as director, to push you as far as you can go.

The talent within this group is overwhelming
Beyond expectations
A challenge to work with
And watch develop so far
So.. to my professional crew, a special Equity card for everyone here.

Before reading the inscription on each of these cards
One last thought to share
Building a production
Creating a show
Is learning to live with each other, helping one another to do their very best.

We have each had our moments
Tempers lost
Frustrations and tensions revealed
Perhaps out of such moments, we’ve learned to grow
To know more about ourselves and how we get along with others.

For me, this experience has had many rewards
A creative challenge
A chance to use my skills
But most important of all
I’ve grown to feel at home here, in Tallahassee, to know and respect each one of you.

Irving and I had great fun working together.  We seemed to challenge each other to be more creative, complementing each other’s skills.  By the end of the two-performance weekend we were talking about writing an original musical theater piece together, for which I could be choreographer and director, and he could be composer and musical director. Next week I’ll write about where we went next!

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Thoughts after reading The Body Keeps Score

JoAnne Tucker / / Book Review, Movement Workshops

In my last blog, I shared that Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from the team competition and some of the individual events in the Olympics increased our focus on mental health.  COVID, the challenges of staying at home for over a year and then returning to interactions with people, and the need to navigate a new normal are stressful for most of us.  Coping with these challenges certainly has been difficult for me, especially in the spring when I did not physically feel well.  During this time I came across a book which I found very meaningful.  The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind and the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk is currently #1 on The New York Times Best Sellers Paperback Nonfiction list and it has been on the list for 149 weeks.  It is #1 on Amazon for books related to Mental Illness.  It is also available as an audio book.

In a review by Concepcion de Leon on October 18, 2018 she clearly summarizes the three approaches that the book covers for people recovering from trauma: 1) top down by talking; 2) taking medicines and 3) bottom up – allowing the body to have experiences.  She then goes on to note:

Survivors usually need some combination of the three methods, writes Dr. van der Kolk, but the latter — the mind-body connection — is most neglected. His work is predicated on integrating body-focused treatments into trauma recovery work, like yoga, role-play, dance and meditation. Another method he suggests is writing and keeping a journal. Click here to read the full review.

What struck me as I listened to the book was the fact that van der Kolk, a very respected researcher and expert on trauma, gives credibility to what many of us have been aware of for a long time: the power of yoga, role-playing, dance and meditation in healing.  He points out that they are referred to as alternative therapies in healing, with drugs being the primary approach. In Part 5: “Paths to Recovery,” he states that it should be the other way around and that drugs should be the alternative therapy.

In my research I found four different articles in The New York Times citing van der Kolk’s work.  That kind of exposure gives resounding recognition. While the medical community may be reluctant to give up talk therapy and medication, the public is hungry for alternatives.  The first article was in 2014 in the magazine section of The New York Times. It opens with a description of a workshop van der Kolk gave at Big Sur in California called “Trauma, Memory and Recovery of Self.”  Working with one participant he took role-playing to a new level which he calls “Structure,” which grew out of the psychomotor therapy developed by Albert Pesso, a dancer who studied with Martha Graham.  The article goes on to describe van der Kolk’s career in much detail and I highly recommend checking it out.  Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/a-revolutionary-approach-to-treating-ptsd.html

The second article is the review which I have already quoted and the third and fourth articles are from this summer.  How amazing that a book that came out in 2014 is receiving so much press and interest now!  The third article basically is asking the author if he follows how his book is doing.  The last article is a brief introduction to a long (over-an-hour) podcast with the author and Ezra Klein.  I loved that in the introduction Ezra Klein points out that van der Kolk:

co-founded and leads a trauma research foundation and has been studying ways to try to heal these deeper parts of our psyches, everything from movement therapies like yoga and dance to E.M.D.R. to internal family systems therapy to MDMA treatment. We talk about all of it in here.

Here’s the link where you can listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

It is affirming to have read this book because I was first introduced to this kind of work in the 1960’s when I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh.  As a theatre major I first took a course in Creative Dramatics from Dr. Barbara McIntyre (1916-2005), and later as a graduate student I was her teaching assistant.  As I write this section, I pause with gratitude to Dr. McIntyre and the warm mentoring she provided.  Born in Canada in 1916, she came to the University of Pittsburgh in the 50’s with a master’s degree and a career in children’s theater, teaching and using creative dramatics. While at Pitt she saw the therapeutic value of creative dramatics when asked to work with children who had speech impairment.  That led her to work with Eleanor Irwin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in Pitt’s School of Medicine.  Ellie (as we called her) promoted the use of creative drama in drama therapy.  Barbara received her doctorate in 1957.  I studied with her between 1963 and 1965.  It was during this time that I began to see the relationship between drama and movement in healing.  In particular, she and Ellie Irwin introduced me to the work of Jacob Moreno and psychodrama.

Jacob Moreno (1889-1974) was born in Bucharest, Romania and practiced psychiatry near Vienna from 1918–1925. In 1925 he moved to New York City and continued working as a psychiatrist and experimenting with psychodrama, which included core techniques such as mirroring and role-playing.  I have a vague memory of attending one of his sessions and seeing role-playing in action.

In the early to mid-sixties I also became aware of Judy Rubin and her work in Art Therapy.  Judy and Ellie worked together, and in fact my mom, Janet Klineman, Ph.D., who was Director of the Lower School of The Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind, was very familiar with their work.  After I moved away from Pittsburgh in 1966, my mom often mentioned them, as I believe they may have worked with students at the School for Blind.  A quick Google search of Judy Rubin and Eleanor Irwin showed that they are still very active in the field.  In 1985 they developed an Expressive Media Film Library and as recently as this spring Judy Rubin’s Facebook Page celebrated a Launch Party on May 22 featuring a number of art therapists sharing theory, practice tips and personal experiences.

Reading The Body Keeps Score was an experience in reaffirming my long-held belief that body work is a very important component of healing.  The book provides excellent language to describe how the brain and body work together, and cites research work that van der Kolk and his colleagues have done to support this.  Before closing I want to highly recommend reading the book and especially Part Five, Chapter 16: “Learning to Inhabit Your Body: Yoga” and Chapter 18: “Filling in the Holes: Creating Structure.”

I close with two pictures from the project I did using creative movement with women from Esperanza, the domestic violence shelter in Santa Fe.

Expressing Anger, Through the Door Project, Esperanza Shelter, Santa Fe, NM
Photograph by Judy Naumberg
Expressing Joy, Through the Door Project, at Esperanza Shelter in Santa Fe, NM
Photograph by Judy Naumberg
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Dr. Barbara McIntyre – “An Inspiration and Mentor to Generations of Students”

JoAnne Tucker / / Arts in Education, Personal Life

I am one of those students and the above quote is from an obituary of Barbara McIntyre.   When I returned to Pittsburgh in 1962 and became a theatre major at the University of Pittsburgh following two years at Juilliard, one of the courses I took was Dr. McIntyre’s class on Creative Dramatics.  It was for both education and theatre students and gave us a good grounding in how to teach creative dramatics to children.  When I completed my undergraduate work and we stayed in Pittsburgh another year so my husband Murray could finish his Ph.D., I became Barbara’s teaching assistant as I worked towards a master’s degree in theatre.

Barbara had a wonderful way of encouraging creative potential in young children as well as in those who studied with her at the undergraduate or graduate level. While I was her teaching assistant she encouraged me to integrate creative movement into creative dramatic classes and suggested writing an article for teachers about how to use movement in creative dramatics.  It was an excellent assignment and experience for me as I researched and thought about movement and how best to express it for teachers. It gave me a fundamental understanding that served me well for the next thirty years. It did result in a publication, and the next year when we had moved to Madison, Wisconsin and I began graduate work for a Ph.D. in theatre, the University did not require me to finish my master’s since my work had been published.  I was allowed instead to enter the doctorate program directly.  I also became a teaching assistant in the theatre department, but those experiences will be for a later blog.

Barbara was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1916 and according to an interview by Ruth Beall Heinig, Ph.D., a former student, she wasn’t much of a student growing up.  She began to find her talents in theatre and voice especially when she went to Normal School which she attended after high school and where she was in a teacher training program. Upon graduating from the program she taught in a small rural school near Moose Jaw. That teaching experience with 11 students ranging in grades 1 to 9 instilled in her a love for children and teaching. In fact, her obituary (June 2005) mentions that “Barbara fell in love with children and with teaching did everything in her power to bring learning alive in her classroom. Early on Barbara incorporated drama into her classes and learned how powerful a force it could be in children’s learning.” (https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/timescolonist/name/barbara-mcintyre-obituary?n=barbara-mcintyre&pid=14252934)

In researching for this blog there was much I learned about Barbara’s life, including her earning her M.A. at the University of Minnesota in 1950 and then moving to Pittsburgh a few years later, first with a shared job between the University of Pittsburgh and the Children’s Theatre of Pittsburgh. The Arizona State University Library, Child Drama Collection, where Barbara’s papers from 1948-1991 are housed, provided an excellent write up of her time at Pitt.

As a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Barbara shared a job with the Children’s Theater of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Speech Department. This enabled her to develop a teacher education program where the college students could be involved with children from the first week of classes. When the Speech Department started sending children with hearing and speech problems to her classes, she realized the therapeutic value of creative drama. Her chairman encouraged her to go back to school and get a doctorate degree in speech and hearing. She studied with Eleanor Irwin, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, who promoted the use of creative drama in drama therapy. McIntyre received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957. The title of her dissertation was, The Effect of a Program of Creative Activities Upon the Consonant Articulation Skills of Adolescent and Pre-Adolescent Children with Speech Disorders.  (http://azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/mcintyre.xml;query=;brand=default)

Besides the excellent experience of learning how to analyze and incorporate movement into creative dramatics, there were some other very important things I learned from Barbara.  First of all, she introduced me to literature on children’s theatre and creative dramatics and particularly Winifred Ward’s Stories to Dramatize. I am not sure if Caps for Sale was a part of this collection but this became one of my favorite stories that I used often in creative movement classes.  It is about a peddler who falls asleep under a tree and monkeys come down from the tree and steal all of his hats from his bag.  When he wakes up and sees what has happened he finds a clever way of tricking the monkeys to get his caps back.  Under Barbara’s guidance I learned how to use these stories to captivate a group of children and to engage them so that they could act or dance the stories.  And I learned how to ask questions following their acting/dancing so that the group could both see what worked and what might be improved upon in a positive and healthy way.

One of my responsibilities as Barbara’s teaching assistant was to observe (via a one-way mirror) children with speech and hearing problems working in creative dramatics, and to take notes about the sessions.  Both my observations with Barbara and my mother’s work with the visually handicapped encouraged me to see and sometimes work with children or adults with disabilities.

I am also very grateful for the seeds that were planted in working with Barbara of how dance and theatre can reinforce academics — and not just with young children.  Two of the projects of Avodah (the dance company I founded and directed), made good use of this.  “Let My People Go” received a number of grants that enabled us to go into the New York area public schools and present concerts and workshops with students which reinforced curriculum related to American history, slavery in the United States and figures like Harriet Tubman.  We also developed programs around the Holocaust and again received grants to bring them to students.

And of course, the roots of how I incorporated dance midrash into the Jewish educational classroom, especially for children, goes back to this time. As I reflect back on the different role models and mentors I had it is like looking at a good recipe with lots of different ingredients.  I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to study and work with Barbara McIntyre.

I especially want to thank Dr. Eleanor Irwin and Dr. Ruth Heinig for their help in “remembering Barbara.”  Both of them stayed very close to Barbara after she left Pittsburgh.

Picture from the personal collection of Eleanor Irwin, Ph.D.  Barbara is on the left, with her sister, niece and nephew.
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