Tag: Dance Company on Tour

Odd Thing to Find on eBay

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, Touring

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.

Naomi was a very gifted dancer, who had retired from the Jose Limon company when I was holding auditions.  She danced with us only briefly. I found her obituary very informative; here is a link to it:   https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/naomi-mindlin-obituary-philadelphia-limon-dance-company-university-arts-20220920.html.

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.

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Touring in the United States – Part II

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, New York Company, Touring

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 Freeman
Rick Jacobs and Bea Bogorad volunteer to be part of a demonstration on our day off tour of Universal City on an early California tour.

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Touring in the United States – Part 1

JoAnne Tucker / / Avodah's Early History, dance liturgy, New York Company, Touring

I had planned to write this week about Avodah’s international tours, and workshops I led outside of the U.S.  But as I was thinking about that I became curious about how many U.S. states Avodah had performed in, and what I remember about touring in the U.S.  So for this blog and the next I am going to write about our domestic touring, in general terms, and include a few fun pictures, before turning my attention to international trips.

First of all, the Avodah Dance Ensemble visited 29 of the 50 United States, either performing or giving workshops — usually doing both. Some states we visited on just one tour and others with multiple tours. For me touring was one of the fun parts of directing the company and I kept in mind several things related to touring as I directed the company.  

I made sure we continued always as a small company that could fit into one car or at least a minivan.  I owned a minivan and we often rented one when we flew on tour.  I purposely kept it that way for two main reasons: economic in that we would only need to rent one vehicle when necessary, and my own personal minivan would work when possible; and personal/professional in that having only 5 to 7 personalities to work with (that included me) made sense to me.  I also made sure we were never gone more than about 10 to 12 days.  Even when we toured to the West Coast we left, for example, on a Thursday, had two weekends away and returned on a  Monday!  On our long tours to places like California and Florida we often had several full days off when we could sightsee and relax.

So what was it like.  When it was a one-day tour and I was using my own car we had a meeting place.  That place depended on where we were off to. If I had to drive through NYC (from New Jersey) then the meeting place was often in the West Village by the Washington Square Subway stop so that it was easy for the dancers to get to.  If I wasn’t going through the city and we were heading west or into South Jersey then we most often met close to where I lived, particularly when I lived in Jersey City.  I don’t remember any incidents where anyone was more than a little late. That is in sharp contrast to some times when we were taking an airplane.

Two particular times stand out when we boarded a plane and not all the dancers had arrived in a timely fashion at the airport.  For one flight to Sarasota, Florida one of the dancers simply wasn’t there when they started boarding the flight. So I left her ticket with an airline agent!  We boarded and clearly other passengers became aware that we were missing someone because when the dancer arrived at the last moment just before they were getting ready to close the doors, most of the plane applauded her. I don’t remember why she was late.

Then there was another trip when the percussionist (not our regular Newman who was always very prompt) did not make the plane at all.  Again I left his ticket and he did arrive on a later flight.  There was also a time when there was a blackout in NYC and there was an element of suspense about whether everyone would get to the airport on time, but if my memory serves me correctly we all did.  

Need I say these situations cause a certain level of anxiety, and I am so glad to report that over a nearly thirty-year period of touring those are the only incidents I have to share.  

Now, once on tour,  what is it like!  Well for short day trips we generally spent the day in the facility rehearsing, with one food trip out unless we had requested food be provided for us.  Grocery stories were a favorite for those day trips because we could each find something there to our liking to take back.  The rest of the day was spent adjusting the dance pieces to the performance space.  Often it was easy for spacing when we were performing in a theatre because the surface was flat and it was just determining which wings to go in and out.  The challenge there was often setting lighting.  Since Avodah didn’t have a stage manager, it was up to me to work with the lighting technician or crew in the theatre both determining what lighting was available and setting it for each piece.  My guideline was to keep it as simple as possible yet have it be effective for setting the moods of the pieces.  The most memorable lighting situation I ever had was in an outdoor festival in Long Island when it rained fairly hard and I was sitting under an umbrella in the rain in a lighting booth out in a field,  calling the cues for the performance.  Maybe we had one or two people in the audience and the dancers luckily were on a protected stage.  (Kezia says it was one man, there were puddles on stage, and the dancers were terrified I would be electrocuted.)

For both theater performances and when we integrated dance into the Friday night service I usually ran the sound.  

Picture taken at CAJE conference (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) where I am running the sound and the dancers are performing on a stage. 
 
Beth Millstein ironing a costume for a Friday night service while on tour. Avodah was an ensemble onstage and off; everyone ironed, mended, hauled and helped as needed.

A great deal of the time on a Friday afternoon we were preparing to integrate three pieces into the Friday night Shabbat service.  That meant spacing the three pieces on the bema (raised platform where the service is led). Now that could be a real challenge for several reasons: first of all, the bema usually was not just one level – often there were steps that led to different levels; second, its shape was not at all like the rehearsal studio we were used to; and third, it often took a lot of persuading to get most of the furniture off the bema so we would have maximum space for dancing.

Kezia (left) and Deborah Hanna on a break on tour.  We were rehearsing for a Friday night service and the preschool playground provided a perfect place for a break.

Each of these three reasons presented its own unique challenge and each had memorable moments for me.  First of all, levels.  I was always amazed at how the dancers could quickly adjust to so many different levels and manage literally to dance up and down the stairs.  One challenging bema was in South Orange, New Jersey and the dancers in the company in the early 80’s did a most amazing job with the many steps. While most of the company had gone back to the city after the Friday night service, Rick Jacobs (then in rabbinic school) and I stayed to lead a workshop with some teenagers.  We were no longer in the main sanctuary but rather in a smaller chapel.  As I was talking and demonstrating I managed to slip and fall down the maybe two steps.  The next thing I knew, Rick was falling down the steps, because he said as he fell, if the director falls then the dancer follows suit.  The kids laughed and I felt like a total idiot having watched the way the dancers negotiated the steps the night before!!

Irregular shapes were more common than not, and particularly challenging were long skinny bema’s where the dancers had to figure out how to negotiate in 6 feet what was designed to be done in 18 ft.  They did an amazing job.  Sometimes they made different adjustments in performance than were planned in rehearsal.  I never got upset because they consistently found clever ways to adjust to each other.  I was the only person aware and loved to see how they solved these last-minute, new, on-the-spot choreographic changes.

Ah… getting the rabbis to move the furniture for a Friday night service could be challenging. Sometimes, especially on return visits, it was easy but the first time could be difficult.  Unfortunately, I had lots of experience with that, starting with the very first performance of In Praise before there was even a formal dance company.  It took major negotiations to get most of the furniture moved and the Rabbi’s podium was never moved.  A few years later when a Rabbi announced that the podium was not moveable, Rick Jacobs (still in Rabbinic school)  and I simply showed the Rabbi how the podium could easily be moved over to the side and the wires adjusted so the mic worked from there.  The Rabbi wrote, in an evaluation to the Jewish Welfare Board that had arranged the booking, that the director, JoAnne Tucker, was quite professional but aggressive, in seeing that the company got what they needed.  I laughed when the evaluation was shared, knowing exactly what was being referred to.  The Rabbi and that congregation did become a regular booker of Avodah and we returned to participate in a Friday night service for nine years and never had a problem getting the furniture moved again.

Toward the end of the time I was touring, in around 2002, we had the most challenging Rabbi situation.  The Rabbi felt sure the best place for us to perform was in the back of the sanctuary, with the congregation looking over their shoulders to see us, because it was a level, large space.  Well that was totally ridiculous as it was clear no one would see any of the dancing.  I must have spent over an hour negotiating with him, and it was only when I quoted scripture to him and promised that we would not go up to the most sacred space where the Torahs were,  that he relented and I was able to stage the repertory on the other part of the bema so that the congregation could see us.  It amused me quite a bit that here it was thirty years after the earliest performance and I was still negotiating with Rabbis to be able to dance on the bema.  It’s no wonder that I began to feel it was easier to work in prisons!!

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Things you Learn from Touring

JoAnne Tucker / / Uncategorized

This evening as we were getting ready to go out to dinner, Murray said, “Oh by the way the back door of our Rav SUV isn’t closing.” OK, I thought, let me take a look at it.

So… I opened the back door which looked normal except it wasn’t closing tightly and I immediately saw that the latch wasn’t hanging right.  Since it was evening and dark… I got out my iPhone, put on the flashlight and saw that one screw had come out of the latch and so it was hanging downward.  Murray joined me and we soon found the missing screw. Murray got a screwdriver and in just a few minutes it was back to working perfectly.

The fixed Latch of the car door.

Now Murray was a bit surprised, because he’d figured he would have to take it into a repair shop. While I usually am not solving car problems, this was a no brainer… and Murray was very happy that I had just saved us $85 or more.  All I could think was that one benefit of touring and running a dance company is that you learn to quickly problem solve.

Tonight I am remembering those moments of touring which required quick problem solving, and the last-minute challenges of directing a dance company.  One example I have already shared — the snow storm that left two dancers performing “Let My People Go” when there should have been a full company of six.  In a few hours that day we figured out how to make something work for the evening performance. (See “Let My People Go Meets Let it Snow”.)  

Last minute casting changes sometimes happened.  Like the time that Beth Millstein got the chicken pox two days before we were due to perform in Boston.  Well…  I called my good friend Linda Kent and asked if she could recommend one of her students or past students from Juilliard who might fill in and she said SHE was available. Wow that was pretty awesome to have a former member of Alvin Ailey Company and Paul Taylor Company subbing for us.  

And then there was the time in the airport when one of the dancers hadn’t arrived at our meeting place and it was getting very close to the time that the plane was due to take off.  Hmmm…. Not wanting to have the rest of us miss the flight, I left her ticket with a ticket agent and we all boarded the plane.  Just as they were about to close the door, the dancer appeared to a round of applause from us and those sitting near us.

When performing in services, we always worked to get furniture moved from the bema so the dancers could have as much space as possible to move. One day when one rabbi was determinedly saying that a podium couldn’t be moved, Rick and I gently tilted it back, disconnected the wires and moved it over to the side, giving the dancers their needed space.  The rabbi wrote a lovely review back to the Jewish Welfare Lecture Bureau that had booked us, saying that “JoAnne Tucker was very pleasant to work with in spite of being persistent.”

At one Friday Sabbath service in Connecticut, the rabbi was certain the best place for us to perform was in an area in the back of the sanctuary and everyone could just look over his or her shoulders to see us.  Now that was by far the oddest suggestion I had ever heard and there was no way I could agree to that.  For several hours we went back and forth… meanwhile I simply told the dancers to work on their spacing on the bema.  Finally I quoted scripture – Exodus 40:30-32 about levels of sacred space and remembered something we had written in Torah in Motion.  I convinced him that it would be all right for the dancers to be on the bema because they would not be going up to the ark where the Torah scrolls were kept. That space was just for him! Success!  We danced on the bema!

So many times, I entered a space in the early afternoon and had to make decisions of where I would run the sound, set it up, and make sure it worked.  How many times dancers had to quickly adapt to a new space, making it their own and performing brilliantly.  And then when we were in a theatre, I had to quickly learn the lighting system.  Larger companies carried tech people.  We didn’t. While I rarely ran the lights, I had to learn how to communicate with the light person and sometimes a sound person to be able to call the cues.  Then I would call my own cue and walk into the spotlight to narrate between pieces.

So… what I learned from running a dance company was to be flexible.  Problems can be solved by stopping, taking in the situation, and then seeing the possible solutions.  This training has served me very well in life and fixing our car door tonight was a small example.   

Murray and I, happy that the car is repaired.

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Seeing “Mary Poppins Returns” and Remembering a California Tour

JoAnne Tucker / / New York Company

Murray and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns at our neighborhood theatre over the December holidays.  It was well attended, mainly with adults and a few families.  I had had some apprehension going to an afternoon showing, thinking that it would be filled with restless kids.  It wasn’t.  While it didn’t quite live up to the high standard of the original Mary Poppins for me there were some wonderful moments in it and I particularly loved the dance scenes with special effects that took the movement to a new level.

The finale is quite amazing and a definite highlight for me.  Angela Lansbury makes a cameo appearance as the Balloon Lady singing the song Nowhere to Go But Up. As the characters select balloons they are swept up into the air and a beautiful scene in the London sky accompanies the singing.  The sky is filled not only with the main characters but with lots of dancers too.

As I left the theatre I was reminded of an Avodah tour in 1983 to Southern California when on our day off we toured Universal Studios and learned about how special effects are done.  Rick Jacobs and Bea Bogorad volunteered to assist in one of the scenes.  Next time we saw them they were in space suits soon to take a trip in their space ship, first against a green screen and then with a different background to make it seem real.  

Bea and Rick being interviewed before their ride in space.
Bea and Rick in Space!

As I was writing this blog I checked in with a dancer, Roberta Behrendt, who I thought (but wasn’t sure) was on the tour.  She confirmed that she was indeed on the tour and remembers the special effects we saw showing the “parting of the Red Sea.” Roberta also reminded me about a day off in San Diego where the full company was photographed on a very large tree in Balboa Park.  I found the photo.

Balboa Park, San Diego.  L.to R. Jean-Ann Yzer, Dircelia Rodin in sun glasses, Roberta Behrendt, JoAnne, Bea Bogorad and Rick Jacobs standing. 

 Another memorable moment on the tour happened as we were packing the car to leave for the airport.  We had home hospitality and some of us were staying at Rick’s parents ‘ house.  We had rented a car for the trip.  Somehow or other the car keys got locked inside the trunkwhen we closed it.  There was this moment of disbelief… total shock. What were we to do next.? And before we could even decide, either Rick’s Mom or Dad had reached into the car’s glove compartment and found there was an extra set of keys.  Many sighs of relief and then this picture was taken.  We made it to the airport in time to catch our flight.

Rick holding up the extra set of keys.  From left to right, Rick, Jean-Ann, Dircelia, me, Rick’s Mom, Rick’s Dad and Bea.   Photo may have been taken by Roberta Behrendt.

Collaboration plays an important role in a small dance company like Avodah. Through the years so many dancers worked together contributing their talents and their wonderful spirit. What fun it is for me to remember not only the creative collaboration but the fun we also had together on our down time.   We worked hard, rehearsed and performed and then we got to play on our days off.

Now back to what motivated these memories, Mary Poppins Returns.  The special effects were just extraordinary and I wanted to learn more about how they did them.  A quick “Google” and I found two excellent articles.  One article goes into detail related to how a broken bowl becomes an amazing adventure and ballet:

For the creative personnel behind Disney’s flashy new sequel, the jaunt through the painterly fantasia of Royal Doulton would prove the production’s most formidable technical challenge — and as director Rob Marshall tells it, “the hardest thing I’ve ever actually done on film.” Speaking with Vulture, Marshall laid out the complicated, labor-intensive process by which the visual-effects team combined live-action, 2-D animation, and 3-D computer rendering to create a passage of eye-popping originality within a repurposing of intellectual property. Whatever a viewer’s criticisms of the film itself, there’s no denying that this sequence represents a stunning synthesis of state-of-the-art technology and old-fashioned artistry.https://www.vulture.com/2018/12/how-mary-poppins-returns-turned-a-bowl-into-a-fantasia.html

The other article describes how they created the ending scene Nowhere to Go But Up. 

The movie’s airborne finale begins on the ground in “Spring Park” aka Pinewood Gardens, where Angela Lansbury’s character hands out magical balloons. Once Mr. Banks (Ben Whishaw) and his family achieve liftoff, the practical location was swapped out for a digitally constructed backdrop. “The challenge there was to make the performances happen live as much as possible,” Johnson says. “We created a full digital park with trees and Ferris wheel along with these highly detailed CG versions of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben in the background.”
With digital London added during post-production, actors floated above the “city” wearing harnesses. Johnson explains, “We had all the principal cast members moving around on wires in front of a green screen. We shot 30 or 40 different passes because Rob has an incredible visual sense. ‘On frame 17 this dancer’s leg would be over there because it’s a nice shape and that balances some other thing. It was all very choreographed.”
https://www.mpaa.org/2018/12/how-mary-poppins-returns-vfx-supervisor-battled-english-weather-won/

Murray and I have the habit of staying through the credits of a movie.  And wow these were long credits acknowledging the large team of both live actors and animation artists involved.  Some of Disney’s traditional cartoon artists came out of retirement to participate.   The power of collaboration and bringing different elements to play with each other was outstanding and hats off to the talented team that worked on this film.   My fascination with the options available for dance and film are clearly getting more and more triggered and I am so glad to be part of the film community here in Santa Fe.

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