Tag: Elizabeth McPherson

Honoring Helen Tamiris

JoAnne Tucker / / "Let My People Go"

With bookings continuing to come in for Let My People Go, I began to think about adding new repertory that would fit in and expand the program offerings.  Elizabeth McPherson joined the company in the summer of 1990 having graduated from Juilliard in May. While in the company, she continued her studies at City College completing an M.A. in dance research and reconstruction. In a recent email exchange with Elizabeth, we could not remember which of us came up with the idea to add Helen Tamiris’s Negro Spirituals to the repertoire.  I only know that with 4 years of notation at Juilliard, a teacher’s certification in Labanotation and experience working on various staging projects as a dancer, Elizabeth had the ideal skills to reconstruct a piece that meant a lot to me. Things fell beautifully in place in the summer of 1993.

When I was 15, at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, I studied with and performed in a piece choreographed by Helen Tamiris.  I look forward to writing a separate blog on that experience.  For right now let me say it was life changing and Tamiris inspired and encouraged me to focus on a career in dance.

Kezia and Elizabeth wrote about Tamiris in the Fall 1993 Avodah Newsletter:

Helen Tamiris, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born Helen Becker in 1902 on New York’s Lower East Side.  By her own account, she used to dance wildly in the streets, until one of her brothers decided, “We must do something about Helen,” which resulted in her being enrolled at age eight in dance classes at the Henry Street Settlement House.   After graduating from high school, she was accepted at the school of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, where she received intensive ballet training and performed in the corps for four years.  But Tamiris found classical ballet confining and left the Met…. She went on to study the techniques of Dalcroze, Delsarte and Isadora Duncan, all three of whom are associated with the beginnings of modern dance. Tamiris, however,was interested in social issues and in conveying the energy of contemporary American life, and she stretched past the dance techniques available for study, shaping her own movement vocabulary and particular dynamic.

Among the works that Tamiris choreographed was Negro Spirituals– a suite of pieces created between 1928 and 1942.  In 1965, a year before she died, she set the work on students at New York’s High School of Performing Arts. That version was preserved in Labanotation and I was thrilled that Elizabeth could reconstruct  the pieces from the Labanotation score for our company.

An example of a tripletstep in Labanotation.

We contacted the Dance Notation Bureau, going through the appropriate steps to secure the rights to perform Negro Spirituals. They also loaned us the score and music to use in performance.

Kezia described so vividly what a rehearsal session was like with Elizabeth:

“Do I keep my right knee bent as I tap my foot?” “When I hear ‘Joshua’ do I pull my arms up or push them down?” “Am I allowed to smile while I do this?” It may sound like Avodah is wasting rehearsal time with silly party challenges, but these questions are signs of a company hard at work….. For each of the questions posed by the dancers, Elizabeth dutifully consults a thick manuscript remotely resembling a musical score composed of geometric shapes. “Yes.” “Up.” “You sure can,” she responds.

We had received a grant from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund that made the rehearsal period and first performance possible.  The performance in November 1993 was at our home base in New York City, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion located on West 4thStreet.  Our relationship with HUC was very special and important to our growth and I will be writing lots more about that later. For the November program we were joined by Faith Journey, a musical produced by Jesse De Vore about Martin Luther King. Rabbi Norman Cohen (HUC faculty member and Avodah Board Member) moderated the program.  Among the performers in Faith Journey was Jeannine Otis who would later play a very important role with Avodah.

From the fall of 1993 until 2001 Negro Spirituals played an important part in Avodah’s repertory.  Not only was it regularly performed with Let My People Go, but the four solos and the trio of “Lil’David” were often included in Avodah’s regular concerts at colleges, community centers and synagogues.

Kezia was thrilled to be able to perform four of the solos at a Vassar College alumnae event (with additional coaching by retired Vassar faculty member and esteemed notator Ray Cook).  Tamiris was historically important in securing a place for dance in the WPA, and she served as Dance Director of the first Federal Summer Theatre, which (under the direction of Vassar faculty member Hallie Flanagan) was held at Vassar College.  Indeed, the four solos performed by Kezia had been performed at Vassar by Tamiris herself on July 10, 1937.

In April 5, 1995 Doris Diether wrote a review in New York City’s The Villager, headlined “In season of revivals, Tamaris works offered.”  She noted: “a dramatic performance by Elizabeth McPherson” in “Go Down, Moses;” Kezia Gleckman Hayman’s “Swing Low” was a brighter dance with a folk dance quality; Loretta Abbott had a lot of personality in “Git on Board, Lil’ Chillun;” Joshua was given a strong but graceful performance by Carla Norwood; and Beth Millstein and Hayman created frames around Freddie Moore as he gave a light but precise performance with high kicks to “Lil’ David.”

With permission of the Dance Notation Bureau I share three 30 second excerpts from the 1995 Performance. Elizabeth McPherson in “Go Down, Moses;” Beth Millstein, Kezia Gleckman Hayman, and Freddie Moore in “Lil’ David;” and Elizabeth, Beth, Kezia, Freddie joined by Loretta Abbott and Carla Norwood in “When The Saints Come Marching In.” The musicians are Jeannine Otis, Newman Taylor Baker, and a pianist.

Elizabeth McPherson in “Go Down, Moses”

Beth Millstein, Kezia Gleckman Hayman, and Freddie Moore in “Lil’ David;”

Elizabeth, Beth, Kezia, Freddie joined by Loretta Abbott and Carla Norwood in “When The Saints Come Marching In.”

The review and video excerpts are from a benefit performance at Hebrew Union College where we performed not only Let My People Go and Negro Spirituals but a brand new piece called Exultation, choreographed by Freddie Moore. Freddie is a very gifted dancer who began his formal training at The Ailey School where he is now on the faculty.  Among his credits are performing in Ailey II and with Donald Byrd/The Group as well as founding and directing The Footprints Dance Company.  I got to know Freddie because of his strong interest in liturgical dance.  He created  a beautiful four-section piece for us, to familiar hymns ending with “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

To end this week’s blog, I want to share how good it felt to be able to have Avodah perform regularly Negro Spirituals, a historical piece of modern dance choreography by Helen Tamiris, who so inspired my career in dance. Each time it was performed I felt a warm glow.  Thank you Elizabeth for staging it, and a deep bow of gratitude to each of the dancers who performed it.

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After School Program for Children Living in Temporary Housing

JoAnne Tucker / / "Let My People Go"

Thirty children, along with a few parents, arrived at our home base of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) on West 4thStreet in NYC to spend several hours with the Let My People Go Company. For five weeks, twice a week they participated in 45 minutes of dance and 45 minutes of music education, as well as journal writing, dinner and other short activities related to Let My People Go. The program culminated in a special sharing for parents and invited guests, where the children performed, celebrated at a special dinner and went home with souvenirs including a Let My People Go T-shirt, a rainstick, and books (generously donated by Scholastic Press) about music and Harriet Tubman.

We learned about the Cultural Arts Program for Children Living in Temporary Housing from H.T. Chen and Dian Dong, as we rented rehearsal space for a number of years from Chen and Dancers in Chinatown.  They had received grants from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for several years and suggested we apply. We did and were thrilled to receive grants for the next several years until the program ended.  It was one of the most satisfying teaching experiences that we had.

Kezia shared some of the experiences of the first year in Avodah’s December 1995 Newsletter:

The talking drum shouted with anger and then whispered a secret.  The 12-year-old drummer had expressed her frustration clearly, without using a word.  Words might come later, too, in her journal, but right now the drum was more satisfying, simultaneously announcing her feelings while keeping the specifics private.

Think of all the emotions, the alarms, the summonses, the celebrations, the unifying rhythms, the messages –throughout history, throughout the world – that have been spoken by drums. Nor did the power of the drum escape the attention of those who feared it; just as slaves in America were forbidden to learn to read, forbidden to gather, so too, their drums were taken away.  But as the children who worked with our drummer, Newman Baker, would tell you, if you don’t have an actual drum in front of you, you always have one on you.  And these children would further demonstrate for you the variations in tone when you slap the top of your thigh, pat the side of it, or tap your knee, all while beating complicated rhythms on this “hambone.”

It was during these programs that we witnessed Newman’s incredible talents teaching and I am thrilled to report that Newman continued to share his talents with Avodah as a regular collaborator and today continues as my very dear friend.  You will be reading lots more about him as this blog continues.

Newman and Elizabeth teaching in a junior high school classroom.  We often had grants to bring programs into the public schools.

All the company members proved to be excellent teachers beautifully guiding the children in various activities.  For example, Loretta talked about Harriet Tubman and asked the children to go quietly from their lively school bus through a long lobby downstairs to their activity room as if they were fugitive slaves following Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad.   Loretta, of course, became Harriet Tubman.

Loretta Abbott leading the children in the final presentation.

The facilities at HUC-JIR proved to be outstanding for the program.  The large kitchen was ideal to make tasty and healthy dinners. Thank you, HUC-JIR, for making this possible. I learned that I could shop at BJ’s in Jersey City for large amounts of food at a reasonable price enabling me to add treats that the children were able to take home with them.  For the first year, a former Avodah dancer, Peggy Evans (then a professional clown), coordinated the cooking.  With classes, journal writing and eating together, the program flowed smoothly.

The Chapel at HUC-JIR was just perfect forthe dance classes and especially for the final presentation.

The director of the program for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs was Rhonda McLean Nur. And much to our delight she sent Jeannine Otis to observe our work for the Department.  We had met Jeannine before, when she appeared in a program that we had shared with Faith Journey at HUC.    As we got to know Jeannine more, I kept thinking there had to be a way to collaborate with her.  (See the next blog for how this came to be.)

In the second year of receiving the grant and developing a very strong relationship with the children, I arranged a field trip/reunion for the staff and children to attend a performance of the Broadway show Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk.  While I don’t remember all the details of how we were able to pull this off, I believe the producers made special price tickets available to school groups for the matinee.  It was exciting to have Savion Glover and other cast members talk to the children after the show.

Our field trip to see Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk.

Reflecting back on these unique teaching opportunities my heart again fills with the joy that we received from the children.  They were eager and hungry to learn from us, and their enthusiasm brought out the very best in our teaching skills.

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Reflection on the “Jews and Jewishness in the Dance World” Conference

JoAnne Tucker / / Current Dance Events, Movement Workshops

Let me begin by sharing the history of how and why I decided to go to this conference.  I saw a notice about it posted by Naomi Jackson on the National Dance Education Association bulletin board about a year and a half ago.  Shortly after seeing it, I received a copy of the notice from Elizabeth McPherson, who danced in Avodah for seven years and with whom I have kept in regular touch, often meeting on my occasional trips to NYC.  She wanted to make sure I saw it and wanted to encourage me to apply. What followed was a series of emails with Naomi, as I wondered what kind of presentations she had in mind, and then later emails with Elizabeth.  The conference seemed to be very broad, looking at “Jewishness” and dance from many different angles.  Since I have moved on from The Avodah Dance Ensemble and using Jewish themes as motivation for creating choreography or doing workshops, I wanted to share something that felt current to me now.  In discussions with Elizabeth the idea of presenting on Helen Tamaris came up.  She was a pioneer modern dancer, and Jewish, and most important to me, her work is the thread that influenced both the work that I did with Avodah and the work that I do now.  Perfect.

So we came up with the idea that Elizabeth and I would submit together.  She would share the history of Helen Tamiris, teaching one or two sections of Helen Tamiris’s Negro Spirituals, (see Blog Honoring Helen Tamiris on how we added Negro Spirituals to Avodah’s repertory) and I would share some ideas from studying composition with Tamiris. I was thrilled and while still feeling a sense of reluctance to attend, I felt very good about the presentation I would be part of.  And what a surprise I received.

Elizabeth presenting her paper on Tamiris.

Elizabeth teaching “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” from Tamiris’s Negro Spirituals

Naomi set up a Google Drive where we could all share information from books published related to Jewish dance, choreography by Jewish choreographers or pieces on Jewish themes.  Lots of sharing went on as well as discussions on a logo for the conference and individuals’ memories of important influences in their work.  I followed and did post a little.  My husband and good friend Regina commented to me that every time I mentioned the conference I made a strange face that clearly lacked enthusiasm.  I wondered what three days of the conference would mean for me and didn’t have high hopes.  And clearly I was not alone in feeling this way, as once there, this questioning came up in quiet conversations.  But the thank you’s after the conference, again using our connection through Google Drive, were unanimous in sharing how good and meaningful the conference was and hoping there would be more.

In addition to Elizabeth, my good friend and dance/film collaborator Lynne Wimmer decided to go to.  (See Blog on “In Praise” in Pittsburgh and watch the film “Through the Door” which we co-directed in 2016.) Lynne and I would be roommates and we looked forward to catching up on our recent adventures.  So I went knowing that at least I would be hanging out with people I really enjoyed. I also decided to drive so that I would have a car to make it easy to get around and do other things in the area should the conference be “boring.”  It wasn’t at all boring, but the car was helpful in enabling us to select restaurants that weren’t in easy walking distance.

The overall energy of the conference was a genuine sharing of who we are and our role in dance and how it might relate to our “Jewishness.” From presentations on key historical figures (such as ours about Helen Tamiris), to panels on dance therapy or how one’s choreography related to social justice, participants shared enthusiastically and audience members listened carefully and respectfully.  For the majority of the time slots of an hour and fifteen minutes we had to select which one of four presentations we wanted to attend and it was often hard to choose since all looked good.

The opening evening program on Saturday  was a selection of dance films curated by Ellen Bromberg, Professor at the University of Utah who teaches Screendance. I loved seeing an early film of Daniel Nagrin and the fun film techniques used in 1953 when the film was made.

Sunday night was a concert curated by Liz Lerman and Wendy Perron.  Outstanding moments from the concert were: a piece beautifully performed by college-age Maggie Waller; Send Off performed by Jesse Zarrit to a recorded text of Hanoch Levin focused on the Akedah (the binding of Isaac) from Issac’s point of view; and The Return of Lot’s Wife by Sara Pearson in which Lot’s wife finally confronts God in her 1950’s Brooklyn kitchen.  All pieces were beautifully danced and the last two I mentioned had a wonderful sense of humor to them.

A photograph from Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash that I co-authored with Rabbi Susan Freeman in 1990 was included in the Exhibition of “Reimagining Communities Through Dance” curated by Judith Brin Ingber and Naomi Jackson.

From Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash. Rabbi Susan Freeman working with students from Brooklyn Heights Synagogue.  Photo by Tom Brazil

I found the panel on Dance Therapy to have a lot of historical information and loved the presentations by two of the women, Miriam Berger and Joanna Harris. An intense panel “Exploring the Complex Relations Between Jews and non-Jewish Arabs through Dance” followed and stirred some interesting reflections on whether dance events can help build relationships.

Perhaps the most meaningful moments came the last day and were both experiential movement moments. One was leading the experiential part of our presentation on Helen Tamiris. Tamiris’s composition class focused on the use of gesture to build movement.  I chose to share a way I use this idea with non-dancers.  I asked each of the 15 participants to say one or two words of how they felt at the moment and then we went around with each sharing a gesture that fit their word.  It was an intergenerational group all with a strong dance background and as we built a phrase of our 15 gestures a warmth and community developed.

Later that day I attended a workshop by Victoria Marks and Hannah Schwadron called “Dancing Inter-connections.”  Again it was an intergenerational experience with over 30 participants.  One improvisation featured us finding the way to move in the space between us.  The weaving was fun to do and we had to be inventive to find the space between us. The ending improvisation focused on the word “lingering” in movement interactions. That was particularly rich and beautiful.  In the feedback afterwards one of the young college-age dancers mentioned how meaningful it was to dance with the older generation.  How she felt nurtured and empowered.  And how wonderful that felt, to hear it come from a young woman.

As I reflect back on the experience I am of course very glad to have gone. I loved the many new and renewed connections.  And I wonder whether it was the Jewishness or the dance that so resonated for me, or the combination. I am most grateful to Naomi Jackson for her leadership in maintaining an openness and inclusiveness within the intent of the conference.  Once again I am reminded of the important spiritual connection for me in dance, both by moving, myself, and being inspired by watching dance.

    Closing ceremony dance. Photo by Tim Trumble

Milestones in Dance in the USA edited by Elizabeth McPherson

JoAnne Tucker / / Book Review

I just finished reading this eye-opening book, and I had planned to write a review.  As I begin to write, I realize there is more I want to say than simply to review an excellent book. In this blog I will point why this work was very much needed and how Dr. McPherson developed the collection.  I’ll include a brief overview of the book.  In my next blog, I will explore my reaction as a retired dancer/choreographer/artistic director, and note particular chapters that were important in helping me to better understand both the times during which I was very active in the dance world, and where things have evolved to now.

Let me begin by saying I have a friendship with Elizabeth McPherson, so as I continue this blog I will be referring to her as Elizabeth.  Elizabeth performed for 8 years in the company that I directed.  We have continued to stay in touch since then.  I have written articles for the quarterly Dance Education in Practicewhich she edits.  We presented a workshop on Helen Tamiris at the 2018 Jews and Jewishness in the Dance World conference.  Recently she visited me in Costa Rica, spending time working on a biography of Helen Tamiris.

Milestones in Dance in the USA was one of two books that received the 2023 Ruth Lovell Murray award from the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO).  In recognizing the book, the organization provided the following description:

Designed for weekly use in dance history courses, it traces dance in the USA as it broke traditional forms, crossed genres, provoked social and political change, and drove cultural exchange and collision. The authors put a particular focus on those whose voices have been silenced, unacknowledged, and/or uncredited – exploring racial prejudice and injustice, intersectional feminism, protest movements, and economic conditions, as well as demonstrating how socio-political issues and movements affect and are affected by dance.  https://www.ndeo.org/Membership/Awards/Ruth-Lovell-Murray-Book-Award

In a blog that Elizabeth wrote for NDEO in February, she describes her extensive background in taking and teaching dance history courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.  She points out that most of the focus in such courses has been on showing how US dance has grown out of Western European aesthetics, and as a result, “many important and influential voices in dance have been less acknowledged and sometimes even silenced.”  Her current dance history course seeks to highlight these voices.

Link to full blog:  https://www.ndeo.org/Latest-News/View/ArticleId/11688/New-Blog-Post-Reframing-a-College-Dance-History-Course-to-Dance-in-the-USA

In this same blog, Elizabeth describes how she was approached to be the editor of the book:

In the summer of 2020, after doing a peer review of a book for Taylor and Francis-Routledge, I was contacted by the publisher to gauge my interest in creating a textbook on the history of American Dance. Routledge was developing a Milestones series. Each book would be an edited collection of ten essays on various topics related to the overall theme.

Cover of the dance history book reviewed in this blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Milestones-Dance-USA-Elizabeth-McPherson/dp/1032131020/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3Q5FLVSMYTHJ6&keywords=milestones+in+dance+in+the+usa&qid=1687929085&sprefix=milestone+in+dance%2Caps%2C179&sr=8-1

Drawing on her new approach to teaching dance history, Elizabeth selected ten authors who matched the new focus of her dance history course.  The diverse authors were all very qualified to write on their specific subjects.

 There is no better way to share the depth of the book and the authors than to list the ten chapters:

  1. “Native American Dance and Engage Resistance” by Robin Prichard
  2. “An American Take on Ballet” by Dawn Lille
  3. “Black Women Keep the Tempo: The Impact of Black Women on Jazz and Tap Dance in the USA” by Alesondra Christman
  4. “Gendered Politics and the Female Dancing Body” by Julie Kerr-Berry
  5. “An Exploration of Inspiration, Imitation, and Cultural Appropriation in Dance in the USA” by Miriam Giguere
  6. “Dancing for Social Change in the 20th and 21st Centuries” by Hannah Kosstrin
  7. “Challenging the Distinction between Art and Entertainment: Dance in Musical Theater” by Joanna Dee Das
  8. “Postmodern Dance: Laboratory of Rupture” by Emmanuele Phuon
  9. “On Black Dance and Postmodern Representation from Black Power to Afro-Futurist Performance” by Carl Paris
  10. “From The Serpentine to The Renegade: Milestones in Dance and Media Technology” by Jody Sperling.

 

I found each chapter fascinating, well researched and filled with new insights into the world of dance in the United States. One of the outstanding features of the book is the Further Reading List that each author gives at the end of their chapter. The materials include books, films, and Internet resources. Following that are the specific References that relate to the chapter.  If one’s curiosity is peaked, there are lots of options for getting more information.

The Appendix of the book provides useful information for the reader. This includes a detailed Timeline of US history and dance in the US, a Glossary, and a Further Reading List which has sections for Books, Films and Videos, Internet Resources, Articles, Exhibits, and Journals.

Elizabeth has edited an outstanding book, not only as a textbook for dance history courses but also as an excellent resource in any college/university library for humanities courses. I highly recommend Milestones in Dance in the USA to any reader interested in getting a diverse perspective of the range of dance activities in the US. I learned a lot and in the next blog will share some of the information I found particularly fascinating.

Elizabeth on her recent trip to Costa Rica
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