Holocaust Memorial Ceremony

I had the amazing honor of dancing at the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony in Israel this year. We performed a piece from Aide Memoire, the piece Rami Beer choreographed around the Holocaust. The day started out with a siren going off throughout Israel for 3 minutes, signaling a moment of silence. Everyone stops, gets out of cars, and observes silence: One of the most moving things to witness.

Now, this performance has gone down as the most memorable and unpredictable performances of my life.

To start with, the stage was so big, we had to practice on a tennis court. To add some excitement to the already mentally and physically fatiguing dance, there were statues all over the stage that were bigger than me, a cat walk that was 6 inches raised from the stage that zigzagged back and forth like a Pac Man. We knew in advance, so we taped off the tennis court and practiced, in the rain, to make sure we would be able to do it. We had a surprise when we got to the outdoor ampatheater and found out the stage was made of COBBLE STONE. Yes, we wore our tennis shoes with lovely white socks over them.

Best Costume Award.

 We got on stage for dress rehearsal and the cat walk was in a different design then what they had sent us. Even though our director checked the day before for any changes, it was different. We got on stage and pretty much re-did everything we had done. We were there for 5 hours with our restaging, and their unorganization. They tried to do crazy things like have a singer walk down the stage while 28 of us were spinning and kicking our legs in the little space we had. Mika, quickly vetoed that idea and we moved on. We also thought for a moment the 6 TORCHES would be lit while we were dancing, putting the all of the beautiful, long, curly hair in danger of catching fire.

Thank goodness we avoided that.

The next day we arrive one hour before the performance to find that another statue has been added to the stage, and the cat walk was in a different configuration. We weren't allowed to get on stage, so everyone just stands on the sides and 'plans' what is going to happen. Mean while, 50 high schoolers have discovered we are foreign and start taking pictures with us like we are 'Brad and Angelina'. Mika had to yell at them and "yalla bye'. There was no place to change so we took turns holding up a tarp and changing.

We all got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

It's our turn to go on stage and the music starts 12 counts later then it should. Everyone was amazing and pulled together. Go Masa!

Half way through a man appears on stage.

 I guarantee both parties did not know about the other, because you see how confused he looks. He stood in my spot the whole time, and at one point, there is a close up of him speaking and I am circling him. He kept flinching away from me and giving us all 'the eye'.

 

I know I just spent an a long time talking about all that went wrong, but if they asked me to do it again exactly as it was, I wouldn't hesitate one bit in saying yes. It was such a touching experience and I'm so honored I got to participate. Everyone one amazing and pulled together to get it done. Literally through rain and shine, rough roads, and blocks in our path, we did it and it turned out beautiful.