Connect to Yikzor (the quarterly service of remembrance for those who have died), impending darkness, cycles of life and death and rebirth, which is the essence of Tishrei energy, and the high holidays. Joanie Block is the founder and Artistic Director of SELMADANSE. Her dances frequently address Jewish themes. Here she describes her most recent work:
When my husband died in November, I watched the memorial candle flicker out as the Chanukah candles were being lit. In that moment I thought to myself, “The light and the darkness, never far from each other”.
Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio, a 19th century Italian Torah commentator, considered the Plague of Darkness as a phenomenon not of literal darkness, but a darkness that befell the soul of the Egyptians. A darkness that symbolizes a need to re-examine one’s opinions, assumptions and behavior. A darkness that can propel us toward a more humane world.
Living in New England, many brace for the inevitable darkness that seeps into our psyches as we wait out the seemingly endless weeks for the returning light. Dance, our collective stories and the challenge to examine our behavior offer a portal into an alternative perception of these apparent antithetical forces. Can they change our experience of winter? I think so!!
This will be an in-person event at TBZ, but will also be live-streamed on Zoom.