Sunday, March 27, 2011

Safe


Dear all,

Just wanted to let you know that I am safe. I have obviously been hearing about what’s going on in the south of Israel and it scares me a little, but know that I am not only in good hands, but in a secure location. If there were to be an emergency, alarms would sound and I would be helped into one of the many bomb shelters on the kibbutz. Not only that, but just a few short miles from the kibbutz is the Western Galilee Hospital, which is well equipped for times of war. It is possible for the entire hospital to relocate to underground, bomb safe rooms. The whole hospital did successfully go underground a few years ago and everyone was totally safe.  It sounds scary and I am sure I would be terrified if anything happened, but at the moment I feel confident of my safety.

I actually feel extraordinarily safe when I travel throughout Israel. You cannot enter a bus or train station without someone scanning your bag and checking your passport. The same story goes generally for some supermarkets and malls. There seem to be security checkpoints everywhere. As well, if a bag is left unattended, it will be reported right away and incinerated on the spot by a small robot. These Israelis have their bases covered! Israelis tend to operate under the general principle of be smart, but don’t let your life be governed by fear. I completely agree. So, life goes on.

I did get a very interesting email from a company I was supposed to audition for this past weekend. A rocket had dropped there several days before the audition and a bomb had exploded in Jerusalem, which I would have been passing through. The day before the audition, I received this email:

“I just wanted to make sure that you were indeed planning on coming to the audition tomorrow, Friday March 25. I'd like to assure you that, in general, Beer-Sheba is quite a safe place, despite the recent falling of a missile 2 days ago, and that in the rare possibility that an alarm is sounded while you are at the audition, we have a very large safe room which can accommodate everyone.”

A few friends of mine did go south and they were completely fine, but I opted to stay home and celebrate Purim on the kibbutz with my friends. Over all it was a good choice for me.

Okie dokie – That is all I have to write this evening. Just wanted to assure you of my safety and send my love! Happy Spring Break to those of you who are enjoying a little vacation! With love, Marissa


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I am tired.


Hiking above the stream


Ksiv stream

I made this little loaf of bread in my shoebox oven!
Oh, geeze! Yesterday was an incredibly long day. I don’t know how I am going to make it through this one. So far this week, we’ve had the audition for KCDC 2 (I made it past the first audition and will continue on to the 2nd one on the 10th of April) and then we took an epic hike along Ksiv stream. Yesterday, I had an eleven-hour day! I had 4 classes, a rehearsal and a pilates lesson.

Upon entering my third class yesterday, all I wanted to do was collapse. Our teacher said that she would certainly take under consideration that we were all really tired, but that seemed not to be the case. I was told on multiple occasions that I was marking the combination and that she needed more from me. I absolutely do not deny that I was marking quite a few of the combinations. I legitimately tried to give more, but actually could not. I was totally frustrated by this and I ended up leaving the class and sat in a patch of sun for fifteen minutes, which noticeably improved my mood!

The rest of my day went well. Rehearsal went smoothly (I cleaned up a lot of things for our showing on Sunday).  Comp class was relaxing and then I finished my day in the best way possible: I took a pilates class on the reformer with Renana. Renana has taken a small bomb shelter – yes, bomb shelter – and turned it into a beautiful pilates/workout studio. She gives brilliant semi private one-hour pilates lessons. The past three classes I’ve had with her, I go into feeling skeletally  un-aligned and run-down and leave feeling strong and calm. My pelvis has actually realigned itself every time as well. We also focus a great deal of our time on deep breathing which is very relaxing. After my lesson yesterday, she invited me to hang out and watch the others begin their lesson. Even though it was late, she gave me an apple and sage tea and I ended up sitting there watching people work out and listening to jazz music for a good 25 min. It was lovely!

As time wears on and I become progressively more tired and worn down, it is hard to remain as positive as I have been. Recently, I have seen the negativity factor increase significantly in daily conversation. It has been really hard for me to separate myself from it and not succumb to it, but I am determined to do so. I have so many positive things to say about this program and about the dancing here even if it isn’t the kind of dancing I want to be doing for the rest of my life. So my challenge for myself for the rest of this program is to attempt to separate myself from those who are excessively negative and to turn everything negative that either I say or someone else voices into an affirmation. One of my friends was talking about doing this and I think it’s a fabulous idea. I used to make affirmations about my piano playing and my performance improved dramatically.

Okay, I am off to start my day. We have class from 10am to 9pm. We’re having a special workshop with this amazing dancer who is setting a piece on us! Cannot wait. When she dances, it looks like all the bones in her body have turned to taffy. I’ll try to find a link to share here. Enjoy pictures I’ve taken of our hike the other day!

With love, Marissa

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Food for Thought


Dear All,

The sun is out and the weather is absolutely perfect! Yesterday, we had a Purim performance for all the kibbutz kids and then I lapped up as much sun as I could (I lathered on the sunscreen). I lay in the park on a blanket for a while and then retired to my room where I made a huge batch of oznay haman (or hamentaschen) for our Shabbat dinner. Dinner was also held outside for the first time and there was fresh challah and loads of fresh veggies. It was a good end to a good week!

At dinner last night I was talking to some friends about how I usually write a blog post every Sunday. They suggested that this week, instead of writing a detailed account of my week, I should write down all the recipes I’ve used thus far. I thought that was an interesting idea, so I am going to go ahead and share a few:

Humus:
1 cup dried chickpeas
1 cup tahini
1 lemon (juiced)
2 cloves garlic
Cumin, coriander, salt and pepper to taste

Soak the chickpeas over night. Cook them for about an hour and a half until they are soft and then let them cool in the refrigerator for an hour. When the chickpeas have cooled, put all the ingredients together in a bowl and blend them together. The end! Short and sweet! Enjoy the humus within a few days.

Shakshukah:
½ onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 pepper chopped
1 can of roasted/diced tomatoes (or fresh roasted and diced tomatoes)
Cumin, coriander, paprika, salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs

Put the peppers in a pan and sauté in olive oil. When the peppers begin to soften, add the onions and garlic as well as salt and pepper. When onions start to turn golden, add the tomatoes, cumin, coriander and paprika and let simmer for a wee bit. When things get all bubbly in the pan, take a spoon and clear a little hole in the center of the sauce. Crack two eggs in the center and cover the pan with a lid until the eggs are cooked. When the eggs are cooked, take the pan off the stove and enjoy immediately (in the pan) with a piece of pita.

Yogurt with Eggplant:
2 scallions
1 medium-sized eggplant (about 3/4 pound)
2 cups plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, peeled and mashed to a pulp
3 T. minced fresh mint
3/4 t. salt
Olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Cut scallions into thin pieces. Put in a bowl of ice water and refrigerate for an hour. Cut the eggplant in thick slices and coat them in the olive oil (you may need more, I find) and cook on the stove until limp. When finished, peel the skin away from the flesh and mince the flesh. In a bowl, combine the eggplant flesh and the rest of the ingredients (including the scallions, which you should drain and dry). Mix well and (in my humble opinion) let everything sit in the fridge for a little bit before serving so all the flavors blend together. Serve on top of your lamb or on a pita or whatever. This dish is delish!

That’s all the recipes I am going to write out for now. Perhaps next time, I will go add Oznay Haman and Challah and a few more! We’ll see!

Before parting, I just wanted to say that I am still doing well. For a few days there, I felt like a chicken with its head cut off. There was a lot of choreography I didn’t know very well; I didn’t know how I was doing in class; I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in Israel and if I was, how I was going to go about doing that etc, etc.  To remedy all of this, however, I have taken to videotaping repertoire and myself and have started talking to people about dance in Israel among other things. To top it all off, I have started taking pilates lessons on reformer machines. I have had three classes and can already feel the change in my dancing. Yes! Sooo now I feel a bit calmer. Here, by the way, is a clip of my most recent little adventure in the studio – sorry for the 20 second intro of me doing nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUtAd047hI


Okay all, until next week! Sending love, Marissa

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Challah, Auditions and Bomb Shelters


Here I am at another end of a full week. As seems to be the usual, I am pretty content. This week I participated in an audition, took a dance workshop and some normal classes, put together a solid chunk of choreography, made some decisions about how I am going to spend my time in Israel and partied in a bomb shelter.  Not. Too. Bad.

Let’s start with the audition. The audition, as I mentioned in a previous blog posting, was for my favorite company ever, Inbal Pinto. If you ask me, Inbal Pinto’s works are the pinnacle of artistic excellence. Every element of her pieces contributes beautifully to her concepts, which are ultimately strange and otherworldly. In each of the shows I’ve seen, I have been transported into an absolute dream-land. If you get the chance, you should either check her company out on youtube or if you are lucky enough to catch them while they are on tour, you should see their performances live. They are a real treat.

The audition itself was a very efficiently run event.  I got cut from the audition rather early in the game, but there are no hard feelings here. I understood before I went into the audition that they were not only looking for something specific, but they had to choose from so many people. I also had no connections to the company and am not Israeli etc, etc. I was, however, quite thankful to have had the opportunity to have learned a bit of Inbal’s repertoire and have danced in their studio. Post audition, I emailed them to thank them for the opportunity and asked if I could take classes with them in the future. The answer was affirmative, so I hope to make it to Tel Aviv for a chunk of time before I leave to take them up on their offer!

Also, while I was in Tel Aviv last weekend for the audition, I managed to take my first swim and get my first Israeli sunburn! The water was so beautiful and so warm! I can’t wait to go back with a boat-load of sunscreen and a picnic!

Other than that, I’ve been taking class as usual this week. We had a workshop from a former Batsheva dancer. The teacher, Eldad, was an extremely lovely man who is was very down to earth, kind and pretty hilarious. His warm-up class was based on the Gaga technique – a technique used by the Batsheva Company. It was full of fabulous imagery and humor. The material he presented to us was also quite interesting. The simple goal of attempting to complete small ‘tasks’ generated Eldad’s movement. For example, one movement was an attempt to describe the inner and outer edges of a circle using the blade of your hand, or another was to create a hole for your arm and then to subsequently snake your arm out of the hole and replace it with another part of your body. Following? For a very visual learner, like myself, his method worked quite well. It also had a very non-performative aspect to it. You were supposed to simply fulfill the task and move on to the next. It was very bare-bones, but for those who are used to presenting themselves, it was very difficult. 

Last night I made my first two loaves of Challah since landing in Israel. I brought them to our weekly Shabbat pot-luck dinner and they were a hit, though I must say I’ve made better. Because it was cold and rainy yesterday, the bread didn’t exactly rise to its full potential. I also cooked to loaves in ovens the size of a shoebox so they were an unfortunate shade of brown/black on the top, but the inside still tasted delicious. I think next week I’ll make hamentashen for Purim! Aha! Last night, I also went to a party in a bomb-shelter. That, in my opinion, is something to write home about. It was pretty exciting and actually a perfect place to have a party. We could play the music as loud as we wanted and you couldn’t hear anything from above ground. It was a good time…

That is all for now. As usual, I hope you all are well! Please send me little updates on your lives as I am sure (and for some of you, I know!) much has happened since I took off from the States.  I am sending all my love! Xx, Marissa