Summer Is Here!

Dear all,

It is officially summer in Eretz Yisrael! I took my first dip in the Medeterranean yesterday afternoon, got my first real tan, am completely covered in bug bites and I can’t stop sweating. For now, I am loving it, but I am sure in a few weeks time I will be ready for air conditioned rooms and arctic temperatures again.

In other exciting news, we are one week away from our first big show! Tomorrow we have a run-through of all the pieces to determine an order and so that we can finalize special technical aspects of our show. My group piece is (and has been) done and should be pretty funny. Though it’s silly, it feels like a completed, cohesive story, and I’m proud of it! I am most excited to show my solo. Originally I saw it in my head as a piece all in white, but with the help of my pilates teacher and friend Renana, we’ve slowly turned my piece into a crazy vision in red. I will now have a balloon chandelier hanging from the ceiling and will be wearing a red corset and short petticoat. I finished sewing my costume yesterday and am super stoked to get it on-stage! Renana has also helped me with my hair sculpture (I want to call it a sculpture because it really is very exciting looking!) A few days ago, the two of us sat in the café and played hairdresser for over an hour. I really wish you could have all joined in the fun. It was very amusing!

I also discovered this week that you can find a load of piano sheet music online for free. Obviously it is only the music that is considered public domain. Thankfully, the music I enjoyed playing most would be that of Chopin and Beethoven! I found the music at 11pm on Thursday night and even though I was completely exhausted and already in my pjs, I was so excited by the prospect of playing music that I put my clothes back on and snuck into the studios to play the piano. I cannot tell you how much I’ve missed it! My friends now want me to play for the final dinner or something, so I am going to try to work up a Chopin nocturne or something.

Besides the exciting things that have been happening for me this week, these past few days have actually be particularly rough for me. I think I am getting ready to come home. Seeing as I am done with auditions here and am mentally preparing to jump full-force back into my life at home the prospect of having to wait to start my New York life is making me quite antsy. Besides that, I’m not quite enchanted by some of the modern classes we have here. These modern classes have been the toughest part of my day recently. I have found myself to be particularly stubborn in class and fighting to keep my usual positive attitude going…

Other than that, everything is going beautifully! I’ve become the absolute master of making Challah! Wish you could have tasted one of my four perfect loaves from this past Shabbat. Okay – off to do a few things before bed. Lots and lots of love to you all. Happy Spring and Graduations etc, Marissa

2 Weeks 'Til Showtime, 6 Weeks 'Til Home!

Well, all – I never thought I’d say this, but we’re almost one month out and I am excited about coming home. I have realized that while this place is absolutely phenomenal in many ways, once this program is over, it won’t seem as much like Paradise as it currently does. I have loved this isolated and quiet life, this program, and my friends. It has been a really great opportunity for me to focus on my dancing and reconnect to myself and to my thoughts.  I have recently rediscovered, however, that where I really thrive is in a city where there is always something new to explore and be a part of.  Oddly, I also crave the anonymity that a city provides. I like that I can be surrounded by friends at one moment, but then choose to go into a café and disappear into my own bubble and thoughts. Here, as much as I love everyone, I don’t feel that I can find time totally to myself and it has recently be making me a little crazy! Despite these things, however, I will be really sad to leave this place. I have had so many good times here…

This past week was full and hard! At the end of this week, we go into tech week for our choreography show “Nitzotzot” (which means sparkles in Hebrew). At the top of this past week, we had showings throughout the day. During the evenings, choreographers would scramble to find time in the studios so that they could implement their corrections. There was quite a bit of head butting between choreographers due to shared dancers and lack of space, but so it goes. This is why I get super organized from the get go. At the end of this week, we’ll be ready for show time!

This past Wednesday and Thursday Sharon Vaisvaser came to the kibbutz to give us the 3^rd of 4 workshops/rehearsals that will culminate in a half-hour piece for our show at the end of June. I love her movement – which is contorted, grotesque and theatrical – but these rehearsal days with her are really testing. The first day we had class at ten followed by rehearsals until 9pm. The second day, we were only in rehearsals until 7:30pm, but by that point, we all felt like our muscles were melting off our bones and our brain was sliding out from our ears. Tough. Day. Despite this, however, the days went pretty fast and if we can all get our stuff together, the piece will look pretty cool. Here’s a link to her dancing. You should check it out because she is absolutely beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLFM6id9Iao

As if my week wasn’t full enough, I decided on Friday to travel to Tel Aviv for yet another (and most likely my last) audition. The exciting thing about this trip was that I saw my first Israeli sunrise! In order to get there on time, we decided to leave the kibbutz at 4:40 in the morning.  What we didn’t take into account, however, is that Nahariyya is not exactly a bustling town and therefore we didn’t consider that there wouldn’t be taxis available at 4:40am. I tried 4 different cab numbers to no avail. Luckily, everyone was in great spirits despite the hour, and we all sat on the steps and laughed hysterically at our fate as we watched the sunrise. By some stroke of luck, or perhaps madness because I think we all would have much rather been in bed, one of our crew decided to try another number again. This time, someone answered and in a fit of fury we ran to meet the taxi at the gate, barely made our train and arrived to the audition on time!

I really dislike mass auditions. It is so impossible to see everybody. Not only that, but most likely in these large things, choreographers are looking for something very specific which the auditionees are usually unaware of.  Unfortunately, I got cut after ballet so I didn’t even get to learn repertoire, which was a bit surprising to me. If I had been able to learn some of their choreography, I would have deemed my excursion worth my while. Sadly, I cannot control things like this, so I would have never known that this was the way it was going to turn out. I strongly believe that if something is meant to be, however, everything will align and one of these cattle calls will work out in my favor. Until then, I will find other ways!

Okay, all! The flies have taken to calling my skin home and it’s getting pretty irritating, so I am going to wrap this up. I have some exciting things brewing back in the city, which I may or may not tell you all about later! These little brewing ideas are part of what are fueling my enthusiasm for coming back to NYC! There are so many exciting things that I can finally take advantage of and I cannot WAIT! I hope you are all well! Please do drop a line to let me know how things are going. Love and miss you all, Marissa

Holidays and Memorial Days

Dearest Friends-

So much has happened since I last wrote, but then again it has also been some weeks since I actually took the time to write… I feel like every other day I am saying Chag Sameach. The spring is full of holidays/memorial days.  First there was Pesach, which I wrote about. Shortly after that was the Holocaust Memorial Day.  There was a televised service at the Ghetto Fighter’s Museum (the Holocaust museum of the north), which we participated in. I couldn’t understand what was being said, but it was a very visually pleasing ceremony.  Technically, there were a lot of faux-pas which made our section a little bit dangerous to perform, but on television, it looked quite cool. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R979p-C5ZO8

A few days later a memorial day for the soldiers who have died for the state of Israel was observed. There was a really touching ceremony for the 4 soldiers who have been lost in the history of the Kibbutz.  The service commenced as the air raid alarms were sounded. I don’t know if any of you have had the unfortunate experience of hearing the things sounded, but it really is terrifying. The alarms are extraordinarily loud and all at slightly different pitches from one another which make your ears feel like they are about to explode. What is really terrifying is how life seems to stop for the minute they are sounded in memory of those lost. Cars stop in the middle of the road and people stop talking and moving all together. Everything is frozen. It’s eerie! The actually ceremony was a compilation of video archives, musical interludes and dance. I choreographed a short dance for a bunch of women. It turned out to be really beautiful and everyone seemed to appreciate it!

The following day was Independence Day.  The evening before there was a huge bonfire as well as fireworks and burning sculptures which were really very epic. If you can, you should try to picture a giant, spinning menorah in flames and firey words zooming through the air on zip-lines. It was crazy! The next day, the Kibbutz smelled like one large BBQ. I went to a BBQ at which I consumed more meat than I have since living here.  As a consequence of my gluttony, I spent at least an hour in bed with a severe stomachache. It was completely worth it, though! We are almost done with holidays. I think we only have Lag B’Omer left and then the state of Israel will be holidayed out!

This week we’ve been having showings of our pieces for the first of two major performances we will be producing.  The first show is completely comprised of our own choreography. My showings both went really well and I cannot wait to see them on stage. I am really proud of what I am producing.  I will be sure to post links to the final products.

I am kicking off this weekend with a second (of many) epic pizza nights!  Last time we made 4 pies, but tonight I think we’re aiming to make a 5^th! It’s an excellent, hard earned reward. Tomorrow, I am off to Tel Aviv to hopefully enjoy the beach (though it’s supposed to rain) and city life and see a show of independent Israeli choreographers. I have been looking forward to the show for quite a while.  Supposedly a good number of the employees of the train system were fired/arrested so we’ll have to try to find an alternate route to get there.  It’s always an adventure here…

I’m off to the studios again. Sending my love as usual! Hope all is well. Love, Marissa

Ps: For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing my video, you should check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2BYIEraFQ  It’s clearly nothing serious, but a product of a bored evening/ me sharing my special talents with all of my friends. Enjoy!