Grandmas on Stage / Grandkids in the Audience - A guest blog by Mimi Katz

Dance -
1. To move one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps,
especially to the accompaniment of music

My girls with their performing grandmother

2. To leap, skip, etc., as from excitement or emotion; move nimbly or quickly
What does it mean to dance? The definition in the dictionary is pretty straightforward and clear. But the dancing my girls and I watched this week had so much depth than that.

Auntie Bati, Grandma, Auntie Nava

I took my ten-year-old and six-year-old daughters to watch their aunts and grandmother dance in a very special performance entitled, "Dames of the Dance", an all-female dance performance for women of all ages.
We look forward to this show all year, with its bright colors, creative dances and shining costumes.
The day itself was full of excitement. "Today we are going to see Grandma's show."

Grandma tap dances (at right) with Auntie Bati right in the center

The girls must have asked me twenty times what time we'd be going and in how much time is that. We headed out. My older daughter was worried every time we slowed down for the slightest bit of traffic and the eta on the Waze changed even by a minute. As we got closer to the theater we stopped to buy some snacks, the anticipation barely allowed the girls to eat dinner before we left.
We arrived at the theater and immediately looked for our family. My daughters were so happy, we arrived early. They couldn't wait to see their cousins, aunts and grandmothers. We got our tickets and found our seats. Our family had an entire row. Even their great-grandmothers came to see the performance.

Grandma plays a grandma

This year's show surpassed well beyond all of our expectations - and we have high expectations based on the previous years we've attended "Dames".
The theme of the show this year is legacy. It's "Dames" tenth anniversary - with 100 women volunteering to dance, rehearsing for months, devoting their efforts to a cause. Their goal is to raise money for the needy in their communities. This year they set an additional goal - to contribute to an IDF Lone Soldiers’ Home in Gush Etzion.
Ten years of shows, of creating a group that has become like family. They wish to extend their love to soldiers who don’t have family with them in Israel. Their message is clear - we love you! You do have family in Israel - we are here for you!
My daughters sat in awe watching their grandmother perform with love. She is able to combine the things she cherishes most - charity work, family and friends, and dancing. This is the legacy.

Showbiz kiss

So what does dance mean? Well, to us it represents beauty and expression, awareness and activeness, facilitating change and providing help, movement and progress and most of all love and unity.

"Dames of the Dance" has one more performance, a 5 PM matinee on Monday February 26, geared for the younger crowd. The sports hall of Efrat will be filled with cheering kids in the stands and shuffling mothers, sisters and grandmothers on stage.
[If you're in Greater Jerusalem, tickets: tixwise.co.il/damesofthedance.]

Grandmas on Stage/ Grandkids in the Audience - A Guest Blog by Mimi Katz

Dance -
1. To move one's feet or body, or both, rhythmically in a pattern of steps,
especially to the accompaniment of music

My girls with their performing grandmother

2. To leap, skip, etc., as from excitement or emotion; move nimbly or quickly
What does it mean to dance? The definition in the dictionary is pretty straightforward and clear. But the dancing my girls and I watched this week had so much depth than that.

Auntie Bati, Grandma, Auntie Nava

I took my ten-year-old and six-year-old daughters to watch their aunts and grandmother dance in a very special performance entitled, "Dames of the Dance", an all-female dance performance for women of all ages. We look forward to this show all year, with its bright colors, creative dances and shining costumes.
The day itself was full of excitement. "Today we are going to see Grandma's show."

Grandma tap dances (at right) with Auntie Bati right in the center

The girls must have asked me twenty times what time we'd be going and in how much time is that. We headed out. My older daughter was worried every time we slowed down for the slightest bit of traffic and the eta on the Waze changed even by a minute. As we got closer to the theater we stopped to buy some snacks, the anticipation barely allowed the girls to eat dinner before we left.

Grandma plays a grandma

We arrived at the theater and immediately looked for our family. My daughters were so happy, we arrived early. They couldn't wait to see their cousins, aunts and grandmothers. We got our tickets and found our seats. Our family had an entire row. Even their great-grandmothers came to see the performance.
This year's show surpassed well beyond all of our expectations - and we have high expectations based on the previous years we've attended "Dames".
The theme of the show this year is legacy. It's "Dames" tenth anniversary - with 100 women volunteering to dance, rehearsing for months, devoting their efforts to a cause. Their goal is to raise money for the needy in their communities. This year they set an additional goal - to contribute to an IDF Lone Soldiers’ Home in Gush Etzion.
Ten years of shows, of creating a group that has become like family. They wish to extend their love to soldiers who don’t have family with them in Israel. Their message is clear - we love you! You do have family in Israel - we are here for you!
My daughters sat in awe watching their grandmother perform with love. She is able to combine the things she cherishes most - charity work, family and friends, and dancing. This is the legacy.
So what does dance mean? Well, to us it represents beauty and expression, awareness and activeness, facilitating change and providing help, movement and progress and most of all love and unity.

"Dames of the Dance" has one more performance, a 5 PM matinee on Monday February 26, geared for the younger crowd. The sports hall of Efrat will be filled with cheering kids in the stands and shuffling mothers, sisters and grandmothers on stage.
[If you're in Greater Jerusalem, tickets: tixwise.co.il/damesofthedance.]

TODAY, 500 Years Ago

When you work on a project that is dear to your heart, often you eat, sleep, live it. That's what's happening right now with my latest project, "HIDDEN - The Secret Jews of Spain", that I've co-created with +Avital Macales. I can't talk enough about Spain, the Golden Age and the Inquisition. Today, The Jewish Press posted an article I wrote about the day that began the Spanish Inquisition. TODAY - November 1, 1478.

November 1, 1478 – Launching the Spanish Inquisition

 Mazel tov. Not.

The marriage of Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella of Aragon in 1469 united the major Spanish kingdoms and provinces, and now on-paper created a Country! Spain!  Yet, regional differences, social discord, and strife still boiled over from the years of war and division. The monarchs searched for a solution to the intense violence overrunning the new country, and came up with a strategy that has succeeded in every century in every country throughout history - a crusade (in this instance, with a small “c”) against a common enemy, the Jew, or in Spain of 1479, the conversos/marranos or “New Christians”.

Ferdinand and Isabella pleaded with Pope Sixtus IV to help them strengthen Spain and fight those who imperiled the entire kingdom – the dangerous false Christians who surely held Judaism in their hearts.

Recognizing the strength of Jewish faith, Pope Sixtus IV agreed to help eradicate any of its remnants (the “pintele yid”) along with the conversos or “New Christians” in whom even the faintest embers still glowed.

The Edict that Began the Inquisition

On November 1, 1478, Pope Sixtus IV issued the papal bull Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus. He declared, “We are aware that in different cities in your kingdoms of Spain many of those who were regenerated by the sacred baptismal waters of their own free will have returned secretly to the observance of the laws and customs of the Jewish [faith]…because of the crimes of these men and the tolerance of the Holy See towards them civil war, murder, and innumerable ills afflict your kingdoms.”

To eliminate this menace, the Pope gave Ferdinand and Isabella the permission to establish the authority of the Spanish Inquisition, first in Castile. Aragon soon followed. The Inquisition would unite the nation with one common religion, Christianity, and with a common purpose, eradicating hidden Jews and Judaism within its borders. An added benefit: conversos accused by the Inquisition had their property and wealth automatically confiscated.

The Pope’s edict launched the Spanish Inquisition and authorized Ferdinand and Isabella to appoint inquisitors to investigate converts who were suspected of Judaizing, and to bring them and their accomplices to justice.

According to Professor Benzion Netanyahu’s The Origins of the Inquisition, between tens of thousands to as many as 600,000 Jews had converted by force or voluntarily in Spain by the period of the Inquisition. Whichever number is correct, Spain had found a common enemy that could be focused upon for quite a while (about 400 years), plus a substantial source of income to fund its continued wars, its adventures, and expeditions.

The papal bull led to a royal decree two years later that reaffirmed the Inquisition’s role to search out and punish converts from Judaism who secretly kept Jewish beliefs in their heart.

And in 1483 the plan came to fruition with the appointment of one the cruelest, most malevolent men in history, Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada (may he burn in hell).

The Inquisition was underway.

Yes, This STAGE of Life

My birthday's coming up this weekend. "Happy birthday." "Thanks."
At 62, I guess I should start researching community center classes in painting, or perhaps take up knitting while watching the soaps.
Truthfully, I haven't watched TV in more than 20 years, and I don't know if there are still soap operas on daytime television. But I imagine that as long as scandal and sorrow exist, soaps will continue onward as strongly as ever.

At this Stage of My Life
At this stage of my life, I've chosen a different path. Continue onward with my dreams and passions, for as long as G-d allows. (Please G-d, allow for many years to come.)
I don't particularly want to go to China, backpack along the Amazon or bungee jump from some bridge. I want to create.
I spent the majority of my first 57 years as a journalist for newspapers, weeklies, magazines and all sorts of publications in the United States and then in Israel. Although I gave up deadline journalism, I continue to write whenever the spirit swooshes me (like now), and I especially continue to write in new media.

Create
Over the past four-and-a-half years, I've been on teams that create movies - Shooteast, brilliant filmmakers who "turn the unimaginable into reality through live-action, visual effects, and animation"; and Torah Live, which educates today's Jewish youth in eternal values through the cinematic language of tomorrow. I'm a production manager (logistics-r-us).
Over the past 16 years, I've created four theater/performance companies and have gratefully performed on stage in three of them (one is for teens).
I've (co)created four musical productions and right now I've just completed my fifth, which will hopefully take the stage in November 2018.
I also make my own clips when I can. I'd like to make more. [Here's my latest.]

The Spanish Inquisition

Outside the Alhambra Palace in Granada

With each new musical, I become completely absorbed in the topic. My newest show with co-author/co-composer +Avital Macales is called "HIDDEN - The Secret Jews of Spain".
Our HIDDEN research has led us to read many books on the Golden Age of Spain and the Inquisition, actually visit Andalusia, and speak to as many people as we can about Spain, hidden Jews, conversos, and lost traditions, etc.
You can see more about this project on facebook, here.


Come with me
I'd like to share this STAGE of my life, whether I'm physically on stage in Jerusalem (or working to get there), on a movie set, juggling grandmotherhood and work, trying to catch my dreams while remembering I can't run as fast as I used to.
You don't have to be middle-aged to read this blog. You don't have to love theater. You don't have to be Jewish. You just have to be a fun person, and if you're not, I'll try to make you into one. 
Stick with me to see how a soon-to-be senior navigates a young world.