What Becomes Treasure

Thursday and Friday in Schwedt turned out to be very productive. On Thursday I got to see Thomas at work with his students using interesting concepts about twisting/wringing (think gut wrenching). Elizabeth did very interesting work with that idea also with the older women. On Friday afternoon we made a really good version of one piece involving arrivals on a bench and the waiting that follows. We had 10 people, young and old - male and female. I also got my old friend from Paris to perform. He came to visit in Berlin while I am on this side of the pond since we haven't seen each other in person since 2015. Then back to Berlin for the weekend. Yesterday I was able to meet up with David Haas, the grandson of Bedrich Fritta who made the portrait of my grandmother in Theresienstadt. The story of the two friends, Leo Haas and Bedrich Tausich (sp?) aka Fritta, how they came to Thersienstadt (Terezin in Czech) and how Leo and his wife came to adopt little Thomas Fritta (David's fathe...

Yesterday was pretty successful from my point of view. First I was met by a group of level 9 students at the Gymnasium (high school) and Herr Rall filmed the conversation which was mostly me talking about Mom's family experience. The students had a few questions (am I related to Robert Oppenheimer, of course. Sorry, no). Then we went back to the Kuntstchule and I watched Thomas working with his small group of 12 year olds. Nice ideas about different ways to treat people you meet. Then worked with his two older girls on the idea of memory and also What would make you leave your home. Off again now to work today and tomorrow. But probably no internet for a couple of days.

Came back yesterday from London after a much needed break. It was wonderful to see that part of my family again. They are very dear to me and I am grateful to my mother for making sure that we knew who our relatives were! Everywhere I went I met people who had stories of immigrant parents, even at the Lido swimming pool!... Today we had the chance to talk with Michaela Maria Mueller, the author of several books. One of them is about a Somali family that she has followed from their journey out of Somalia ending up in Germany. Unfortunately the book is in German so I can't read it just yet. We had a very thoughtful conversation about what it means to be a refugee and why there is so much resistance in some parts of society. What is the cause? We also talked about How different generations have dealt with the Holocauset here in Germany. We discussed the differences in the way the Ukranians have been looked after vs. the way refugees from Muslim or African nations have been treated. ...

August 24th. Today we returned to Berlin from Schwedt and tomorrow I will leave for London to see my cousins - all 2nd generation survivors like me. I will take a break from the blog for the next 5 days. So let me fill in some of what's been going on the last couple of days. On Monday the 22nd, Elizabeth and I worked hard in the morning in the dance studio on movement ideas. Afterwards we spent some time with Thomas talking more about ideas for the project. By this time I was missing both my jacket and my dance pants. It took a couple of days for me to work out where the pants had disappeared (I had used them to keep my pants dry when we had dinner on the veranda overlooking the canal). The pants are never to be seen again. We tried going back to find them but the staff thought we were looking for black funeral flowers instead of Schwartz hosen... We traced my jacket back to Thomas's van through a photo that EB took. On Tuesday morning I set out after breakfast on my own to ...

August 21, 1922 A day off? not really. No meetings or rehearsals but lots of walking. I took a walk in the morning and found my way directly to the house that Jake and I think was the Oltersdorf home where my Aunt Lisa lived through the war with her kids until they escaped the Russian bombing of Schwedt. I walked about 45 minutes scouting for possible stations if there's going to be an outdoor performance in July '23 which is Thomas's idea. Then Elizabeth and I set out in the afternoon to visit the Stadtmuseum - I was thinking that the Tobacco exhibit would still be there (it isn't). Since we were early, we walked on along the canal for quite a way looking in on people's gardens and talking about our own gardens at home. There are a lot of high rise buildings here in the center of town - block apartments with balconies. There's loads of green space too and lots of beautiful sculptures but not a lot of flowers so it was nice to get far enough out of the center to...

8/20/22 It's Saturday. Thought it would be a non-working day. We were invited to the countryside again, this time to the village of Lunow for the adult celebration of Thomas' niece. We were picked up a little before 11 am in the great old yellow Mercedes van that has toured most of this hemisphere - been to India and back, for instance. Before we could leave, Thomas wanted to share his latest ideas about the project: a large suitcase with items that must fit like a puzzle but there's never enough room, for instance. Since he had started the day with adding yeast to flour, he thought about unleavened bread - not even enough time to let the bread rise before you leave. Then we headed out of town with a stop at a little farmers market where he was hoping to pick up some rye and wheat for his bread making. This was in Stolzenhagen where the art community Ponderosa is. The rye & wheat were not there unfortunately for T. but we had a really nice drive. Sometimes it gets reall...