Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Medley at the Holocaust Memorial

Today, January 27th, marks the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.  Today I stood at the Holocaust Memorial to honor those who died with a violin solo I arranged.  Having studied the Holocaust quite extensively, I almost feel as if I know some of the Jewish survivors.  Their stories are written to declare to the future generations "Never Again"!  The unimaginable suffering the endured, the unspeakable pain they went through pricks my heart as I realize how much this day must be remembered.  As I stood at that Memorial, I was ready to cry.  A hush fell over as I stood to remember and honor.  It was an extremely emotional moment.  Rena... Anita... Henryk... Danka... Elie... Witold... The countless names of those who died and of those who survived must not be forgotten.  Their stories will live on.  They will be remembered.
This piece is built off the Yiddish song Oyfn Pripetchik (By The Fireside) and moves through two of the melodies heard in Schindler's List, finishing with Hatikvah (The Hope).  Oyfn Pripetchik is a song about a Rabbi teaching his students the Hebrew alphabet and one of the lines says, "When, children, you will grow older/You will understand/How many tears lie in these letters/And how much crying."  A traditional Yiddish saying quotes "the history of the Jews is written in tears", but I wanted to end with the Hatikvah because Israel will live forever.  As God's chosen people and the apple of His eye, no one will ever wipe them off the face of this earth.  To all the victims of the Holocaust: This piece is for you.



Posted By:
~Bethany 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Wouldn't Burn Away

Let's backtrack to last month, shall we?

We siblings had a blast putting together our very first music/dance video!  It was a video about the Hanukkah story, featuring a song written by Jordan and a dance choreographed by me.  We had a lot of fun on the project and especially enjoyed getting our "adopted" sister, Lindsey, to join us in the dancing fun!



Here are the behind the scenes pictures of all our hard work!
And that, my friends, is our lovely backdrop.  Tape included.

 Trying to get the camera angle right... and no one doing a very good job of helping out.

 Working with the little guys.

 Dance shots.

 We only had an hour to put this dance together... and no one but me knew how to do it!  Everyone did such a great job catching on quickly.





 Keeping the arms up, because it is just so much better that way.  ;)
(That was a tricky jazz step I insisted everyone learn--it looks great!)

 Laughing because something went wrong, which is a good thing because it means we're happy.  :)

 Having some fun!


 Contemplating the idea of adding a sequence from the Fox Trot...  ;)

Hava Nagila backtracking...


The ending is a favorite!


This must have been an amusing conversation.

 After all our hard work, we decided to have a bit of fun with the infamous "Awkward Family Photo" (for all you Studio C lovers out there)!

A couple nights later, we all work on our movie developments... while Eden kicks back and eats ice cream!

Our movie's promo picture!



And yes, we have a blooper reel of all our fumbles, funnies, and fun!  Enjoy!

"I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."  ~John 812b