Anne Frank Ballet Trip

The Anne Frank Ballet at CCP Educated and Inspired By Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler In a special performance to benefit the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC), the Nashville Ballet presented “The Anne Frank Ballet” at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Monday May 7. Based on Anne Frank’s Diary, the cast of five dancers portrayed Peter van Pels, Margot Frank and three dimensions of Anne Frank to better represent the complex internal struggles she endured throughout two years of life in the Annex. Tennessee Holocaust Commission member Felicia Anchor said, “[Anne Frank’s diary] is the entry point, the portal for young people to understand what happened in the Holocaust.” Two performances were scheduled for the one-day event each followed with an open-audience question and answer session with liberators, survivors and performers. The school matinee was prefaced with a narrated video to set the scene for The Anne Frank Ballet. Following the school matinee, the Q&A session was held with Jimmy Gentry, American Armed Forces veteran and a liberator of the Dachau Concentration Camp, and Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child Holocaust survivor, as well as the cast of the Nashville Ballet. The students were able to listen to the testimonials of Gentry and Hahn and ask questions about what they had come to understand and ask the dancers for advice on how to achieve goals. As a prelude to the public performance Monday evening, the Cumberland County Playhouse’s Company of Dance performed a modern dance entitled “Loss of Innocence” depicting a group of friends playing together in early Nazi years who then began to distrust and exclude other members of the group until they were no longer able to play together. “Castle in the Cloud,” “Our Children” and “Will There Really Be a Morning” performed by Playhouse Music Education students and “Children of Terezin” performed by Playhouse Theater Education students set the audience to view the Holocaust from a child’s perspective who saw and felt what was happening without understanding why. The public performance was succeeded with a Q&A with Tennessee Holocaust Commission member, Felicia Anchor, born in Bergen-Belson concentration camp while her mother was a prisoner, also Art Pais, a Lithuanian Jew forced to live in the Kovno Ghetto and prisoner at the Dachau Concentration Camp, and was again joined by Frances Cutler-Hahn, hidden child survivor, and the dancers of The Nashville Ballet. “I have seen ‘The Anne Frank Ballet’ three times,” said Hahn to the performers with tears in her eyes, “and each time is powerful and more so.” The courage and fortitude shown by those who shared their touching stories and unique perspectives enriched the performance allowing for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor, through the eyes of a liberator and through the eyes of a child. An exhibit from THC entitled “Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators” was displayed for the audience to see the faces and read the stories of Tennessee residents who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust. For more information about the Tennessee Holocaust Commission and its endeavor to educate Tennesseans about the Holocaust visit HYPERLINK "http://www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org" www.tennesseeholocaustcommission.org. Also, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.ccplayhouse.com" www.ccplayhouse.com and HYPERLINK "http://www.nashvilleballet.com" www.nashvilleballet.com for current listings and events to support the arts. Picture caption: The Playhouse Music Education students singing “Our Children” in The Anne Frank Ballet performance performed at the Cumberland County Playhouse presented by The Nashville Ballet and the Tennessee Holocaust Commission on Monday May 7. Photo by Rebekah K. Bohannon-Beeler

Going Old School

Homeschooling is a privilege. One of the greatest things about homeschooling is the freedom to hand pick the curriculum from which my children can better understand the world around them. When I talked to my grandmother about homeschooling, she told me stories of how well she was taught in the church that was used for a schoolhouse during the week in their community and the readers they would use in the classroom. Listening to her gave me a great idea. It seemed that I would be able to incorporate my love for antiques into homeschooling. I have always seen primary readers when I perused through the old books section of local antique shops and I thought they were beautiful but other than that I didn’t pay much mind. Until, of course, I was able to reuse them as an inexpensive addition to our curriculum. We could use them for subjects such as Reading and Grammar for which they were intended but the way these old stories were written also integrated History and Social Studies and broadened their vocabulary to include tools, accessories, clothing, and cultural and social institutions that are no longer conventional. Antique readers reflect a time when church and school were commonly held in the same building and, in contrast with the books and lessons widely used today, Christian overtones are presented in the stories; wonderful words, stories, art, and lessons my children may have otherwise been neglected from the separation of church and state. Generally inexpensive, the readers range in price usually from $6 to $12 depending on how old and in what shape. I used the readers based on my children’s grade levels and found an Aldine Readers Book Three by Spaulding and Bryce (Newson & Company, 1918) for $10, a The Silent Readers Fifth Reader by Lewis and Rowland (The John C. Winston Company, 1920) for $6, and a Webster Readers Third Reader New Trails in Reading by Stone and Stone (Webster Publishing Company, 1932) for $2.50! Surviving antique readers are not uncommon and bring a graceful nostalgia to our homeschool environment and give my children more perspective on where we came from and where we are going.

Wilderness trip 2012

My children are students at one of the many schools to take part in Wilderness at the Smokies fundraising partnerships in the resort’s effort to broaden their reach and invite students’ families to the resort at a special rate while allotting a portion of the proceeds to the school. It’s a win-win-win; a family affordable vacation to introduce the summer, the school gets supported and the Wilderness at the Smokies Hotel and Waterpark Resort in Sevierville gets publicity and a jumpstart on their busiest season. Accommodated in the Stone Hill Lodge, we were capsized in an adventurous water world. Outside our lodge was Salamander Springs Water Park which included pools, water slides, and water play place and activity tower. A shuttle took us to the River Lodge just down the hill and a skip, hop and a jump we were in the Wild WaterDome located inside the hotel. There is a wave pool, surfing, indoor tanning, indoor/outdoor hot tub and pool, water play place, three tube slides, toddler water play area, restaurants, and a tiki torch watering hole for those who want to take in a shaken not stirred beverage and a game on the flat screens. We climbed to new heights in the new attraction the Wilderness Adventure Forest, an indoor arcade complete with a rock climbing wall, two-level ropes course, bowling, gaming, laser tag, laser maze, black light mini golf, and a large climbing den play area for younger visitors. These activities give a welcome break to water logged guests and can be added to the reservation package. The Wilderness Adventure Forest creates the new concept of enjoying the great indoors with the activities of the great outdoors! I impressed my family by climbing the rock wall to the top and hitting the buzzer, perfecting my agility in the laser maze without breaking a single laser and whole heartedly braving both tiers of the ropes course. They have never seen me so athletic and versatile and learned very quickly how competitive their mama really is. Then there is Lake Wilderness outdoor water park and a beautiful 18-hole mini golf course. Lake Wilderness has a flowing river that circles you through gentle rapids, sprayers and wave pool. We noticed a flock of life guards making their way to the Lake Wilderness part of the park and since we were heading that way thought we would see what the hubbub was about. There didn’t seem to be an emergency and it turns out there wasn’t. What was happening, thought, was the new slide the Wilderness at the Smokies Hotel and Waterpark Resort had planned on opening earlier hadn’t been completely tested and the life guards were invited to be the guinea pigs. “It’s insane. Insane,” one life guard said to me with an obvious adrenaline rush as he was walking back to his post in the Wild WaterDome after having been a tester of the newest addition to Wilderness at the Smokies. The tube slide, called the Wild Vortex, was approved to open to the public Sunday June 3 and its name says it all. Yours truly was one of the first guests who stepped into the capsule at the top of the tower to the Wild Vortex and standing with my head back and my arms crossed over my chest I heard from the speakers a very calm, “Four…three…two…one.” From there I felt the bottom of the capsule disappear beneath me and I, screaming, fell with the jet stream of water down the 39-foot vertical drop and arched up the sharp loop and down again and into the slender pool which acted as a speed buffer. Spiking speed with the jet water stream, gravitational pull of the vertical plummet and sleek design it took about three seconds to slide down the Wild Vortex. I agree with the life guard, it is insane. However, it is possible to get stuck in the slide as some of the other guests found out on Sunday. A common trend shared by those who got stuck are sliders who broke formation or didn’t gain enough speed to make it up the arch and they actually stagnated before making it to the loop and slipped back to the area below the vertical drop. This trend is why a secondary tower over looks the area that arches up to the loop and is monitored by another life guard who can open one of two escape hatches located near the platform to assist sliders. This was one of the reasons I was comforted enough to try such an outrageous slide and it was enough of a reason to keep my claustrophobia at bay. The Wild Vortex is, in short, Vortextremely Feral! Being a parent and having the opportunity to help our school while making these incredible memories with my family at Wilderness at the Smokies Hotel and Waterpark Resort where I got to enjoy with the delight of a child all the amenities of a water theme park, imagination and adventure of the great indoors, and comfort and luxury of a four star hotel all made every bit of being a grown up (and the coolest mom ever) one of life’s major perks.