I am my children’s leader and their faith in me is a key element in our relationship. They rely on me for so much and my decisiveness and confidence, my ability to point in a clear direction gives them a sense of security. But I am often unsure of what to do.Read more

“It can’t all be hard, you know. If nothing’s easy, you won’t know when something is actually hard,” she said.Read more

There is a common misconception that a woman becomes a mother and a man becomes a father the moment birth occurs. It is propagated in television shows and romcoms. Biologically, this is true. But in reality, it can take days, weeks, months and even years to make the transition.Read more

In an instant, all those plans went out the window as we shut our doors and locked ourselves inside for the foreseeable future.

I went from being a freelancer, a choreographer, dancer, journalist, teacher, text consultant and a few other things to the director of a modest, mixed-aged home school.

And the strange thing that I am experiencing these days is relief.Read more

Last year, at the end of the weeklong celebration of Purim, my older daughter declared that she would like to dress up as a character from Disney’s Descendants next year. For the other days, Famous Day, Pajama Day, Countries Day, we made a plan a week in advance. We knew exactly what she wanted to dress up as on each day. The night before the first dress-up day, we tried on her Frida Kahlo costume (which was gorgeous I must admit). She looked at herself in the mirror, beaming.

The next morning, as she was going to get dressed she said,
“I don’t want to dress up.”Read more

One of the things I love most about dance is the way it distorts my perception of time. On stage, time is stretched far beyond its usual limits. There is time for everything, for thinking, feeling, moving, connected, making decisions and renewal. A short piece can encapsulate an entire world if approached correctly. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell writes of this phenomenon regarding athletes.
“The basketball superstar Larry Bird used to say at a critical moments in the game, the court would go quiet and the players would seem to be moving in slow motion.”Read more

As a parent, and as a choreographer, these are some of the hardest moments. They are situations that require creativity, calm, patience and endurance. It is not easy to prize someone free of a complaint spiral, sometimes it’s nearly impossible. But, for me and my child, being able to identify that we are in one is somehow useful. And knowing that there is an end to it, that it will eventually resolve, provides the encouragement I, at least, need to get through.Read more

It is impossible to divorce the emotional strain of bringing a child into the world from the physical effort. They are two sides of an intense, forty-week-long journey and they are both valid, legitimate and real elements of it. Doctors and healthcare providers need to broaden their approach to pregnancy and the care given to women needs a more holistic perspective on mind and body.Read more

The lack of language makes parenting small children a guessing game and an exercise in acknowledging physical cues. It’s a lot of trial and error, a lot of looking, listening, feeling, intuiting.

When, at a year and some, that channel of communication starts to open, it is exhilarating for all involved.Read more

On some molecular level, crossing the threshold into parenthood stripped away a few layers of my outer skin. I spent my twenties gearing myself up to face the world, pummeling through the subway system in New York City, bartending into the wee hours. I was an armadillo. Becoming a mom was like going through security at the airport. Metaphorically, I arrived with a hoodie and boots and came out the other side in socked feet and a tank top. Bare minimum.Read more