Wednesday, April 6th – Passover 2020
Many people count the days, perhaps the women more than the men? We are used to counting days between periods. My X counted his steps and the swings of his hammer. Now, our Governors count the dead, the sick, the recovered. Nurses and Doctors count the N-95 masks, my friends where I used to live count the masks they have sewn and donated. Everyone has several counts they keep track of. The last day I went skating, the day the rink closed, the day I hurt my ankle. The day my stepfather left my mom in the ambulance. The day we moved furniture and were closer than 6 feet – how many more days till we are safe again? No one knows when this will end.
We all count from the beginning. Life continues, we eat, sleep, the seasons change, plants grow. Some of us continue to work, but it’s not the same. There are no more countdowns – no more planning vacations and weddings, no definite dates to look forward to, no future glory to buoy our spirits, no performance dates to train for, no end of school recess.
The front lines are our hospitals, videos and posts by nurses, doctors and caregivers are the somber reality that keeps us social distant. We fear giving it to our parents, our friends, people whom our world orbits around, people who we want more than anything to take care of, we must stay physically away from.
I find myself praying and understand why peopl e have looked to a higher power. When there is nothing more you can do and science has not put the puzzle together, our instincts, our fears, our love center us. This becomes the most important meditation in our lives, the music that plays in the distance underneath our every step.
We will forever remember the pandemic of 2020 that changed our trajectories and interrupted our lives.
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Beth Woronoff was a soloist and choreographer for 9 years with the Ice Theater of New York, the first US Artistic Skating Ensemble with classes taught by John Curry, the revolutionary 1976 British Olympic Champion. She skated the works of Laura Dean, Anne Carlson, Lar Lubowitch and David Dorfman and Donlin Foreman. was the Co-founder of Frozen Feet Theater, a company that combined ice skating with giant puppets and narrative storytelling, she co-created “Viva La Vida”, the Life of Frida Kalho, Persephone and the Birth of Winter and Fire and Ice The Rise and Fall of the Norse Gods. Beth studied dance for 5 years at the Martha Graham School. Beth was the 2018 Fancy Silver medalist and has a World ranking at the World Figure and Fancy Skating Competition, an organization dedicated to preserving the knowledge of figures – drawing designs on the ice like the Maltese cross and the Swiss S. She founded and directed the Boundless Edge Skating School and over the course of 9 years developed a performing arts ice skating curriculum called by the same name.