Good-Byes and Hellos

Tonight our DAMES of the DANCE 4 - The Promised Land cast had its good-bye party. Many of us have been rehearsing together once, twice, five times a week for the past four months. That's a lot of together time.

Last week, we finished our performances, which were dedicated to raising money for Kimcha D'Pischa (food for Passover) and we hung up our dancing shoes. Tonight we came together one more time to celebrate what we had accomplished.

Between my performances with the Raise Your Spirits Theatre Company (which I founded in 2001) and the Dance of the Dance company (which I began in 2007), I rehearse a lot, perform a lot (B"H), but then say good-bye a lot.

It's difficult to spend every Tuesday evening or Friday morning or Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) with a group of women, get to be so close to them that you know what move they're going to make and exactly when they're going to do so; and then say good-bye.

It's the good-bye part that is the not-fun part of performing.

But tonight as I was giving everyone a parting hug, I realized that our performances didn't mean a lot of good-byes. They actually meant a ton of hellos.

I met at least thirty new women in this year's DAMES performing company. (And I made at least 10 new friends in this year's RYS production of JUDGE!) That means 40women that I'm going to say "hello" to when I go to the shopping center or the school or the next neighborhood event. These are young and older women, Israelis, Americans and other nationalities - gals I'd never have met if it weren't for Dames of the Dance (and RYS).

So, we might have turned in our costumes until next year, IY"H, but we weren't left empty-handed. We've earned a bunch of new friends for our hard work over the past few months, and they're friendships I'll always cherish.

Photos by Rebecca Flash Kowalsky, www.imagesthroughtime.com .