is a solo performance recalling the voyage of an American feminist setting off for Jerusalem to recover the tradition her family left behind. With a unique blend of movement, storytelling, character work and spoken word, Andrea takes you on a journey through a set of wonderfully entangled historical, hysterical, emotional, and spiritual stories.
Travel with Andrea from the ancient study halls of the Rabbis to the Yale dining hall on "ethnic food night"; from the Jerusalem bus where she contemplates selling her hair for a wig, to her own highly untraditional, traditional Jewish wedding.
By turns meditative, poignant and ironic, the piece is an entrancing exploration of the textures of tradition, modernity, language, culture …and hair.
The piece is a wonderful springboard for engaging a wide range of questions, including the following: how does one balance tradition and modernity with integrity? Have you ever found yourself "passing" for someone you are not? Does your outward appearance hide or reveal your identity? What is your "satisfying struggle" with Judaism or identity, and where has your story taken you?
Excerpts from CUTTING MY HAIR IN JERUSALEM, 2005
Dancing across the stage, Andrea Hodos plants one foot in the tradition and pirouettes into her soul. Lively, scholarly, touching, hilarious . . . Cutting My Hair In Jerusalem is living Torah.
Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer, Co-Author, A Day Apart: Shabbat at Home
The Beit Midrash is transformed during (and after) Andrea Hodos' performance of Cutting My Hair in Jerusalem. Andrea has a unique talent in inspiring Jewish learners to see their studies as something found not only in the mind, but in one's entire self.
Rabbi Aaron Alexander, Associate Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
Cutting My Hair in Jerusalem serves to highlight the role that the senses and the body - hair in particular - play in Jewish cultures. Not only is the piece artistically engaging but it also serves to raise consciousness among Jews and non-Jews alike about how the body and soul interrelate. Audiences will gain important insights about religion and culture from this moving piece itself, as well as from their interactions with Andrea and each other in discussion following the performance.
Rabbi Susan Laemmle, Ph.D., Dean Of Religious Life, University of Southern California
Andrea’s performance of Cutting My Hair in Jerusalem, followed by her workshop designed to help our participants tell their own stories, has played an incredibly important role in helping our participants develop a creative articulation of their own Jewish journeys. Her work is genuine, honest, perceptive, and touching; it has introduced BCI’s young Jewish adults to an entirely new way to express what has shaped them.
Navah Kelman Becker, Director, the Marilyn and Sigi Ziering Brandeis Collegiate Institute (BCI)
To explore the possibility of bringing Moving Torah to your institution or conference please contact us. We look forward to creating meaningful and engaging experiences with you!