Since most of AgeSong at Bayside Park residents have memories of World War II, this period of history had a major influence on their lives. George and Lily were married in a camp during the Japanese-American internment. Ida did shipyard work during the war as a electrician helper or gofer. Lily and Phyllis were either working in the armed forces or raising children while their husband were enlisted. At the age of six, Harriet “took care of her father’s Good Humor Ice-Cream Truck” when he was serving in the army. These elders are survivors – sturdy, resilient members of society, with rich histories of contributions to their families and communities. They honor their past, at the same time living actively in the present. Lee composes original tunes on Bayside Park’s piano; Mary, Ida, and others learn the fine art of hat making; Bea and Ida write poems; Mariola crack jokes a mile a minute in her sweet voice.
The rich environment of AgeSong at Bayside Park is captured each month in the community’s newsletter, distributed to residents, family and staff in hard copy and available to the public through the attached, downloadable PDF file. View recent activities and read engaging stories about the lives of the creative, resilient Bayside Park residents. Preview upcoming March events on a range of topics from tax deduction considerations for assisted living to rock art on Mt. Sinai to Bayside Park’s Second Anniversary celebration. Bayside Park swings into spring!
Presenter: Nader Shabahangi, PhD, Founder and CEO of AgeSong
Date: Thursday, June 28
Location: Moscone Center, San Francisco
Time: 2:30pm–3:30pm
As a culture and people we are ready to move beyond the nonsensical notion that the later and last years are declining years – years that are supposedly less valuable than those before. Too often, the “decline-metaphor” has permeated our culture; often visible to us, at other times entering our awareness in more subtle ways.
Dr. Nader Shabahangi offers a new, more complex and rich understanding of life and aging – a radical departure from the dominant paradigm that life is “fulfilled” the prime of life, at the highpoint of a career, or at the peak of one’s power. The Poetics of Aging recognizes that the poem called “life’s poem” finds its final stanza, its completion, only at the very end of life. Aging understood as such is an active process of becoming, learning and growing. We do not get old but grow old. Eldership is the apex of a lifetime of learning and experiencing, of struggle and concern, of being courageous and creative.
This fascinating session will move beyond the superficial, surface layers of what we perceive of “older consumers,” offering a more comprehensive view of aging and refreshing, new perspectives on community development and operations.
Bio
Founder of Pacific Institute and AgeSong Institute. Co-Founder of AgeSong Senior Communities. Co-Founder of Elders Academy Press. Licensed psychotherapist and noted author. Guest lecturer at international conferences focusing on aging, counseling, and dementia.
Nader received his doctorate from Stanford University and is a licensed psychotherapist. His multicultural background has made him an advocate for different marginalized groups of society throughout his adult life.In the 1980′s he worked with abused children and teenagers and led anticipatory bereavement groups for Coming Home Hospice. In 1992 he founded the non-profit organization Pacific Institute with the purpose of training psychotherapists in a multicultural, humanistic approach to counseling and to provide affordable therapy services to the many diverse groups living in San Francisco. In 1994, noticing the often inhumane treatment of the elderly living in institutions, he started to develop an innovative Gerontological Wellness Program in order to provide emotional support and mental health care services for the elderly. In 1997, together with his two brothers, Nader opened a residential care home for the elderly in San Francisco called Hayes Valley Care, where he could along with the Pacific institute Internship team implement the Gerontological Wellness Program.
Nader continues to create programs with the purpose of caring more comprehensively for the elderly. In 2002 he helped found Pacific Institute Europe in Warsaw, Poland, in order to bring gerontological and comprehensive care services to the European continent. He was also inspired to explore new ideas for community living and began design of a ‘village’ concept for older adults he calls ‘Elders Academy’. In 2003 he co-founded Elders Academy Press, a publishing program of Pacific Institute and Pacific Institute Europe, specifically dedicated to promoting writings of and for elders. At the same time Nader also began a program of conflict resolution between Russians, Germans and Poles. Last year – combining his passion for the elderly with his love for photography and philosophy – Nader wrote Faces of Aging as a tribute and celebration of being an elder. He continues this exploration through teaching ‘eldership’ workshops in Europe. These meetings explore the difference between getting ‘old’ and growing into the role of an elder and have the purpose of preparing us for old age and eldership. He continues his work by training interns and supervisors in a humanistic-existential approach to psychotherapy and living.
AgeSong at Lakeside Park will celebrate its Tenth Anniversary Thursday, April 26th, 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.
Celebrate ten years of devotion at the Lakeside Park Community. Music, video documentary, refreshments, and much more…
In honor of the occasion, each guest will receive a special gift: Elders Today: Opportunities of a Lifetime, by Nader Shabahangi, AgeSong CEO and President, AgeSong Institute.
The 10th Anniversary symbol is tin or aluminum.
The pliability of tin and aluminum is a symbol of how a successful marriage (or in this case, successful elder community) needs to be flexible and durable and how it can be bent without being broken.
The 10th Anniversary flower is Daffodil.
Trumpet-shaped daffodils represent joy, cheerfulness, and happiness.
You are welcome to celebrate this joyous occasion with AgeSong residents, family, and staff!
Anna Halprin, world-famous post-modern dancer, highlights Women’s History Month with a performance of The Courtesan and the Crone at AgeSong, at Lake Merritt, 1800 Madison Street, Oakland, CA 94612, Saturday, March 24, from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm, followed by a discussion led by Nader Shabahangi, AgeSong CEO. She first performed this dance for AgeSong to a standing ovation crowd at the Poetics of Aging Conference , November, 2011. The upcoming free performance is open to the public. Attendees are welcome to get together with friends earlier for Saturday brunch and join Lake Merritt residents for the 3:30 performance. After the performance and discussion, all are invited to a Poetics of Aging 2012 Planning Meeting.
RSVP at 510-903-3600
Nonogenarian Halprin has written several books, including Movement Rituals, Moving Toward Life: Five Decades of Transformational Dance and Dance as a Healing Art. She currently does research in connection with the Tamalpa Institute, based in Marin County, California, which she founded with her daughter, Daria Halprin, in 1978. She co-created, with her husband, the late landscape architectLawrence Halprin, of the RSVP Cycles, a creative methodology that can be applied broadly across all disciplines. A documentary film about her life and art, Breath Made Visible directed by Ruedi Gerber, premiered in 2010.
Chronological History of Anna Halprin’s Work
Breath Made Visible by Ruedi Gerber (April 02, 2010)
Finally, as she approaches her 92nd birthday, Marin County-based dance pioneer Anna Halprin is honored with a documentary that reflects her wide influence and eternally questing spirit: “Breath Made Visible.” The interviews with colleagues are revealing, and the moments that Halprin shares with her famed landscape architect husband, Lawrence (who died in October), glow with a deep mutual affection.
Anna Halprin Experience As Dance (2007)
This first comprehensive biography examines Halprin’s fascinating life in the context of American culture-in particular, popular culture and the West Coast as a center of artistic experimentation from the Beats through the hippies. As she follows Halprin’s development from youth into old age, Ross describes in engrossing detail the artist’s roles as dancer, choreographer, performance theorist, community leader, cancer survivor, healer, wife, mother, grandmother and great mother.
The Planetary Dance Manual
An art work of the Planetry Dance Score as exhibited in “Origin of Performance” 2006 in Lyon, France at the Contemproary Museum of Modern Art and at the Yerva Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco 2008. Created by Anna Halprin, James Nixon and Russell Bass. Graphic Design by Stephen Grosberg
Festival D’automne A Paris (2004)
Shown in this video of the performance: Parades and Changes (1965), Intensive Care; Reflection on Death and Dying (2000) and an impromptu site-specific promenade performance En Route (2004). The international company of musicians, composers, dancers, and designers created especially for the occasion testify both to her range of artists who have worked with her and their loyalty to her continuing creative interrogation of dance.
Seniors Rocking
Seniors Rocking was a performance created with over 50 local seniors from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. Halprin chose a meadow by a lagoon for the performance site. The use of rocking chairs enabled everyone to participate. This simple tool evolved to symbolize the ongoing force or life force. The culminating moment in the film occurs when dancers leave their rocking chairs and walk hand in hand to the lagoon to send their legacies with the birds to carry out to the world.
Anna Halprin (2004)
An extensive guide to Anna Halprin’s work written by certified practitioners. The work includes an overview of Halprin’s life and the evolution of her work as well as an investigation of her methodology including the Life/Art Process, RSVP Cycles for collective creativity, and the five stages of healing. Worth and Poynor also analyze Anna’s community performance rituals Circle the Earth and The Planetary Dance and her approach to work through movement explorations and scores.
Returning Home (2003)
Returning Home is a breathtaking and groundbreaking dance documentary in which 80-something Anna Halprin, pioneer of postmodern dance, uses movement as a means of connecting the individual to nature, and art to real life. In collaboration with performance artist Eeo Stubblefield, Halprin moves along thresholds of earth, wind, water and fire, discovering lessons in loss and liberation.
Returning To Health With Dance Movement And Imagery (2000)
Anna offers the wisdom of her life experience as a dancer, teacher, and facilitator for healing. She tells her own story as a cancer survivor and the stories of many others with deep compassion and clarity, from her own uplifting perspective. This book serves as a guide to understanding the emotional processes of a health crisis, as well as giving clear guidlines in the form of 10 different lessons plans for how to work with these insights.
Moving Toward Life: Five Decades Of Transformational Dance (1995)
Moving Towards Life brings together for the first time Anna’s essays, interviews, manifestos, and teaching materials, along with over 100 illustrations, providing a rich account of the work that radicalized an entire generation of performers.
Embracing The Earth Dances With Nature (1995)
Embracing the Earth shows dancers under the artistic direction of acclaimed dance artist, Anna Halprin, moving with the shapes, rhythms, and textures of nature. Intimate and meditative imagery transports us to a place where self and environment merges, to a point of understanding that the human body and the body of the earth are one and the same.
Circle The Earth, Dancing With Life On The Line (1989)
A documentary of the 1989 healing dance by Anna Halprin and by people living with AIDS, ARC and HIV+ status along with their caregivers, supports and friends.
Dance For Your Life/Ritual of Life and Death/Tree Dance
Steps Theatre Company For People Challenging AIDS (1986)
Positive Motion: Challenging Aids Through Dance And Ritual (1988)
Positive Motion is an exploratory dance group for men with HIV/AIDS.
My Lunch With Anna (2005)
By Alain Buffard
When French choreographer Alain Buffard set out to create a film about the legendary American dance artist Anna Halprin, the pair staged a series of lunches on sites that were used for her performances in San Francisco, her famous dance deck in Marin County, the Berkeley Art Museum, and Stinson Beach.
Planetary Dance 2003
Planetary Dance. A dance ritual on Mount Tamalpais. A prayer for peace among people and peace the earth.
Right On/Ceremony of US (1968)
In 1968 Ann Halprin simultaneously developed two companies, one in San Francisco of all white dancers, and another in Watts of all black dancers. In a rehearsal process that was, in the words of Janice Ross “not so much a dance as a lived experiment” Halprin guided the two groups of dancers into experiences that both elicited and challenged racial stereotypes, creating a space where political and personal anger and despair could be expressed, and where reconciliation could be envisioned.
Grandfather Dances(1996)
Powerful solo work in which Anna Halprin recounts a childhood story of watching her grandfather dance and sing the rituals of Hasidic Judaism. In Halprin’s own words: “I’ve searched my whole life to find a dance that means as much to me as my grandfather’s dance meant to him.”
Inner Landscapes(1991)
Documentary that tracks the parallel histories of Anna Halprin’s work as a dancer/choreographer and Lawrence Halprin’s work as a landscape architect.
AgeSong at Bayside Park is celebrating its second anniversary by swinging into springThursday, March 29, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, with the William Beatty Trio, plus dancing and refreshments.
AgeSong at Bayside Park Rocks!
About William Beatty
Born in Berkeley, California, William was raised in a family where music was loved and played. By the age of nine, William began composing his own pieces for piano. While still in high school, William was invited to join the back-up band for a local soul group, the Numonics. Since then he has continued on his musical journey, studying and playing a wide variety of music, from classical piano repertoire to blues, R&B, gospel, and jazz. William’s experience as a touring musician is highlighted most recently by four years’ traveling with the band Indigo Swing. From 1996 to 2000, the band recorded three CDs, with William as the principle composer and arranger. Indigo Swing toured throughout the United States, Canada, England, and Europe.
What’s it like to lead one’s life as a teacher of the practice of Yoga and meditation? Meet Wesley Zineski, a Yoga practitioner who has spent his entire adult life in this practice.
Swami Suryadevananda and friends will offer a tribute to Wesley, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on March 4 at AgeSong, Laguna Grove, 624 Laguna Street, San Francisco. AgeSong Institute and AgeSong Elder Communities are pleased to sponsor this presentation, the second in a series of spirituality workshops this winter/spring (see Introduction to Passsage Meditation, February 25).
In a recently published book, The Quiet Yogi, Swarmi and other practitioners share remembrances of their friendship with Wesley through letters, prayers, notes, clippings, photos, and even recipes. The book was obviously a labor of love.
Wesley was a Holocaust survivor who earned a living initially in the auto industry and later by running Launromats. During the 60s, and for the next 40 years, he would draw together friends throughout the world to share Yogic practice.
Swarmi, a poet, songwriter, and contributor to The Quiet Yogi, offers the following comment on Real Friendship:
Here is such a beautiful picture: Real Friendship with all – a taxi driver in Japan sharing his lunch with a pigeon. They always dress very nicely and are well groomed and courteous. Look at the other one waiting for his meal. We worry about so much unnecessarily! Some talk about brotherly love, some just live it…
You are invited to a free workshop by experienced Elder Care Professionals, who will provide tips, suggestions, and resources for adult children concerned about their aging parents. All are welcome!
Same content, three locations to choose from
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 5:30 to 7:00 pm, AgeSong Lakeside Park, 468 Perkins Street, Oakland
Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 7:00 to 8:30 pm, Temple Isaiah, 3800 Mt. Diablo Blvd, Lafayette
Thursday, May 3, 2012, 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, JFCS/East Bay, 2484 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 210, Berkeley
RSVP rtufel@jfcs-eastbay.or or 510.558.7800, ext 352, and indicate which workshop you will be attending.
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