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Specializing in Compounding For: • Veterinary Prescriptions • Hormones for Men & Women • Autoimmune Diseases • Mast Cell Activation • Allergy Tolerable Doses Voted Best Pharmacy By Press Banner 2020, 2021, 2022 In collaboration with Hydration Hookup Why Old Folks Dance: Tengo Famiglia Tengo Famiglia. I have family. This is why we old folks dance. Tengo famiglia gives me lifetime significance as a human being. Tengo famiglia is my deepest satisfaction and greatest happiness — a joy worth dancing for. So says Frank one of two grandfathers featured in Jewel Theater's play this month "Over The River and Through The Woods," by Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro at Colligan Theater, Tannery Art Center. I (Peggy) was privi- leged to choreograph the play's small dance scene towards the end of the script, where the two pairs of grandparents dance romantically around Frank and his wife Aida's living room to a vintage Italian song "Mal Amore No!" My artistic challenge was how to create steps that showed off, not their dancing skills, or lack thereof, but their big hearts of lifelong ro- mance. No time or money did these hard laboring immigrants have to spare on frivolous dance lessons learning fancy moves. No, their meager income from Frank's blue-collar labor was spent simply on their family needs. Their only dancing venue was their own living room, for a few afterglow moments of whatever latest family event they celebrated each week. After their big family lasagna dinner, Grandpa Frank, sits with deep satis- faction in HIS own chair, throne of their small castle built with his own hands. A BIG success they have been together. Both their childhood dreams for a better life came true inside this home. With their own calloused hands Frank and Aida built their life together dwelling togeth- er on this peaceful patch of ground, in this dream country of America, they raised their family in. The walls around him are their kingdom, filled every precious day with the lives produced from their own bodies. Now it is time for ro- mance. Frank rises from his throne, lays a vinyl album of their favorite Italian songs on the slowly rotating record player. He carefully places the needle in the outer groove until the scratchy music begins. "There will be no other as beautiful as me in your arms" the singer warbles in the old language. Frank draws his queen Aida, into his royal arms. wrapping her close to his chest, tenderly in his strong embrace. They sway to the waves of amore music. For a few golden mo- ments, their weariness falls away. They became young, vig- orous, even sexually alive again. Frank has the all the beauty in the world in the golden circle of his arms, right there. Tengo amore too. Frank's first big success was in simply surviving on his own here as a young boy. He had been sent away from his impoverished family home in Italy, put on a boat to America to find his uncle in the far-off land of Hoboken, New Jersey. Frank arrived only to discover the uncle had moved away. So, he slept under a bridge until he scraped together enough work to survive. Finding his life partner Aida, ahhh, was his next big miracle. So he built her a modest, but com- fortable house himself, each nail pounded with exquisite precision by his big, rough hands, driven deep into the wood with the pride of his heart, his lifelong dream fulfilled. Tengo… Frank had found not only his own famiglia, but his greatest purpose in life. From nothing but his own strength, Frank became The Man who provided this beautiful space as a HOME, with a kitchen for his beloved Aida to fill with her cooking exper- tise, the best lasagna in the world. This house was his new famiglia's vehicle into the future. Next, his strong labor provided his family their food, clothes, whatever they needed. Right in this room was his magnificent dream come true. Life was sweet. All those gritty construc- tion jobs, the nail pound- ing, the tomato stewing, the lasagna baking and floor scrubbing Frank and Aida spent their life do- ing, was punctuated every week or so, with a few happy-hearted moments of romantic swaying to the dulcet tones from the phonograph. Yes, their dance had a sweetness that came not DESPITE their lifelong struggles, but BECAUSE of them. Their dancing pleasure were sparks of the joy beyond words, shared from their lifetime of daily giving, all they had, to each other. So how to convey this in my scant few moments of choreography? No big movements, I de- cided. Nothing fancy. Simple side-to-side shuffle steps around their tidy, crochet-doily-filled living rooms, gazing into each other's eyes. Then turning side-by-side, Franks big strong construction work- er arms wrapped around Aida in a sweetheart em- brace, their bigger, stron- ger hearts bursting with the simple delight of their simple life…together. They dance not to impress any watching au- dience, but for their own private delight, squeezing their dearest with arms and hearts full of shared lifelong memories. No fear of inadequacy in this kind of dancing. The couple moves ever so gently as life partners, bodies grown softer in 50 years to fit snugly togeth- er. They are the ones who know each other best of anyone in the world. Through five decades of sharing their amazing young offspring, who grew so miraculously tall and handsome, only to move too far, away, they remember it all, together. Tengo Familia. Most of us have seen, or if extra lucky, experienced ourselves, this kind of rough, but close-knit family relations. But sadly, too often such close caring is taken for granted. Some family members, such as their grandson Nick in the play, instead of appre- ciating the love, even resent it as annoying and smothering. We often don't know how good we have it until learning, sometimes too late, the backstories that created our eccentric family relations. Right-o. We forget that owe our very existence to the tooth and claw work of survival by our previous generations to produce their most precious success in the world ... ourselves … their offspring. Tengo Famiglia!!! A beautiful story...filled with all very imperfect characters . . . just like us. But, as Aida says despite all our problems, in the end, "It all came beau- tiful." Can life get any sweeter? I doubt it. By Peggy Pollard, Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing www.peggy- dance.weebly.com Adobie stock photo