In the early fall of 2008, I had the opportunity to participate in yoga workshops taking place in Przesieka, in the center surrounded by forests on all sides. On the second day of the workshop, the leader asked who could help Alma translate a certain writing from English into Polish. I volunteered. Not knowing anything about Alma except that she looked after the center, I went to her house after dinner.
As soon as I stepped over the threshold, I felt as if I was visiting a place not strange to me, but very well known. The silence that filled Alma's apartment was not ordinary silence - it radiated an almost mystical peace and that strange feeling of closeness. Also, the heat did not come only from the stove, although the stove definitely added coziness to the place - in the mountains it was already quite cold in the evenings.
You welcomed me in your seventies with a bit of exotic beauty and an American accent. She spoke Polish quite well, but apparently not enough to be able to write an official letter on her own. She handed me a cup of tea and we sat down at a large wooden table. When the magazine was ready, she told me that she had traveled a lot once, and finally came here and, enchanted by the beauty of the mountains, made the decision to stay without hesitation. Later she asked what I was doing and listened to my story with great attention. I felt very comfortable in her company. I even had the impression that I was talking to a close friend ...
Some time later I remember the workshops in Przesieka and I remember the meeting with Alma. I turn on the computer, trying to find out more about this enigmatic woman. The facts, which are gradually revealed to me, slowly turn into a beautiful and extraordinary story.
Alma Schwartz is born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1941. Her parents are Jewish immigrants from Russia. Alma has been fascinated by dance since she was a child, so in 1960 he went to Berlin to study contemporary dance with Mary Wigman, a precursor of contemporary dance in Europe. Terrified by the gloomy atmosphere of post-war Germany, she wants to go home, but her parents are in the process of divorcing, so she eventually abandons the idea. She soon becomes pregnant with a man who turns out to be a Russian spy and is arrested shortly afterwards. Twenty-year-old Alma goes to Israel to put her son up for adoption. She names him Yoray, which her father, without her knowledge, changes to David, and the boy's adoptive mother, having learned of Alma's American ancestry, to Ron.
Alma stays in Israel for the next six months before going to England to dance again. Due to his father's illness, he returns to the United States, and in 1976, in Maine, opens his own dance studio, where he creates his own individual dance language. "She kept throwing us new challenges and opening us up physically, emotionally and spiritually as dancers," writes one of the students on the website devoted to the artist's work. - We are grateful to her for that. " While creating her scenic image, Alma takes the pseudonym Yoray, unable to dismiss the incident from years ago.
In 1982, Alma travels to Eastern Europe in search of her roots. He begins his journey from Warsaw, where he finds martial law and harsh winter. In the years 1982-1988 he traveled around Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Ukraine, continuing his artistic activity. In 1986 he conducts workshops with actors of the Witkacy Theater in Zakopane, where he meets Piotr Kolecki, a member of the Atman Sound Theater. Alma and Atman give a joint performance at the end of the workshop. The performance entitled "The Woman and the Dragon" was conceived as a solo performance by Alma, in which the only prop was a heavy bell on a long, thick rope. It turned out, however, that our music played live perfectly complements the whole, ”writes Piotr Kolecki. In 1987, Alma goes on a tour of Poland with Atman (Piotr Kolecki, Marek Leszczyński and Marek Styczyński).
At the end of the 1980s, Alma arrives in the Karkonosze Mountains and decides to settle there. The album "Brown Session" is recorded in her new home, ending her collaboration with the band Atman. Marek Styczyński recalls: “Alma recited, improvised and danced Zen poetry. Outside, the saw was making a noise and we tried to close the windows tighter, but Alma asked me if these were inappropriate sounds and we opened the windows wider in response. " In turn, Piotr Kolecki recalls: “During the recording break Alma undertook to prepare something to eat for us. So we all went to the garden where spices, parsley, carrots, lettuce and stuff were grown. Alma started to weed, ripping couch grass, plantain, and other weeds from among the vegetables. So we joined and after a dozen or so minutes one of the beds was already poured. Alma collected the torn weeds in a bin and said, "Let's go then." We thought he was going to empty the compost bin and we would be back for the lettuce and carrots. But we went straight home, where Alma rinsed the "harvest" and made us a salad. "
You can listen to the album "Brown Session" on the Internet. It is a deeply musical and theatrical experiment.
While traveling around Poland, Alma discovers Buddhism and it is Buddhism that is the reason why Alma came to Przesieka. Established in an old mill in the lower part of the town, the center of Buddhist practice at that time gathered many artists from all over Poland. Alma, easily finding herself in this environment, moves into a house located just above the newly created part of the center at 4 Bukowy Gaj Street. Urszula Broll, an outstanding painter, who also decided to live in Przesieka at that time, remembers Alma as a person full of verve and also very intelligent and witty. "She made contacts with ease," he adds.
Soon after, the center of the old mill ceases to exist and Alma takes the lead of the second practice site adjacent to her house, which is soon renamed "Vipassana". In the Buddhist tradition, the term Vipassana is defined as the so-called insight meditation, consisting in passive observation of sensations taking place in the body. The effect of practice is to gain the ability to distance yourself from your own emotions and thoughts. Meditation helps Alma combat recurring depression caused by past events - most notably the decision to give her son away and the difficult childhood that contributed greatly to that decision.
Over the next two decades, the Vipassana Center hosts numerous yoga, meditation and tai chi workshops. Many teachers and students from all over the world pass through this place. In addition, Alma for some time conducts art classes for children from nearby homes, drawing, painting and clay making together with them.
In 2001, a man in his forties arrives at Alma's house, who introduces himself as a special guest from Israel. This does not make much of an impression on Alma, as many Israeli guests have visited her center in recent years. The man slowly explains, and when Alma realizes her son is standing in front of her, she confesses that this is the most touching moment of her life. They talk nonstop for the next two days. They both feel a bond between them, and Alma is delighted that not only has she regained her son, but also became a mother-in-law and a grandmother. He tells Rony about how she traveled to Israel a few years earlier in the hope that she would find him, having no idea that his name had been changed twice in the meantime ...
However, thanks to Rony's determination, the meeting comes to fruition after forty years. From then on, Alma and Rony spend a lot of time together. Alma visits her son's family in Israel, and takes him with his wife and children to the United States - first to her place of birth, then to Maine.
In 2006, Alma returns to the States and receives treatment there for a cancer that has started in her lungs. He chooses the path of alternative treatment, refusing to consent to surgery. Doctors do not bode well for her, but she overcomes the disease and returns home after a successful treatment. In 2009, a relapse occurs, and in October 2010, Alma leaves the sick body.
And my thoughts go back to that magical house, where Alma finally asks me not to forget about the music. “In life, it's important to do what you like,” she adds, standing on the threshold, then waves me goodbye.
Anna Szentak
Thank you Urszula Broll for the pleasant conversation and the information provided, and to Mr. Piotr Kolecki and Marek Styczyński for sharing their memories.
Special thanks to Rony Epstein for all the information provided.
The article was published in the 3/2012 issue of the paper magazine "Karkonosze