Nancy Karin Vardi in her new show exposes all the demons in our lives. Our fear of success, worries, jealousies, loneliness, and passions. Her mission is to allow the audience to remove their daily masks and feel what their hearts really wish for, an evening full of empowerment and inspiration
Singer Nancy Karin does not stop for even a moment. To her, age 74 is exactly the time to continue fulfilling her mission on stage with all her might. Her daily schedule is full of rehearsals for her performance, which was produced by Yaron Kafkafi with songs by Shlomo Gronich. In her blue sports car, she drives back and forth between the recording studio and the rehearsal room with the musicians, while maintaining a high level of excitement.
Her new show is called “LAST CALL FOR LOVE at the swan dive café.” The show is based on 14 songs produced by Yaron Kafkafi, musician Daniel Schwartzmann, and composer Shlomo Gronich. She sings in English, with Hebrew subtitles throughout the show. This evening brings us on a journey of empowerment and inspiration, and encourages us to overcome obstacles and chase away the demons in our lives, even those demons with whom we dance.
Piano Shahar Borek | Photo by israel preker
Her songs sound like they came from classical musicals although she does include eclectic rock, jazz, tango, blues, and other genres of music. But when we pull off the layers of the music, which sounds relatively light, we discover much depth of thought and honesty about life.
When the lights come on stage she starts singing, acting, and dancing as though time has stopped. A group of Four first-class musicians accompanies her, and the music is especially lovely. But the most important moments are when she speaks openly with the audience about life; about the courage that she needed to overcome the demons that every person has in their head on the way to self-love and acceptance.
When observing the audience, tears are seen to well up as they identify with her, and a moment later she’s rolling with laughter. At the end of the evening the audience claps wildly. Her empowerment becomes their own empowerment, as well.
What made you name your show LAST CALL FOR LOVE?
“The full name of my show is LAST CALL FOR LOVE at the swan dive café. The Swan Dive Café actually symbolizes a journey to a final destination, a last call for love. A place where you can dust off your dreams. I encourage the audience who comes to the show and tell them not to stop here, but to let their dreams be a part of their lives from now on, to push their dreams forward, to find partners who believe in the same goals.”
Is this based on your personal calling?
“Definitely. From a very young age I felt a strong mission to become a singer; performed shows, sang and got on stage. I went a very long way. But in my daily life I felt that sometimes my job could be summed up in being a the perfect wife and mother. I had the perfect uniform: an apron, a stained shirt, and training pants. My grand piano sat in the laundry room with a cold cup of coffee on it that I hadn’t even found the time to drink, as well as a random misplaced shirt. I often caught myself staring in the mirror and thinking: “Is this all there is? What about me and my mission in the world?” From this place, by the way, my first song was created. The song to which Shlomo Gronich composed a melody. It is about a dialogue between a woman and a broom. The woman is exhausted from her house jobs and dares to listen to the beating of her heart and ask herself if she has the courage to fulfill herself.”
Photography Nicole de Castro
The show must go on.
Nancy Karin Vardi has been renowned in the field of music for many years now. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1948, and has sung from a very young age. She studied music, dance, and acting, and has been performing non-stop for almost five decades, but on the way to success she had to deal with all the demons that she encountered along the way and which told her that she would not make it. Now she has decided that the time has come to stop listening to them and believe in herself.
What demons have you met along the way?
“It all began at home, with the constant message that ‘You sing very beautifully, but singing is only an art, not a profession,” says Nancy Karin. “It continued when, at a young age, I wasn’t accepted to a very reputable conservatorium at which I had dreamt to study. I thought that my career would end there, that I would never be a singer, and I began to smoke with the aim of ruining my voice; my voice, however, refused to be silent.”
“For several years I searched for my voice in the world of music. I sang at night clubs and shows that took place in the open air, until I finished by academic music degree and then arrived by chance in Israel.”
What do you mean by “arrived by chance in Israel”?
“I left the United States almost 50 years ago. I thought that I was coming for a six-month adventure at a kibbutz, but, when I arrived, I somehow knew deep down that I belonged here. It wasn’t my dream, I had no family here, no Zionistic education; and still, several years later I told my husband: If I ever disappear, go look for me the Galilee.”
“In Israel, as well, I searched for a way to fulfill myself. I had a crazy passion to succeed in the field of music. I had heard that the Israeli opera needs singers and I managed to get accepted. But I had no training in reading notes, so I took a tape recorder with me and recorded the rehearsals so that I could get to know the various roles. The director of the Givatayim conservatorium agreed to teach me musical theory in return for me teaching English to students at the conservatorium. He gave me a key to the rehearsal room and I practiced there for hours.
Dance Yosef Poliakin Arthur Murray Studio | Photo by israel preker
“Thus, over the years, I refused to give in to the whispering inner voices that kept tempting me to abandon my strange aspirations to become a singer. I gradually entered the music world. From a young age my mother wanted me to learn how to read notes. I have an academic degree in education. I have sung regularly at Hanoch Levin’s shows, the Tel Aviv choir, the Kfar Sava choir in which I was given solos, and even with the opera choir. I was a teacher during the day and at the opera at night.”
“Over the years, my voice refused to be silent. I was afraid that I would never make it, never manage to create a show of my own, but the singer in me was always there even if only to a small degree.”
When was the time when you felt ready to create your own show?
“One day I looked at the broom in the corner of the room that was waiting for our regular dance and, suddenly, a song was born within me. I asked Shlomo Gronich to compose a tune for it, and that’s how I came to perform with my song on the same year at the Women’s Festival.”
After that song I switched to soul music. For many years I travelled all over the world and studied prayer and soul songs. I travelled to Britain, France, Hungary, and, finally, I was accepted to a Cabaret conference at Yale and I began building another show, this time with the Gospel choir of the Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona.”
“The show that we performed was titled Some Kinda Spirit, and it was a fascinating musical journey through the roots of the Afro-American music. The show was very successful and we went on a show tour throughout Israel in respectable places. Now I have the current show, which I also perceive as the fulfilling of a mission.”
Trumpet Violin Guitar Viola Melodica Adam Mader | Photo by israel preker
People speak of fulfilling dreams. What do you mean by fulfilling a mission?
“I feel that I actually have within me a calling, a message that I have been yearning to pass on for a long time. The flame burns or is reduced over the years, but it never goes out. The show is not simply a musical theater performance that feels and sounds good; it is a sort of calling, you could even say it’s a shout.”
“The message that I wish to pass on is that, if I, at the age of 74, have created a complete show with seven musicians and am fulfilling myself onstage, then anyone else sitting in the audience owes the same to themselves,” says Nancy Karin.
Nancy does not only sing; she also learned to dance and combines her abilities in three different dances. The stage is her natural environment. For five years now, first-class musicians have been accompanying her and bringing electrifying energy to the stage. Adam Mader—string instruments. Shahar Borek—keyboards. Roni Wagner—guitars. Yair Ofir—electric guitar and bass. The producers are, as stated above, Yaron Kafkafi and Avigal Shemer.
| Photo by israel preker
What topics do you deal with in your show?
“Real feelings. Motherhood vs. the wish for self-fulfillment, belonging to others and to myself, the wish to shout my inner truth, inner doubts that eat at me, the feeling of being lost, the feeling the we are all actually hiding and living behind masks, afraid of showing our true selves. The need for control vs. the ability to let go, the envy toward perfect women until accepting the imperfect self, the passion for forbidden love, the unwillingness to give in the old-time game, one-way love, the fields that whisper in our ears, and the other side of love.”
It sounds like an exposed show that presents honest feeling out in the open.
“Believe it or not, I used to take my songs to my meetings with my psychologist. She always helped be reach the heart of what I wrote. For example, when I wrote a song titled ‘You Are My Precious Addiction,’ after hearing the words, she looked straight into my eyes and I understood that she was about to tell me a hard truth. I may have even stopped breathing for a moment.”
“You addiction, my dear, is not what you think. Your real addiction is control.”
“We all have demons in our lives, we all fight inner fiends that are trying to stop us, hinder us, people around us that tell us: “You will never succeed.” I, too, had demons all these years, which were the destructive inner voice whispering to me that I will not succeed, but I fought against that voice and here I am on stage. In my show I tell my audience: This is the time to be with them, to accept yourselves, to stop placating all the voices around us and do what you really believe in. Let’s dance with our demons.”
Nancy Karin Vardi
LAST CALL FOR LOVE at the swan dive café