Spiritual Elevation
In a powerful new program of song, dance and Tehillim, Mrs. Factor details her journey from a non-Jewish teenage girl in Hawaii who loved to dance, to a Mother and Kollel wife who now lives in Yerushalayim with her husband and their five children.
A Life Without Direction
Mrs. Factor explains how she coveted dance as a form of expression, a place to process feelings, and a place where she felt appreciated and understood. From the outset she realized that through her dance she was being heard and understood by someone and that someone was G-d. This realization drove her forward into a career of dance. She details how a life without Torah is a life without direction, how she ended up in Los Angeles doing television jobs and MTV Music Videos and then in New York on the Broadway stage. She depicts how her apparently wildly "successful" life was filled with a feeling of emptiness along with a profound feeling of dissatisfaction, a feeling that nothing was right.
Righting the Ship
Her story continues as she meets her non-observant Jewish, music video and commercial directing, Husband and how together they continue to chase their so called dream. She describes her introduction to Judaism and how she felt strangely connected to a religion so distant from her origin. She portrays how after the birth of her first child both her and her husband discovered Torah Judaism and how together they began their seemingly uphill climb that led to her and her son's orthodox conversion. She tells about her family's move to Yerushalayim where her husband now learns full time in Kollel and together they raise their five beautiful Jewish children.
Looking Inside
The program ends with a powerful piece of Tehillim (פרק סו') combined with a revealing and heart wrenching summation of Mrs. Factor's life to this point. The story of Mrs. Factor's Journey continues to penetrate many girls and women to their very core. Each participant processes her own feelings and struggles as Mrs. Factor recounts her own. It inspires them to question their own direction, Are they slipping spiritually? Do they realize it? Who are they, and what do they truly want out of life.
Educational Benefit
A question and answer session follows the presentation where the girls are free to ask any questions about Mrs. Factor's Journey. Armed with plenty of stories including horror stories from the dance world (for anyone who thinks it is glamorous!) and stories of love and appreciation of her new life of Torah and Mitzvos, Mrs. Factor holds her audience spellbound. Each program and discussion topic is tailored to individual audiences and Mrs. Factor gives sincere and truthful answers in an appropriate manner. She concludes with the message that each individual Jew yields tremendous power and holds immeasurable value and importance for the world as a whole.
The Need
We live in an age where magazines, billboards, i-pods, internet, email accounts and often movies and videos expose the girls to so many dangers. These exposures create ideas and ideals that destroy the Jewish Neshama. If ignored or handled incorrectly the girls begin to feel badly about themselves, their thoughts and their desires and in turn nurture a harmful force within.
Mrs. Factor's lectures meet with great success because the journey she describes touches on so many of the issues girls struggle with daily: self image, body image, tzinus and a desire for the secular. The girls feel connected to her through their struggles and as a result lower their defenses thereby absorbing her underlying message.
Directing the Spark
Every Jew possesses a creative spark which we often push aside, push down, ignore, and dismiss. Disregarding this spark only causes it to grow in the wrong direction. Mrs. Factor's objective is to guide girls in finding their creative spark, developing it and directing it towards true service of Hashem.
