Mark Morris is so much the brightest star in the dance sky that I figured his company would sell out way ahead of time at McCarter Theatre for Wednesday, March 30. My friend Wilma informs me that, amazingly, tickets remain. As of 9 a.m. today, about 20 tickets remain.

If you just can’t make it, or fail to snag one of the seats and can’t stand to stand, the Lewis Center for the Arts Program in Theater and Dance and the Department of Music will co-sponsor a conversation with Mark Morris and Simon Morrison on Wednesday, March 30, at 5:00 p.m. in 50 McCosh Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

I’m too busy to wax ecstatic about Morris, but here are some words from a press release: Hailed as one of America’s greatest choreographers of the 20th century, Mark Morris founded the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980 and since then has collaborated with a broad array of artistic luminaries ranging from Yo-Yo Ma and Zakir Hussain to The Bad Plus. Morris is noted for his musicality and has been described as “undeviating in his devotion” to scores. His dance company is unsurpassed in its commitment to performing with live music. He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and The Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Morris and Morrison, professor of music at Princeton University, collaborated on a production of Prokofiev’s original 1935 version of Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare, for which Morrison reconstituted the composer’s original intentions and twenty minutes of previously unheard music, and for which Mark Morris provided choreography. The production was premiered at the Bard Summerscape Festival in July 2008, and it is currently on an international tour.

The program includes TWO new works receiving their Princeton premieres, set to live music. Petrichor: set to the String Quartet No.2 by Villa-Lobos, and Festival Dance: set to the Hummel Piano Trio No. 5. The third piece is Grand Duo(1993): Set to music of Lou Harrison.

Alistair Macaulay says…

To read what Tobi Tobias says…

Why no sellout before now? Maybe Princeton is still a ballet town.

Within three days, four valuable events at Princeton University — women in leadership, multicultural education, comparative religion, and nuclear energy in Japan and the U.S.

A 40-year study of women at Princeton University found that women are taking a back seat when it comes to leadership positions, and it suggests reasons why. Shirley Tilghman (P.U. president) and Nan Keohane (former president of Duke and Wellesley) will discuss the report on Wednesday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m., in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. It’s free. Keohane, I would like to note, has just written an excellent book on leadership and will speak at the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast on Wednesday, June 15.

Kevin Nadal, author, comedian, and professor, speaks at a no-cost lunch on Thursday, March 24, at noon, on “Dealing with Microaggressions in Everyday Life,” at the Carl A. Fields Center. Free by RSVP by Tuesday to mcclay@princeton.edu. For an example of a “microaggression” (which can include “Shopping While Black”) see Yolanda Pierce’s post on the Kitchen Table blog. For another opportunity to discuss multicultural misunderstandings, come to Continuing Conversations on Race on Mondays, April 4 and May 2, at the Princeton Public library.

Frank Von Hippel will be on a panel entitled “After the Earthquake: Japan’s Nuclear Plant Crisis” on Thursday, March 24, at 4:30 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall. Panelists will include Alexander Glaser, an assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School; M.V. Ramana, an associate research scholar at the School’s Program on Science and Global Security (S&GS;); Erik Vanmarcke, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton and a member of the Associated Faculty of the Princeton Environmental Institute. Hippel is co-director of the Woodrow Wilson School’s Program on Science and Global Security. Free.

On Friday, March 25, at 3 p.m. Princeton University Press launches its “Lives of Great Religious Books” series with a panel discussion at Frist. Panelists are Donald S. Lopez. Jr., author of the biography of The Tibetan Book of the Dead; Martin Marty, author of the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison; and Vanessa Ochs, author of the forthcoming biography of the Haggadah. Free. (Yet another good one from the Center for the Study of Religion is the Doll lecture on the relationship between religion and money, always incestuous in my opinion. The lecture is within this three-day time period, Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. in the Lewis Library.)

I can’t attend any of these, but perhaps I’ll see you at the chamber breakfast where the Honorable Helen Hoens will speak. It’s Wednesday morning.

Friday March 19th 2011

By Jamuna Dasi

Last night I went to see “I’ll have what she’s having…” a dance project for women choreographer’s 40 and over, at the Yvonne Theater at Rider University. I decided to take a non judgmental approach to this review because I don’t want to hurt or stop anyone from self expression. It is such a personal art and sometimes we need to do it in a safe non judge mental environment for our own self-fulfillment. With that said I do want to encourage the choreographers to push the boundaries a little more and really go the distance. I would really like to see more movement and less performance art. Being over 40 really isn’t an excuse it’s just a number.

The Dance Project highlighted works of Mercer County residents and a few from other corners of New Jersey. Included in the list of choreographers is Marie Alonzo and Linda Mannheim of West Windsor, Lisa Botalico, Christine Colosimo and Joy Sayen of Princeton, Kim Leary of The Drum and Dance Learning Center of Lawrence, Fara Lindsay of Old Bridge, Lynn Needle and Olivia Galgano of Art of Motion in Ridgewood, Shari Nyce of Nyce Bodies in Pennington, and Loretta Di Bianca Fois of Branchburg and
dance faculty at Raritan Valley Community College.

Colosimo, the director of the Princeton YWCA dance program and founder of the project, says “that when push comes to shove, dancers must continue dancing forever, even if technique fails. It’s simply who we are.”

This is the premise of “I’ll have what she’s having…” dance project. 12 dances, 10 choreographers, 30 dancers, 2 hours and a lot of energy and work, equal a varied and extremely personal dance concert. There is a place for every dancer in the dance world and this group has found that place.

Notable dances of the evening-

Cuadro by Lisa Botalico was performed as a trio in the traditional flamenco style. This dance was based on the performance format that dates back to the café cantantes, where dancers, singers and guitarists — sitting on stage — would take turns performing, supported by other artists. My favorite part of this dance was Lisa Botalico dancing her solo in silence in her crisp white suite, Fedora and cane. It was much more powerful to hear the rhythms of her feet without the interference of any other music.

In Crispy Water and Sugary Air, by Marie Alonzo, a quartet of dancers was accompanied by 4 black cubed boxes that were moved around to create an ever changing set design. My favorite part of this dance was when the cast created a moving walk way for another dancer, adding a new cube in front each time she took a step.

Christine Colosimo’s Untitled White was strange and bizarre. It had an interesting combination of red go go boots, a giant white skirt, lady Godiva wig, white masks, and music by Bubba Sparxxx,
Ambroise Thomas, ying Yang Twinds, Zbigniew Preisner, Schumann, and Lil Wayne — along with projections photographed by Amelie Waldberg of naked Barbies in compromised positions. This dance was dedicated” to all women who are abused, priviledged or underpriviledged, all alike.” My take is that it was about the objectification of women or something along those lines.

Lamma Bada, choreographed and danced by Kim Leary, was a beautiful middle eastern style solo accompanied by a large red silk scarf. Her use of the scarf was creative and varied. Her movement was in tune with the music and she caught just the right accents in the music with her body and the scarf as she was dancing. This simple and refreshing dance was musical, entertaining and beautiful to watch.

Notable dancers of the evening were Henri Velandia and Abdiel Jacobsen in “One’s Upon Times” choreographed by Marie Alonzo. They were supple in tuned dancers with beautiful technique. They danced poetically together in a creative duet about gay and lesbian binational couples fighting deportation.

Another stand out was the dancer/choreographer Shari Nycee in “The Whole Enchilada.” Shari danced a very dynamic and eclectic solo while accompanied by three little girls and an older gentleman in sombreros singing “there’s no tortillas only bread’ in a tragic tone while she grappled with a wooden stool.

The evening ended with a six butterflies and a grasshopper in the Papillon Suite by Lynn Lesniak Needle with music by Philip Glass and Stevie Wonder; with gigantic swaths of silk cloth waving about under fantastic lights, it was reminiscent of Loie Fuller.

The technical crew was surely working under adverse conditions, with not enough rehearsal time, but the lighting was too dark in some dances and not executed very smoothly. Lights came up before props were set and stage hands were seen on and off stage when they shouldn’t have been. The theater was uncomfortably hot and the music was painfully loud. The behind the scenes activity is essential to a quality of a performance.

This is a very accessible dance concert that inspires and encourages dance and choreography beyond the age of 40. If you have untapped yearnings to dance but have no outlet this is the place for you. Go see the performance and get involved.

“I’ll have what she’s having…” dance project will be performing again on Saturday March 19th at 2pm and 8pm at the Yvonne Theater at Rider University.

Thanks to Jamuna Desi for this guest review! A professional dancer living in Hamilton NJ, she is the founder and director of The Outlet Dance Project, a choreographic series performed at Grounds For Sculpture for emerging women choreographers. She is also a performer and founding member of Kalamandir Dance Co. a contemporary Indian dance company based in New Jersey. Dasi has performed with Pennsylvania Dance Theatre, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Theatre, Acrodance Theatre, Opera Festival of New Jersey, New Jersey Opera Theatre and has danced eight seasons with The Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Thanks to Elizabeth Madden-Zibman for another guest review of this concert.

If you have never been on a labyrinth walk, you have missed something. No matter what your religion, or if you have no religion, it is an opportunity to journey inside your own soul. Pictured is one that I took three years ago, in Maui, after a sunrise trip to Haleakala.

A portable labyrinth walk will be installed inside Princeton United Methodist Church for Good Friday. At noon and afterwards, anyone may take the walk — and/or listen to the meditations offered in the adjacent sanctuary.

The Good Friday labyrinth walk is one of several Lenten opportunities to prepare for Easter. On Tuesdays at noon, the business community is invited to 30-minute midweek Lenten services, followed by a light lunch. Catherine Williams, Anna Gillette, and Cathie Capp will present Prayer through Movement (April 5),
Contemplative Prayers, (April 12) and “Hidden with Christ – a Love Feast” (April 19).

Sunday worship will feature “Face to Face” encounters, pairing a chancel-drama monologue, voiced by actor Scott Langdon, and a sermon on such characters as the Devil, the Samaritan Woman, and Lazarus.

The Holy Week schedule includes a Tenebrae (Shadows) service on Thursday, April 21. In addition to the noon labyrinth walk on Friday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. Hyosang Park will direct John Rutter’s Requiem, incorporating scripture, art, movement, and contemplative prayer.

Easter morning begins with a 6 a.m. sunrise service on the church lawn, on the corner of Nassau and Vandeventer, followed by a continental breakfast. At the 9:30 and 11 a.m. services Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash will preach, and music will be offered by all six of the choirs. For evening and Sunday parking, the university lots off Williams Street (behind Thomas Sweet and 185 Nassau Street) are available.

In a labyrinth, as in life, you come to places where you must turn around and start over. Whether you are in the season of Lent, or Passover, or the Spring Equinox, now is a good time to begin again.

The Princeton Merchants Association is a happening group. I went to its meeting at the Nassau Inn on Tuesday (3-15) and learned the following:

PMa is embarking on a formal customer service improvement program, with training and followup – even evaluations, like secret shoppers. Fran McManus of the Whole Earth Center is leading this. Some downtown retailers need this more than others.

Corner House, a member of PMA, gave an eye opening presentation about all the ways they help youth and adults in the community. Their fundraiser, Motown Magic, is April 29 at Bedens Brook.

Danielle D’Angelo, one of the owners of the new specialty deli downtown, told of the joys and trials of expanding the family business from Jackson to Spring Street.

Kathleen Morolda of Cranbury Station Gallery is signing up merchants to participate in Stand Against Racism Day on Friday, April 29. That’s why I was there – to say that Not in Our Town supports the participating merchants by including them in a newspaper ad. Any retailer who wants to join this effort, email niot.princeton@gmail.com or contact Morolda.

Kristin Appelget of Princeton University announced that the construction project to straighten the lethal curve in Alexander Road will close that road down, completely, for two weeks in April or May, and that traffic will be slow for 10 weeks. The affected stretch is between Canal Pointe Boulevard and Glen View Drive, but Obal’s Market gets to remain open.

The mayors of Princeton Township spoke. The borough’s Mildred Trotman admitted she hadn’t supported consolidation before but now, she says, “the jury’s still out.” The township’s Chad Goemer dangled the thought-carrot that revenues from parking might not be so vital to the combined municipalities. The consolidation committee needs to figure things out by June because late August is the drop-dead deadline for putting the question on the November ballot.

I exchanged oyster stories with Jack Morrison of Blue Point Grill, Nassau Street Seafood, and Witherspoon Grill. (We just got back from Key West where oysters at Turtle Kraals are 50 cents apiece; we gorged three days in a row. We’re such oyster buffs that my husband has his own oyster opening kit with glove and knife.) I met Josh Zinder, an architect that I’d known only by telephone interview. (Above, Morrison on the left, Zinder on the right).

Also during the networking time PNC Bank’s Lucia Stegaru mentined a job opportunity: a scholarship fund, Princeton Education Foundation, is looking for a paid 30-hour a week director. Anyone interested? E-mail to EDSearch@pefnj.org and note that PEF’s gala is April 9.

Just in: Jim McCaffrey will speak at the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast on Wednesday, May 18, at 7:30 a.m. at the Nassau Club. It’s always interesting to me to figure out what new technique he’ll use to capture the hearts and minds of grocery shoppers. First it was offering a 5 percent discount on any order over $50 if you show your Arts Council of Princeton membership card. Then he started going into demos in a big way. (Today the Princeton store’s mascot demo-er, Ralph, offered brisket.)

Now McCaffrey is apparently trying to make a big splash with salmon. Today and tomorrow, on the second floor of the Princeton store, is a Really Yummy sampling display of salmon — the smoked and three flavored cooked versions.

My friend and I (pictured above, she’s Susan Malatich-Asack, realtor, chef, and gardener extraordinaire) tried them all. My faves are, in order, bourbon, white wine, and maple honey.

Adam Day, the New Jersey-based company rep in the second photo, says that McCaffrey’s has worked out a deal with Heritage Salmon to offer these flavors, in addition to their au naturel Atlantic salmon. Day’s pitch: no airline miles are used in the delivery, and it’s farm-raised in Maine and eco-certified.

Signing McCaffrey up completes the quadrangle of fascinating breakfast speakers for the next three months:

On March 23: The Honorable Helen E. Hoens, New Jersey Supreme Court Justice and Eden Institute parent, “Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones — One Woman’s Path to the Supreme Court.”

On April 13: Emeritus Professor Robert Tignor, of Princeton University, “Middle East Uprisings: How the Past Informs the Present.”

On June 15: Nan Keohane, former president of Duke and Wellesley, on “Thinking About Leadership,” her recently published book.

If you are in the neighborhood of Princeton Shopping Center on Friday or Saturday, try the salmon display. And on Sunday, McCaffrey’s gets into the swim of Pi Day with the — of course — pie eating contest.

Pi Day begins today (Friday, March 11) at 3:14 p.m. and tonight is the Geek Freak Pub Crawl. The coolest part is that the Pi Day folks (Princeton Tour’s Mimi Omiecinski, left, and Joy Chen of Joy Cards) have come up with a Pi Day I Tunes App. How great is that!

It has an events calendar and, to quote, at the bottom of the detail information will be a link to set up the event in your calendar, an address that will take you to a map view, a phone number that you can tap to call, and a link to a web site for more information.” Plus videos.

But I feel left out. I have a Droid, not an i-Phone. Why do all the app makers make apps for i-Phones? Even my own church did that. An app for a church? Yes, Princeton United Methodist has one, thanks to our geeky assistant pastor, Trey Gillette. It’s called “Princeton UMC Mobile Chimes.” Some folks just have energy to spare!

Will I have the energy to come to the Geek Freek Pub Crawl Tonight? The deal is, show up at 100 Nassau and get the map, then set forth to encounter Geeks of Yesteryear. It’s free, you just pay for whatever drinks you drink. Dunno if I’ll go. Duke plays Maryland tonight, so I know spouse won’t go. But I hear all the best people will be there. If not, I’ll watch Fox News, something I rarely do, but the newcasters to whom I am not related promise to feature Pi Day tonight!

The former CEO of a global water initiative that provides clean drinking water to villages in sub-Saharan Africa will speak on “Faith and Ethics in the Executive Suite” tonight at 7:00 pm, in McCormick Hall 101, the building adjoining the Princeton University Art Museum. It will be preceded by a reception from 6:30 – 7:00 pm. Dale Jones, now vice chairman of executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles,” will be interviewed by David W. Miller, director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative, on his Protestant perspective on issues of business ethics, leadership, diversity and executive compensation.

The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative with the Center for the Study of Religion

Not in Our Town was scheduled to discuss “What’s in a Name,” based on Kobina Aidoo’s documentary “The Neo African Americans,” on Monday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the conference room at the Princeton Public Library, as part of the “Continuing Conversations on Race” series.

We are cancelling the Not in Our Town event because we have discovered a conflict with another event at the Princeton Public Library. The library is showing two films, Segregation and Integration in Princeton on Monday, March 7, starting at 7 p.m.

We think these two films are of vital importance; they examine key issues that shape Princeton, the town and the university.

The first tells about “The Princeton Plan,” the integration of Princeton’s schools in 1948. This film looks back at the changes that were made, the way Princeton chose to move forward and the reactions and reflections of those who lived through it. It was produced, edited and directed by the Princeton Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“Looking Forward: Reflections of Black Princeton Alumni” touches upon five decades of Princeton experiences and features interviews conducted during Princeton University’s Coming Back and Looking Forward Conference in 2006. It was produced, directed, and edited by Melvin McCray, ’74.

Not in Our Town will show an excerpt from Kobina Aidoo’s documentary and discuss it at a “Continuing Conversation on Race” session on April 4 or May 2.

We are truly, deeply sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but we want to support the library’s screening of these films.

Here is a guest review of Parsons Dance at McCarter Theatre by Aimee Fullman. Due to my oversight, it was not published in timely manner. In other words, it got lost in my email. But it’s so descriptive that I’m posting it anyway. Pretend you are reading the back copy of a monthly magazine!

McCarter Theatre delivered again as a performance venue of excellence with the presentation of Parsons Dance on November 18. The closing piece (Shining Star 2004) was 70’s themed and seemed very dated despite its recent inception but the rest of program featured five other fantastic works from throughout his prolific career. The opening piece, Wolfgang (2006), was originally choreographed for the Aspen/Santa Fe ballet. Although, the movement was beautiful, his dancers’ training led them to execute it a bit heavily with a lightness missing that was exhibited successfully by the ensemble in other works

By far, the favorite of myself and my companions was the second piece (Ebben-2009) -a duet about longing and an obsessive desire to be noticed. This theme was juxtaposed by the sustained movement and control exhibited by the dancers. It was an excerpt from Remember Me with music powerfully performed by the East Village Opera Company. “Caught” stole the show with its use of precise timed light flashes which in concert with the moving, controlled and repetitive jumps created the illusion of the dancer walking on air and defying gravity. The work still seemed cutting-edge even though it was created in 1982.

Particularly in light of all the recent conversations about the arts in these economic times and its value, I found myself not being drawn in by the performance to a transcendent experience but rather to reconsider the simple joys and pains of being in a body that is earthbound. By my measure of great: do I want to experience that movement physically or can the dancers make me feel the movement and the experience emotionally?—it was a great success—not because I was transported, but because I wasn’t. Every minute I was right there with the idea and it felt very accessible and a rediscovery for me of being in a body. All in all, it was a sophisticated display of the breadth of Parsons’ works and a call to live in the moment.