See excerpts from new works — performed by professional dancers, at a free lecture demonstration on Friday, February 24 at 5:15 p.m. (That’s probably today as you read this!) when American Repertory Ballet (ARB) presents “Watching and Talking about Dance” at its Princeton studio on the second floor of McCaffrey’s in Princeton Shopping Center.

Then see new dancers (from Princeton University) perform historically significant works for low-priced tickets ($15) on Friday (and also Saturday, and Sunday), February 24 to 26 at McCarter Theatre.

I saw ARB in rehearsal this week and am excited about the dances — new works by Mary Barton (a piece for men only) and by Trinette Singleton (for mostly women) plus a revival of Gerald Arpino’s “Confetti” (photo at right)  All three of these dances, along with excerpts from Douglas Martin’s “Romeo and Juliet,” will be in ARB’s “Spring into Love” performance on Saturday, March 17, at Raritan Valley Community College.

 If you can come to the lecture/dem, you’ll see the excerpts and listen in on the conversation. I join Michael Robertson (long-time friend and fellow dance critic) and company director Douglas Martin to help deconstruct the dances.  Hint: Martin used to dance in the Arpino work during his Joffrey Ballet days, and Robertson is going to point out that Arpino quoted  liberally from August Bournonville’s “Napoli,” picture above at left.  (Please note that excerpts of the dances will be performed in a studio setting, i.e.you will be knee to knee with the dancers — not in a theater with costumes!)

Over at McCarter this weekend, in a fully staged performance, student dancers present excerpts from Balanchine’s “Four Temperaments,” “Who Cares?” and “Apollo” (staged by Heather Watts)  and from Trisha Brown’s 1983 “Set and Reset,” described by Tobi Tobias in “Seeing Things” as “The choreographer’s fluid movement pairs with Robert Rauschenberg’s translucent costumes and fleeting background images to create a ravishing, ephemeral world.”  They will also perform work by Doug Varone and Jessica Lang. The publicity doesn’t say whether we get to see student choreography — to me, new work from fresh minds is infinitely more interesting than re-dos. But I guess it’s fun to perform it.  Note that the Lewis Center for the Arts invites the community to attend dance master classes for free — to observe. The next one is Tuesday, February 28, with choreographers from Istanbul.

Photo of Napoli (above) courtesy of the Royal Danish Ballet and Arts Journal. Photo of Confetti by Peter Cook.