Some of my most exquisite dance memories came from watching Jose Limon’s company perform in 1960, when I was a college student at the American Dance Festival.Some of my most embarrassing moments came, that summer, when I struggled to participate in Limon’s class.

Both came flooding back last August when I watched a former Limon company member, Sarah Stackhouse, on the first day of her teaching the masterwork “There Is a Time” to the American Repertory Ballet. The technique that looks so easy and natural on her body –I began to feel it in my long-ago bones. I’ve been impatient to see the company perform it tonight (Friday, April 8) at McCarter Theatre (tickets here). Do whatever you can to get there, because this piece, based on Ecclesiastes 3, will touch your heart. Here is a video of excerpts from the piece, as performed by the Limon Dance Company.

The April 8 program, titled Masters of American Dance and Music, features the world premiere of Mary Barton’s A Shepherd Singing (And I Still Heard Nothing) with the music –– Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 – performed live by the Princeton University Orchestra under the direction of Michael Pratt.

ARB is at the State Theater next week, April 15, when the company dances to two iconic Stravinsky scores, Firebird and Rite of Spring, vividly choreographed by Douglas Martin. It’s called Echoes of Russian Ballet.