It’s Saturday night at 10:20, and I’m just home from the Outlet Dance Project’s concert at Art YOUniversity, 4 Tennis Court, Hamilton. If you care about dance, go – either to the Outlet concert (see map above) or the one featuring Princeton University students at McCarter tomorrow, both at 2 p.m. I can’t vouch for the latter (it’s on my schedule for tomorrow) but the Outlet concert might fill your soul. In a rush to encourage attendance, I’m just going to scribble something down, spell check it, and spit it out. Here goes.

Of the 12 works by as many choreographers and three dozen dancers there are a handful of Don’t Wanna Forgets, starting with Dasi performing with the Kalamandir Dance Company in an excerpt from “Pritihibhi – Earth” by Malabika Guha. Four women breath as a godlike one, rejoice while streaming long banners, then set themselves for war among the gods, fiercely stamping, strong, aggressive, then resolving all in an over arching “OM.”

To the plaints of Edith Piaf, Maureen Glennon’s “Want” also shows two strong women, but here one of the women pairs up with a man and three’s a crowd. Powerful dancing, and unlike most modern dancers, including some on this program, who operate in an emotional vacuum, Rachel Brown, Kyra Kennaugh, and Bryan Matland engage each other with their eyes and their movement.

Hee Ra Yoo’s “Catwalk” is the showstopper that ends the program. Five women all in white, dressed couture-like by Lara De Bruijin, compete on the catwalk. The dominant one (probably Yoo), all you see is her back (in a low cut gown) and oh what a back, as she twists her shoulders diagonally in haughty disdain. The others dodge her slicing arms. The other four get their moments in the spotlight, then challenge Yoo. Design, movement, technique, emotion, suspense, it’s got it all.

I’m also remembering Nicole Mahncke’s “Controlled Frenzy,” to blackboard scratching music by Dirty Three. Four dancers seem to have an internal rash, an infernal itch like their scratchy-seeming tulle underskirts, well danced to a St. Vitus T.

Joyce King’s dancers – a trio to the music of Steve Reich and a lovely solo by Megan Doyle, part of a longer work called “Safely Put Upon” were lovely. It was the eighth dance on the program and I couldn’t believe how much excellent technique, good dancing, I was seeing.

Everyone, no matter their experience, was fully committed to their movement. I liked the snake-tongue “flicks” of legs and hands, in “Winter in the Belly of the Snake” by Rachel Korenstein, who also knows how to use stillness to build to a climax. I liked the fluid swings of Rachel Abraham’s “Lapse,” which was structured around lamps that were turned on, then off.

It was satisfying to see seemingly random movements meld into unison, either unison movement, as with Amy Harding’s “Introspection,” or, as with Natalie Teichmann’s “Pigeon City,” a sudden still tableaux.

There were three solos: Keila Cordova’s narrative danced by Kate Abernethy, “Meteorologica,” Amanda Hinchley’s “The Effortless Mastery,” also a narrative; and Danielle Hernandez’s “iCare,” centered on a large box.

It’s 11 pm, my time’s up. Early day tomorrow. But put dance at 2 p.m. on your list if you are reading this on Sunday, April 11. That and the Holocaust observance at the Jewish Center, 7 p.m. You need joy to experience sorrow.

To chamber and tech friends: I don’t often send you Princeton Comment comments on religion, but here’s a juxtaposed three-bie I can’t resist.

Friday, April 9 (for most of you, that’s today, sorry for the late notice, but it’s on all day): the Faith and Work Initiative at Princeton University will use Pope Benedict XVI’s recent social encyclical on the marketplace (Caritas in Veritate or Love in Truth) as a basis for discussing religion, ethics, and the workplace. David Miller (above) heads a list of speakers. It was a cover story for U.S. 1 this week. It’s in the Computer Science Building on Olden Avenue, and it’s called “Civilizing the Economy: A New Way of Understanding Business Enterprise?”

Sunday, April 11, a healthcare consultant, Meredith Gould, speaks at a church breakfast about her journey from the synagogue to the church. Gould (upper right) is sociologist, author, and social media maven who has no compunctions about presenting herself to the workplace as both a religious person and professional person. She curates and writes posts for HealthXMedia and at night she Twitters the Compline, the evening prayer, for the Virtual Abbey. It’s at Princeton United Methodist Church, 8 a.m. Cost: $5; call 609-924-2613 or email office@princetonumc.org. (Yes, that’s my church).

Sunday and Monday, April 11 and 12, Stephen Payne (lower left), a leadership coach who aims to infuse faith with work, hosts a leadership and spirituality seminar at the Erdman Center, Princeton Theological Seminary. Sunday’s program starts at 3:30 p.m., Monday’s at 7 a.m. Cost: $85 http://www.ptsem.edu/ce/las. Payne says he he does not refer to a particular religion. Muslims, Christians, Jews, and agnostics have registered.

“The spirit is a force — a tool that will help you lead better,” says Payne. “You may shape it to your hand as you see fit, but the important thing is to realize its power and to employ it optimally in your leadership life.”

Here are two more events:

Wednesday, April 21, 8 a.m., Ed Zschau speaks at the Princeton Chamber breakfast at the Nassau Club. Don’t miss this. Princeton University’s high-tech entrepreneur guru usually moderates panels. It’s a rare chance to hear him hold the floor and tell how he picks winning entrepreneurs.

Friday, May 7, 2 p.m. Looking ahead: For the Keller Center a panel of entrepreneurial CEOs will discuss innovation and entrepreneurship in the P.U.’s Computer Science Building. Reception follows. David Fialkow of General Catalyst Partners moderates a panel that includes the Co-founder of Kayak.com (comparison of travel sites, Paul English), the co-founder of Boxee, (transfer of Internet to TV, Avner Rosen), and CCP (developer of virtual worlds, Hilmar Pétursson).

Who’s to say a supposedly ‘secular’ event can’t bring a moment of divine inspiration?

Now that the chocolate rabbits have been consumed, and the leftover horseradish from Seder plates is getting pushed to the back of the refrigerator, it may be the right moment to ponder how Christians share so much Jewish heritage. But Meredith Gould – born a Jew, a convert to Christianity – says that very few of the Christians she meets really “get” their Jewish roots.

In her latest of seven books,“Why is There a Menorah on the Altar: Jewish Roots of Christian Worship,” she takes it step by step, how Hebrew scriptures influenced current Christian rituals like baptism, Holy Communion, and confirmation.

In an April 11 talk Gould will reveal her own spiritual journey from the synagogue to the church. She speaks at Princeton United Methodist Church (corner of Nassau & Vandeventer) on Sunday, April 11, at 8 a.m. For $5 reservations call 609-924-2613 or email office@princetonumc.org, but honestly, if you just show up, there’ll be enough scrambled eggs.

“Generally speaking, personal conversations about my cultural and religious identity do not go particularly well,” she admits. “Ask me what I am and brace yourself for what happens next. I’ll tell you that I consider myself a Jew in identity, a Christian in faith.”

With a BA from Queens College and a PhD in sociology from New York University, Gould focuses on such health and wellness issues as patient education, adherence, and healthcare outcomes. She’s considered an “infomediary,” the term for someone who translates jargon into readable text. Also a consultant to faith-based organizations – I believe she did a Christian Seder for several churches this Lenten season — she blogs about her faith. She also Twitters her faith — yes, you can do that in a Twitter feed. Every night she ReTweets “Virtual Abbey,” which prays the compline, or end-of-day prayers. She will sign copies of Why is There a Menorah On the Altar? after the talk.

Among her other books, some in Kindle versions: Deliberate Acts of Kindness, The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, by Morehouse Publishing as well as The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Feast Days, Holy Days and Everyday (Doubleday), and Working at Home: Making it Work For You.

I’ve known Meredith for nearly 30 years and she’s never boring. Witty, pungent, succinct, sometimes acerbic, but not boring. Yet over time (and perhaps with Christ in her heart??) I’ve seen her mellow, and I’m really looking forward to hearing her talk about her faith.

Handbells, I’ve decided, are the only percussion instrument that sounds like a human person singing. And when a soloist plays the bells, it’s like a dancer who sings but does not have to worry about saving her breath.

I just heard the most amazing concert, played by pianist Akiko Hosaki (on left), and handbell soloist Hyosang Park (center) to benefit United Front Against Riverblindness, headed by Daniel Shungu, shown on right. It was at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, a beautiful contemporary church in East Windsor.

Park and Hosaki collaborated on Lenten hymns, using rubato (pauses, ever-so-slightly varying tempos) that twanged the heartstrings. Some were their own arrangements (solo handbell is so difficult that it can be hard to find good ones, they say). Especially wonderful were their arrangements for Jules Massenet’s “Thais,” Vivaldi’s “Winter,” and my absolute favorite, Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedie” #1. Especially in the Satie, the bells seemed to crescendo and decrescendo on the same note. The telecommunications engineer/musician who was sitting with me informed me that this was the Doppler effect, that if the sound-producer is moving, it makes a different sound. (Did I get that right, John MacDonald?).

Disclosure, I’m a member of Princeton United Methodist Church, where Park directs the handbell choir. I never had the ambition to ring, but now I do. To watch her is to be amazed at her tour-de-force, but to listen is to hear an exquisite voice.

The next handbell concert in this series will be at Princeton United Methodist Church on Saturday, May 15, 7 p.m. Here is a link to a YouTube excerpt that will charm you.

In spite of the tree-felling storm the night before, they un-bagged the Einstein Alley sign at noon on 3-14, Pi-Day, also Einstein’s birthday. Shown: Rep. Rush Holt, Mayor Mildred Trotman, and Katherine Kish.

Princeton’s first annual Pi Day, celebrating Einstein’s 3-14 birthday, will survive the potential bad weather, we predict, because so many people and merchants are involved. Everything but the pie throwing is inside, points out Mimi Omiecinski of Princeton Tour Company, profiled in this week’s issue of U.S. 1. She worked with the Princeton Merchants Association, the Princeton Public Library and a host of others to make it happen.

And here’s a special shoutout to Joy Chen (shown here) who designed the clever but respectful logo for PiDay, a rumpled portrait of the great man himself with the Pi symbol and a birthday cake. Joy and Earl Chen own the “studio for social expression,” JOYcards, at 6B Chambers Street. They may have a few of the 60 cent buttons left. It’ll make a terrific souvenir. They also offer a one-price discount on all their beautiful cards, even their $10 ones. Each will sell for, you guessed it, the price of the day, $3.14.

The day begins at noon with a signraising for Einstein’s Alley, a private, non-profit branding and economic intitiative for central New Jersey. “What more fitting day for officials to gather and raise a sign recognizing Princeton as a key municipality in the research/technology center that is Einstein’s Alley than Einstein’s Birthday,” says Katherine Kish, EA honcho. The sign will go up on Stockton Street at Lover’s Lane, and there will be parking down the street at Marquand Park.

Stores with banners offer Pi Day discounts, stuff selling for $3.14. In one long block on Nassau Street you can make three Einstein stops: The Einstein museum at Landau’s store, the Einstein souvenirs and artifacts at the Historical Society of Princeton, and the Princeton University store, which offers a 23.14 percent discount on Alice Caprice’s “Quotable Einstein” book and its other books on Einstein.

Then head for the Princeton Public Library: After the 1 p.m. pie judging at the library, help recite the complete string of Pi numbers, led by Princeton University students. At 1:59 p.m. (the next three digits of Pi) the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab will conduct science experiments.

For $3.14 take the Einstein tour, led by six costumed re-enactors, telling about Einstein’s life; you will follow the treasure hunt trail.

Pie throwing on Palmer Square is at 3:14 p.m. (natch) sponsored by PNC Bank and McCaffrey’s which will serve free birthday cake.

Let the party begin.

Just $65,000 will guard one million people in the Congo from going blind, says Daniel Shungu, founder of the United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR). Hyosang Park, a solo handbell artist from Princeton United Methodist Church, will start a series of fundraising events to help conquer the disease by giving a concert on Sunday, March 14, at 7 p.m. in East Windsor.

Riverblindness, transmitted through the bite of a small black fly, is a socially disruptive disease that infects 23 million of the 60 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It starts with a rash and thickening of the skin and leads to sight loss. In addition to unbearable itching that drives some people to suicide, it is hard for victims, especially for women, to either find a mate or if already married to keep one. Tragically, children – who usually remain symptom-free until adulthood – are forced to become full-time caregivers for blind relatives, foregoing their own education, resulting in illiteracy and increased poverty.

The drug for Riverblindness, Mectizan, is being provided free by Merck & Co., but it is a challenge to get the drug to where it is needed and ensure that every person takes the drug once a year for at least 10 years.

As part of a series of fund-raising events for the Princeton United Methodist Church/UFAR mission trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer, solo handbell artist Park and pianist Akiko Hosaki will present a Riverblindness Benefit Concert on Sunday, March 14, at 2 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 79 One Mile Road, in East Windsor. Park is the organist and handbell choir director at PUMC and Hosaki is the organist/choir director at Hillsborough Reformed Church in Millstone. They will perform works by Massenet, Vivaldi, McChesney, and Sherman. For information call St. Paul’s at 609-448-1113.

Other planned fundraisers for the mission trip: On Sunday, April 25, at 2 p.m., there will be a tea at PUMC. Call 609-924-2613 for $15 reservations. The PUMC “May Day 5K to Conquer Riverblindness” will be Saturday, May 1. Park will give another solo handbell concert on Saturday, May 15, at PUMC in Princeton. A community-wide African Cultural Evening and Dinner will be held on Saturday, May 22, at Princeton University’s Carl A. Fields Center, at Prospect and Olden Avenues. Tickets are $50, $25 for students.

Take a look at the UFAR logo of a child leading her parent. Here’s the good news, according to UFAR: “Through UFAR’s efforts since 2007, 727,583 people living in 1,659 villages have received at least one annual dose of the drug with remarkable results: no more itching, rejuvenation of the skin, improved low or impaired vision, reduced infections, and improved ability to concentrate. Children and young adults can resume schooling. There is an obvious renewed energy and happiness in the community, with everybody looking forward to getting the drug the following year.”

Park’s solo handbell concerts are amazing to see and hear. Imagine one person playing all the bells in three octaves! Help PUMC ring out Riverblindness and ring in hope!

Spring this year feels like spring nearly 30 years ago when a handful of active companies made Princeton’s modern dance scene fascinating to watch. Now here comes a series of concerts that promise relief from a two-decade drought. I just saw “Rider Dances” at the Yvonne Theater (Sunday, March 7) and the Princeton YWCA’s “I’ll Have What She’s Having” is scheduled for the same venue on March 19 at 8 p.m. and March 20 at 2 p.m. Then there’s the Outlet Dance Project on April 10 and 11, the Mercer Dance Ensemble on May 22 and 23, and the student programs at Princeton University, the April 3 Ze’eva Cohen tribute at the university, and Rutgers’ Mason Gross — suddenly it seems like there’s lots to see.

Kim Chandler Vaccaro, director of the Rider University/Princeton Ballet School dance program, cajoled choreographers and fashioned production elements to come up with a praiseworthy concert that went from one inventive surprise to another. For instance, a wonderfully outrageous dance, evocative of Pilobolus, is Christine Colosimo’s “What Happens Next.” It opens with an upside-down dancer, her head and shoulders covered by a stage-wide cloth, her bright red boots kicking to the music of Bubba Sparxx “Miss New Booty.” Trust me, it works.

Then human moles burrow under the huge white cloth and soon four more pairs of red boots on upside-down people are dancing. They exit, the cloth billows with air, and from the center emerges a dancer who, rooted under the cloth, does an adagio for the back and arms (shown in photo). As she begins to move around the stage, the giant cloth takes on its own personality. The dance ends with four pairs of red boots lying empty on the stage.

Another very successful prop-feature dance was Laney Engelhard’s “Recurring,” which opens with dancers lying down, blanketed with 30 pounds of white feathers. If you think “Nutcracker” snow, think again, because the white stuff didn’t stay on the floor. Seven sleek dancers, costumed with white on their backs and white with black spots on their fronts, deftly wade through it, scoop it up, and toss it to flutter down again. At the startling, sudden end, the dancers bend forward, arms outstretched like bird’s wings.

In “Potent Remedy,” Jennifer Gladney, with help from Danielle Nolen, fashioned her own mythological world, starting with Niko Paleologus’s projected video of a boy and girl (Princeton Ballet School students Emilia and Jayden Kraft) who walk in the woods and encounter fantastical creatures, all dressed in bright colors except for one in black. All those characters plus 10 more then appear on stage, dancing to “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” by Zigman and Desplat. Most of the time the children sit on the side and watch but occasionally they join in. One of the two lead dancers, the one dressed colorfully, circles in a spotlight of glitter.

I can’t discern the plot or meaning on first viewing, but at the very end – when the children have reappeared in a video as young adults – the black creature seems to be morphing into full color, as she circles in the glitter spotlight. J.R.R. Tolkien eat your heart out.

College dance concerts are rightfully about the students, and these students have the good fortune of being able to train at Princeton Ballet School as well as take academic work at Rider. It’s the job of the director to put every student onstage and make them look good, and Vaccaro deftly did that, in the opener “Web? Where Exactly?” To a “layered” guitar score by student composer Michael Dylan Ferrara, cleverly using economical movement material, sixteen students strut jauntily, on stage and in the aisles, having the time of their lives.

Also here, the dance equivalent of the torch song (by student Elizabeth Zelesny), the requisite hip hop number (a fun piece by Shakia Johnson), and Cherilyn Barbone’s “Internal Static,” a well-performed tap dance with a seemingly endless variety of call-and-response percussion rhythms.

All but one of the choreographers was a professional, and the dancers were mostly students and alumni. What set this concert apart is the student’s opportunity to share the stage with, and learn from, seasoned pros who have had distinguished careers. Cheryl Whitney Marcuad’s Sarabande, a modern work choreographed to Bach by Mary Barton, gave new meaning to the words “elegant” and “fluid.” And Diane Kuhl’s sparkly solo (also by Barton) is a better-than-textbook example of “epaulement,” the well-trained ballet dancer’s carriage.

When Marcuad and Kuhl joined Janell Byrne for a trio by Byrne, it seemed I was back in the 1980s when Byrne was dancing in three companies – Teamwork Dance and Geulah Abraham’s Danceworks, and the Mercer Dance Ensemble. Ah those were the days. Over the past decade I have seen Byrne dance only through her choreography as director for the Mercer Dance Ensemble, three or four new pieces every year. (Her 30th anniversary concert for MDE is May 22 and 23 at the Kelsey Theatre.) Now here was the real her, understated, fluid, joyous. Revealing that you don’t have to have eccentric movement, histrionics, or props to make an effective dance moment, the three veterans showed the kids how it’s done.

It’s here – the tipping point. Online media usage penetration exceeded usage of traditional media for the first time last year, said John F. Kelsey III, the interactive media guru who spoke to the Princeton Chamber on Thursday.

But don’t toll the bells for traditional media just yet, because digital media is getting just six percent of the local marketing dollars, according to Kelsey’s research. “Businesses are using digital media for local advertising, but they are not paying a lot of money for it,” said Kelsey. Direct mail leads traditional media’s dollar share at 28.0 percent of spending, with newspapers at 21.5 percent, and online and interactive at 5.4 percent.

His charts are on the Princeton Regional Chamber website. They showed that traditional media is not going away, just getting a smaller share of the market. (Traditional media includes direct mail, yellow pages, and broadcasting, not just newspapers and magazines.) It dropped from $141 billion in 2008 to $115 billion in 2009.

That’s the bad news. But it won’t drop much more (only to $108 billion) by 2014. Good news? Maybe not. Kelsey says the economy “hit the reset” button last year. Unlike recessions in recent memory that bounced right back, this one won’t bounce back. Where we are now is where we are going to be for a good long while.

Kelsey has sold his company to BAI (now called BAI/Kelsey), but he has access to, and shared, some valuable statistics. By 2014 interactive media will get 25 percent of the market share, and this is an industry that will not grow.

How are small- to medium-sized businesses choosing media? Interactive media is the choice for 44 percent of new companies, and 32 percent of SMBs over all. Just 18 percent of the older companies – probably the bigger ones – are using it. “SMBs believe that interactive media has a better return on investment,” he said.

I was surprised at Kelsey’s claim that 80 percent of products and services are bought within 20 miles of your home, and that won’t change. I thought more people were buying online. I guess he counts groceries and dry cleaning.

His advice: Use the new media to communicate so you can exceed the expectations of your current clients, so they want to come back.

Kelsey comforted those who are daunted by change: “The basic tenets of the marketing mix haven’t changed, but the elements are evolving. Hire people/vendors who will move you out of your comfort zone.”

And if regional newspapers will falter, local newspapers will do just fine. “Traditional media is alive and well,” said Kelsey, “at least for now.” What about all the reports of layoffs? Other companies do layoffs quietly. “When media does layoffs, they write about it.”

Click here for the PDF file.

Self-published books used to have a bad reputation (somebody’s ill-edited memoir, somebody’s ill-conceived doggerel) but in today’s publishing environment, that can be the best way to get your book into the hands of people who want it.

But try getting an author appearance for a self-published book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore and you will learn the meaning of frustration. Most bookstores (and I can’t say I blame them, given the volume of self-publishers) won’t schedule them.

Janie Hermann, the ringmaster of the Princeton Public Library (shown here), has stepped into the breach and scheduled a “Local and Independent Author Day” tomorrow (Saturday, March 6, from noon to four). It’s a fun format. Six authors per hour read or speak in a 50 minute time slot, with a 10-minute break for buying the books and getting a cup of coffee. If the audience consists only of each author’s entourage, they’ll have an audience.

At least three of the books are worth hearing about or buying. Two were written by friends of mine – Ed Tseng and Wayne Cooke, and I know that the third, Angela Chang, is an excellent cookbook writer.

The event starts with introductions by Hermann at noon. In the 1 to 1:50 time slot are Tseng, a well known motivational coach focusing on the mental side of sports and life, who wrote “Game. Set. Life – Peak Performance for Sports and Life” and Cooke, who wrote “On the Far Side of the Curve: A Stage IV Cancer Survivor’s Journey.” That hour also features Tom Waldron, Renee Gatz, Ronald Allen, and Gayle Crist Shisler – they all seem to be non-fiction writers.

The afternoon closes with Angela Chang, the last speaker in the 3 to 4 time slot. I’m betting that the personalities alone will provide a good show. Click here for the complete schedule.

Blogger disclosure: Tseng and Cooke gave me copies of their books but I have also bought copies to give to friends.