Category Archives: Dance and the other arts

“Distracted from distraction by distraction”

Dance and the other arts, Memoir, Technology & Innovation, , , ,

That line of T.S. Eliot was a favorite of mine in my more desperate times as a college senior. So when I am feeling desperate more than 50 years later, I know it did not come as a consequence of old age. The distractions are different, but my readiness to put up with them is probably in my DNA.

alex-pang-poster-300x0-c-defaultI am putting November 6 at 2:30 p.m. on my calendar,  to hear an expert on calming technical distractions (Alex Pang) speak to a Princeton University Atelier lass on “Contemplative Computing: Reclaiming Attention in the Age of Distraction.

Pang wrote The Distraction Addiction, with one of the subtitles “Taming the Monkey Mind.”

I just wonder if, after so many years, my distractable simian mind even wants to be tamed.

From Little Rock — to the Moral Monday Rally

Dance and the other arts, Faith and Social Justice, , , , ,

little rock

Passage Theatre in Trenton is doing a play on Little Rock, the famous school segregation case that cracked the Jim Crow rules. The play has been extended through November 2, with performances Thursday through Sunday.  Originally it closed the day before the Moral Monday Rally, sponsored by The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow – Trenton and Princeton. The campaign aims to reform mass incarceration practices that now mimic the old Jim Crow laws.

The play was  previewed by Ted Otten in the Times of Trenton and reviewed by Simon Saltzman in U.S. 1 Newspaper, quoting him:

An integrated cast of nine gifted performers not only portray the students but many both black and white characters as the play progresses over the tumultuous period from September, 1957, to graduation day in May of 1958…

Touching personal narratives segue into searing and scalding confrontations. What is remarkable is how little use there is for dramatic contrivance. There is no need considering the horrific realities that these students confronted and have been recorded.

It runs through November 2 at Passage Theatre’s Mill Hill Playhouse and I’m really hoping to get down there. SAFE is the word for parking across the street from the jewelbox theater, no worries on that score. Saltzman warns that it’s nearly three hours long, maybe the 3 p.m. matinees on 10/25 or 10/26 will work best.

As for the rally, it is Monday, October 27, noon to 2 p.m. on the steps of the New Jersey State House in Trenton. Parking is available at the state house or the Trenton Wyndham Hotel (follow the signs from Route 1 to the hotel). Say the organizers (and I)

END the criminalization of our youth
REMOVE barriers to re-entry
REDUCE the prison population, END torture and abuse
INVEST in the social safety net (schools, housing, jobs)

Rally_End_Mass_Incarceration_102714

 

“While buttons may seem to most like a common adornment that graces our daily apparel, so many of them possess historical value, are crafted from exquisite materials, and have been a masterpiece created by some of the most talented artisans around.”

So wrote Michelle Daino, for the Home News Tribune and the Courier News, about the button show tomorrow (September 13)

The New Jersey State Button Society (NJSBS) will present the fall s annual show and competition on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Union Fire Co., 1396 River Road (Route 29), in Titusville.

Paula Gentile, a representative from the Blumenthal Lansing Co., a button manufacturer that dates back to 1877, will give a talk on “Modern Button Design: From Concept to Finished Product.” A dozen dealers from four states will offer buttons suitable for quilters, crafters, re-enactors, and those seeking special buttons to wear. A button raffle and award presentations are also planned.

Here is the story as published in the two Gannett papers:

Thanks to Daino for a good story.

Shakespeare without fear

Dance and the other arts, ,

There’s so much sensuality in the opening scene of Antony & Cleopatra, as staged by Emily Mann at McCarter, that you forget to be intimidated by the language. You are too busy ogling Esau  Prichett (what a hunk) and Nicole Ari Parker (hot for him) as they seduce and cavort.

If you read the synopsis in the program, you can follow the plot just fine. The action moves seamlessly between Egypt and Rome, and though the set doesn’t change (Elizabethans performed on a bare stage) you know exactly where you are because the lighting and the score sets the scene — harsh drums for Rome and whispered syncopations for Egypt.

It runs through October 5 in the smaller (Berlind) theater and 45 minutes before curtain time there is an introductory talk.

Full disclosure 1: Though I have never read this play, I was an English major and like Shakespeare.

Full Disclosure 2: You aren’t supposed to review a play in previews (we saw the first preview on 9/5) so this isn’t a review.

But I wanna say it was an edge-of-the-seat evening.

 

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I sat next to moms and dads at the Berlind Theater tonight, while their dance students, mostly young women, many from other states, performed at the closing concert for the Princeton Ballet School summer intensive program. I had watched them at the barre (as above).

The parents had reason to be proud. Very few of them will see their dancers on a professional stage. For some, this performance will be the highlight of their young careers.

It was a worthy highlight. On a professional stage with nice costumes and lighting, the choreography challenged but did not tax; it showcased the average dancer and let the talented shine.

I’m glad for them all, even those not blessed with the right bodies for dance or with the unstinting ambition of their fated-to-be-more-successful peers. All have learned what it is to work and work some more.

For those who make dancing only their avocation, they have a resourece at times when they don’t want to reveal that their hearts are low. They have learned how to hold themselves with a royal air. And no one will know.

Singers and dancers alike say, ‘all my springs are in you’

This is verse 7 from Psalm 87, today’s reading from Moravian Daily Texts.

Dancing with City Ballet

Dance and the other arts

Unity Phelan went from Princeton Ballet School to School of American Ballet in 9th grade, 2009. Three years later, age 16, she made it into City Ballet as an apprentice and at 18 is a member of the corps being given her first principal role.

Today she returned to her home turf to teach master classes. In the class I am watching — many of the students are just one or two years younger but their feet are decades slower. Feather thin, steel strong, Unity’s feet scissor space into neat bits. ‘Turn out your face so you are ready to perform’ she says as she challenges these young woman with company class combinations.

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Then they go across the floor, buoyed by a new exuberance (and the pianist) and those who were having trouble at the barre — fling themselves into the air with Balanchinian abandon.

A delight to watch but the chief delight was watching Unity move and imagining her airborne on the Koch theater stage.

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Unity with school director Mary Pat Robertson.

Robert Taub, a pianist, used to be artist in residence (1994-2001) at the Institute for Advanced Study. Now, as told in U.S. 1, he is helping to launch Hook’d, a music app that aims to be the musical equivalent of the photo sharing app Instagram. This new company, MuseAmi, is at 20 Nassau Street.

Taub decries “private music,” listening to tunes on your headphones. “What Hook’d does is make you sound good with pitch correction, reverb, and echo, and allow you to interact with a song that you know and love in less than 30 seconds,” he says.

The current artist in residence is Sebastian Currier.

lost childOne of the last films to be screened at the Trenton Film Festival, today (Sunday) at 4 p.m., is Lost Child, Sayen’s Journey, pictured above, the work of Rocky Hill resident Janet Gardner.

For an overall view and schedule of the festival, which returns after a hiatus, here is the article at http://www.princetoninfo.com (U.S. 1 Newspaper).  Here is the detailed schedule.

As Kate Newell points out, the “special sauce” of this festival is that it welcomes both new and experienced filmmakers, and they get to mingle with a select audience.

Small Treasures and Where to Find Them

Dance and the other arts, , ,

BUTTON_MAY14(2)

Have talk, will travel. Current fave topic:  the world’s smallest antique, buttons.

Carol Meszaros and I will  talk about button collecting at the Lawrence Library on Thursday, May 8, at 7 p.m.  Everybody will have a “hands-on experience” and get to take some buttons home.

Another chance to learn about, and acquire button treasures, is at the New Jersey State Button Society show and sale to be held this Saturday, May 10, 9 to 4. It is at the Union Fire Company on River Road in Titusville, admission $2.

Carol, on2014 4 26 carol NancyBriggsMoss Alice Cruser the left in this picture, is looking through the button jars of Nancy Briggs Moser and Alice Cruser, who attended a talk we  gave at Kuser Farm Mansion last month.

For the Thursday talk, the headquarters branch of the Mercer County Library system is just off Business Route 1 on Darrah Lane. You can also get there from Princeton Pike.

If you have always wondered about your grandmother’s button jar, join us!