Category Archives: Around Town

Personal posts — some social justice (Not in Our Town), some faith-related (Princeton United Methodist Church), some I-can’t-keep-from-writing-this

Another Juliet! Another Romeo!

Dance and the other arts

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I’ve seen four versions of the ballet Romeo and Juliet — the Kenneth MacMillan choreography for American Ballet Theatre, the Cranko version for the Stuttgart, also on the Joffrey Ballet, Rudolph Nureyev’s for the Paris Opera Ballet, and Septime Webre’s choreography, now at Washington Ballet but originally for American Repertory Ballet. Nureyev and Webre are tied for my favorites so far, but I’m eager to see number five. American Repertory Ballet premieres Douglas Martin’s Romeo and Juliet on Friday, October 11, with orchestra. Here’s my article in this week’s U.S. 1

Photo:  Karen Leslie Moscato as Juliet and Mattia Pallozzi as Romeo ; Photo Credit: George Jones

Good Fun, Good Causes

Around Town, Faith and Social Justice

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Andrew and Jie Hayes, shown here, hosted their second annual harvest picnic at Washington Well Vineyard, raising funds for UFAR to combat riverblindness and for SAVE, the animal shelter. More than 200 people enjoyed the music, food, and fun — even grape stomping!

van dagens

At left, Laura Brinkerhoff, president of Brinkerhoff Environmental, the largest woman-owned environmental service company in New Jersey and Margaret Van Dagens, owner of J&M Marketing Communications, at the Jasna Polana for a lunch sponsored by the United Way to raise money to supply books to needy pre-schoolers along the Route 1 corridor. The September 26 lunch was the first event in a series of fund raisers to encourage reading readiness in pre-schoolers, organized by the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way.

Jane’s J2 Visa: Princeton is your Oyster

Around Town

hedgehog fox

This is an open letter to a seminary student’s wife who is here, for one year, on a J2 visa. I’ll call her Jane. Her visa does not allow her to work, nor to enroll in credit courses as a student. I brainstormed with myself about what she could do here in Princeton for the next nine months. The “wisdom” would also apply to any stay-at-home spouses. Maybe you have some suggestions! if so, please comment. (If you can’t figure out how to comment, email me…)

My first question to her is, what do you want from this year? To learn something — a new language or a skill? To make new friends? To barter your services to eke out your budget? Your volunteer help is always welcome at our church, but rather than monopolize you we want you to spread your wings wide!
Here are some ideas.

Since English is the language of your home country’s schooling, teach English as a volunteer to accumulate credits and experience for later ESL employment. Try the YWCA and the Princeton Public Library, start as an assistant.

Volunteer in a nonprofit office with the specific goal of learning something: software programs for office or photos. Try the Princeton Senior Resource Center or Arts Council of Princeton. You could go off the seminary campus and try out the opportunities at the university, such as at the Carl A. Fields Center. The university’s International Center has a wide array of opportunities.

Volunteer at a school in exchange for free or reduced-price classes.

Volunteer at a library to learn the basics of a librarian’s job.

Network to find a professor who will let you sit in on his/her class.

Join a musical group that will let you in for free. The Handbell Choir requires no previous experience and you would learn lots.

Learn a new skill or just keep in shape, perhaps with a municipal recreation class.

Take advantage of the plethora of free concerts and afternoon lectures, perhaps focusing in a particular area. Drill down into the schedule of Westminster Choir College to find the student and faculty concerts, perhaps making friends with someone who will let you audit their course. You have to ask for the schedule of the free ones. Or attend lectures at department that schedules a lot of them, like the Center for African American Studies.

Another option, devote time to online study using the resources from the Princeton Public Library (Here is a good link of the library’s online resources for ANYone to follow.)

Learn about early childhood education — perhaps for your own future children — by apprenticing yourself to a nursery school teacher. No doubt you would pick up some bartering opportunities for babysitting jobs!

Hang out at the Princeton University Art Museum (perhaps even take the docent’s course?) to sponge up everything you can learn about art. Shown above, one of Princeton University’s outdoor sculptures, Richard Serra’s Hedgehog and the Fox. For this sculpture, you experience “a passage” as you walk through.”

Jane — as you “pass through” Princeton, I hope you will find that there are soooooooooo many wonderful opportunities to acquire a new skill or explore a new area of knowledge. Surely you will get the very most out of this year, and that you will be a blessing to those you meet!

Love, Barbara

Epigenesis: when something goes wrong

Around Town, Business, Technology & Innovation, , ,

glatt book

Epigenesis is all over the news. On Monday I heard about it on NPR’s Morning Edition. that scientists are excited about epigenesis with a small letter e. It describes a way to turn off a gene that might trigger a disease. Susan Kay Murphy, of Duke University, is studying how a mother’s environmental exposures and nutrition during pregnancy may be causing epigenetic changes in babies.

If you were around Princeton 10 years ago, the word “Epigenesis,” with a big letter describing the company, will trigger different memories. It was a the name of a company founded by Jonathan Nyce to cure asthma.

And then you may remember Jonathan Nyce. Despite the best efforts of arguably the best criminal attorney in town, Robin Lord, he was convicted of murdering his Filipino wife who was having an affair. Judge Bill Matheisus sentenced him to”passion provocation murder,” eight years, eligible for parole in five. I covered the trial. The New York Times wrote about it. A tabloid writer published a book about it (shown above).

Meanwhile Epigenesis, the company, attracted the venture capital support of Jan Leschly of Care Capital. The company downsized to half its space and 10 employees, let go of its core technology and started working on a drug that could be brought to market faster. I lost track of the company. The firm is no longer in Care Capital’s portfolio and the website (www.epigene) is defunct.

In 2010, after five years, Nyce came out of prison and proceeded to publish his own book about the trial, to explain his claim to innocence. A person is innocent until proven guilty, and one doesn’t criticize a book unless one has read it. But let’s just say the reviews aren’t good.

The word epigenesis comes from the Greek epi (over, above, outer) and genetics. Epigenetics can be described as the study of changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype, caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Growth disrupted, derailed.

That also describes Jonathan Nyce. Talent gone wrong.

Dancing the Gamut

Dance and the other arts, ,

RoS Chosen One Small

This post is to recommend seeing American Repertory Ballet at Rider’s Bart Luedeke theater on Saturday, September 21st (tonight, as you receive this). Tickets are $20 ($10 for seniors). We went on Friday. The company is in great shape and the program runs the gamut of emotions from romantic love to joyful camaraderie to tender affection, to despicable, ugly hate. Rarely do ballet dancers get to ‘do nasty’ as here.

The piece was, you might guess, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, choreographed by company director Douglas Martin, who has danced quite a few Rites in his time. In the original Nijinsky version, recreated when Martin was with the Joffrey Ballet, staccato thrusts and poundings build up to the sexual sacrifice of a virgin. Martin’s serious satire was equally full of lust for sex and lust for power, but it was set in an office. Half the women were typists, half were “personal secretaries” verging on geishas, all undulating and preening. Cast as ‘ad men,’ the males mimed every macho cliche, including riding a horse, all pumped up and competing for power. I was tempted to giggle but I graduated from college in 1961 when women were expected to be secretaries not salesmen and it aggravated rather than amused. At the end of that section, in comes the boss from hell, Joshua Kurtzberg. The males kowtow and the female objects are flung around and tossed down.

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The Stravinsky score, you may remember, is pound/pound/pound/pound loud/loud/loud/loud, all sharp edges and staccato. Seated typists percuss with their toe shoes. Men jump with two feet. It’s similar to the angst in Nijinsky’s tribal version but — wait — now it’s not them, it’s US. WE are the ones in the competitive workplace, elbowing our way to the top or wishing we had the nerve to do that. We are the ones who say “It’s not enough to succeed, your cohorts have to fail.”

One ad man, Stephen Campanella, gets tossed to the side, and the staccato jubilation of deals made goes on. During the lengthy pianissimo, the choreographer takes up time and adds comic relief having the maintenance guy, Jacopo Jannelli, rearrange the chairs. Then it’s a restart of angst, this time with the “Chosen One,” Shaye Firer, on stage.

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In the original, she would be a virgin headed for sacrifice. Here she is a rebellious woman turning against type to snatch male power, represented by a man’s jacket. Decide for yourself what the end means. Here are video excerpts.

It was strange to watch Samantha Gullace lead the nasty crew of vamping women, when just 20 minutes ago she had played a luminous Juliet to Edward Urwin’s tender Romeo. Only the pas de deux is on this mixed bill, and I look forward to the full length version on October 11 in New Brunswick, with orchestra.

In between the “hate” and the “love” was a bravura piece of baroque fluff, choreographed to Vivaldi by Martin’s wife and former dance partner, Mary Barton, titled “Five Men and a Concerto.” She challenged them with some very fast classical footwork. Campanella, Cameron Auble-Branigan, Alexander Dutko, Joshua Kurtzberg, and Marc St.Pierre met the challenge with brio. Barton tapped Campanella’s Gene Kelly-like ability to look like an average Joe while doing hard things with his feet, Dutko’s exceptional talent for legato phrasing and St. Pierre’s penchant for teasing humor. A delight.

After the opener, Patrick Corbin’s “Caress,” I found out at intermission why it seemed so “all of a piece.” Set to Schubertian piano music by Kate Jewel, it uses three basic movements from a postmodern technique called Contact Improvisation, in which body contact is the cue for making up movement as you go along.

Without knowing that, this is a charming work, because one senses the spirit of Contact Improv — dancers pay close attention to each other instead of looking in the mirror or playing to the audience. Monica Giragosian and Urwin led Transformation Song, Samantha Gullace did the sharp-edged Storm; Alice Cao and Auble-Branigan were in Meditation, and Karen Leslie Moscato and Mattia Pallozzi ignited each other in Fire. Kurtzberg sinuously caressed the air in Amabile and had an interesting duo with Gullace with their four arms as one bird’s wings. Most memorable was the pair of same-sex duos, Dance with Me. Campanella and Dutko danced downstage left, Firer and Claire van Bever downstage right. first one couple moved, then the other. It answered the question, what does a love duet look like when there are two of each kind. The men were tender but not feminine. The women were female but strong. The piece ended with everyone on stage, in silence, with a last caress.

Please note: This is the new theatre at Rider, NOT the Yvonne Theatre. Above: photos of The Chosen One, in white, staged (credit Kyle Froman), and in performance, middle photo: George Jones. Third photo: Leighton Chen.

Wishing It Were August Again?

Around Town, Business, Dance and the other arts, Technology & Innovation, , ,

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Wednesday morning I’m looking forward to hearing from James Steward, the Gee-Whiz-How-Does-He-Do-It director of the Princeton University Art Museum. In his short tenure he has partnered with all kinds of organizations to bring new audiences to one of the best kept secrets on campus. He’s at the Princeton Chamber breakfast ($25 for members at the door).

Thursday I’m going to learn how to wrestle with Google Plus, when NJ CAMA (stands for advertising and marketing etc.) hosts Lynette Young on the university campus. If you have added me to your Google Plus circle, I have not added you. I don’t embrace what I can’t understand.

Friday it’s off to Rider University to see the opening concert of American Repertory Ballet and its gorgeous young dancers (it repeats Saturday). Also on Friday, Philadanco comes to TCNJ. And the next day, Saturday, September 21, dancers dance for world peace at the Princeton YWCA.

What drives all this activity? Volunteers, of course. Volunteers in general, and some specifically, will be honored in a gala, staged by Volunteer Connect, on Wednesday, October 2, at Grounds for Sculpture, as you see at the top of the post. Volunteer Connect helps non-profits get skilled help, and helps professionals develop their skills.

Somewhere in between I’m talking to Folks That Know about technical innovations in Mercer County. I’m writing a preview for the October 4 “Mercer Makes” seminar. That’s only three Fridays away — perhaps pencil it in.

Septembers are always busy, but does this one seem more so?

Faith and Ethics in the Executive Suite: Mark Hutchinson

Faith and Social Justice, , , ,
Mark Hutchinson, president and CEO of GE China, opens the public seminar series at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion on Thursday, September 19, noon to 1 p.m. David W. Miller, director of the Princeton University Faith and Work Initiative, will moderate. Location has yet to be announced.
 
This is actually the second seminar for the CSR but the first is open only to the university community, perhaps because it is a controversial topic, or because it will attract so many eager listeners. The topic? You might guess that it has sex in the title and you would be correct.  Frank Schaeffer is to talk about The Politics of Religion and Sexuality. I saw him speak several years ago at CSR. He is the son of evangelical theologians Francis and Edith Schaeffer, founders of L’Abri, but does not necessarily toe his parents party line.
 
The next topic is perplexing as well: Good and Evil. Yale University’s Paul Bloom will discuss Just Babies: The Origin of Good and Evil on Thursday, September 26, 4:30 to 6 p.m., in Friend Center, Bowl 006 (that’s on Olden Avenue, part of the EQuad.) It is co-sponsored with the Center for Theological Inquiry. Bloom’s most recent book deals with How Pleasure Works. As here:

Here, he will talk about whether babies are born selfish.

From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others’ actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice.

Mr. Bloom, I am glad you proved this with your research, but any parent knew that all along.

It’s Button Show Time!

enamel fop

Today, if you read this on Saturday, is the New Jersey State Button Show and Competition, where you will see some very gorgeous enamel buttons, like the 19th century French fop on the left. One of the competitions is for enamels.

Uniform buttons will be prominent too — there’s a talk on them at 1:30 p.m. Admission $2.

The show runs 9 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 7, at the Union Fire Company fire hall, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ 08560. buttonlady@optonline.net or http://newjerseystatebuttonsociety.org

You don’t have to buy any of the pretty buttons, but you will be tempted to!

Ears See It in a New Way: William Klenz

Dance and the other arts, Memoir, , , , ,

In 1959, Dr. William Klenz required his undergraduate music history students at Duke University to unlock the secrets of baroque music by studying original texts for what led up to it — social dances of the Renaissance, as taught by dance master Thoinot Arbeau  in his Orchesographie.

Tapping dance sources is now a small but recognized niche (NYT, 9-4-13).

I believe Klenz — who never wore a watch because he didn’t want to be the slave of time, and insisted that all of his students sing “A” upon arising in the morning so that they would be in tune with the world — was an unrecognized genius.