Heather Barros, talented artist/teacher, has an exhibit at the D&R Greenway through June 17. Janet Purcell wrote about it here
Category Archives: women
‘She can make you a dancer…
. . . even if you never danced before. ‘
That’s a quote from the “Rate my professor’ page for Janell Byrne, who quietly retires as director of Mercer Dance Ensemble after, by my count, 36 years at Mer
cer County Community College. (Her 30th anniversary concert was in 2010).
I’ve attended almost all of these concerts and this stands top of the list. Perhaps I’ll have time to explain why later, but I’m sending this out now because the final performance is today, Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. at Kelsey Theatre.
Here is the list of MCCC dancers: Amy Annucci of Ewing, Kayla Johnson of Wrightstown, Caitlin Kazanski of Robbinsville, Diego Montealegre of Lawrence, Terrell Moody of East Windsor, Sabrina Rahman of Lawrenceville, Brianna Rapp of East Windsor, Victoria Smalls of Hamilton Township, and Kourtney Tremaine of Trenton. Alumni and community dancers include Rebecca Brodowski, Nicole Colossi, Maleek Colvin, Jennifer Gladney, Delany Hoffman, Maria Laurenti, Stephanie Maher, Danielle Marchant, Ashley Miller and Taylor Miler.
Few choreographers have had Byrne’s opportunity — and burden — to produce, every year, handfuls of imaginative works on dancers of various body types and abilities. I love to see how she does it, how she makes dancers out of people who never danced before.
Plainsboro partner: Eileen N. Sinett
Speaking That Connects, owned by Eileen N. Sinett, was named Small Business of the Year at today’s b
reakfast held by the Plainsboro Business Partnership, part of the Princeton Regional Chamber. “Well deserved” was the often-heard kudo for the former chairman of the PBP who coaches professionals and corporate teams to enhance their communication and presentation performance and dedicates Monday nights to facilitating a Conversational ESL group at Plainsboro Public Library.
Mayor Peter Cantu spoke, and though you’ll get better detail from Vincent Xu in the next edition of West Windsor-Plainsboro News, here are some of the facts I was surprised to learn:
- More than 50 percent of the township is open space
- Plainsboro has an record-holding tax collection record– 99.6 percent, contributing to its AAA bond rating
- Child care and assisted living centers will break ground near the hospital this year, and a 300-unit senior housing development i planned.
- Forrestal Village, ever struggling, could get 395 apartments with a “unique design.”
- New retailers will be Panera, Five Guys, and a pet supply store but alas — no grocery store is imminent.
- Eight major companies have earned the state Good Neighbor award, with Sandoz the most recent.
- Gym rats rejoice, a 25,000 foot health spa is going through the approval process.
And — considering that Plainsboro ranks 5th nationally in “diversity” (translated, that means a population that is not primarily Caucasian) — it’s not surprising that the newest addition to the athletic scene will be a regulation cricket field. According to one sports reporter, cricket is the new soccer. A “capital commitment” has been made and, meanwhile, the next nearest field seems to be in North Brunswick.
Two talks for National Button Week
For Women’s History Month — and for National Button Week – here is a button that covers both. It is of the Brooklyn Bridge. This article credits its construction to Emily Roebling who took her father-in-law’s drawings and advice from her bedridden husband to direct the workers.
To honor National Button Week and also the 75th anniversary of the New Jersey State Button Society, I will give a talk on how buttons can illuminate local history. This button will be on prominent display — in fact it is in the case at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library now. Set for Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the library, the free talk will focus on Theresa Doelger Kuser, doyenne of Kuser Farm Mansion, and I will be joined by Sally Lane, her great granddaughter.
Perhaps I’ll see you there — or at the Women’s College Club of Princeton on Monday, March 21, at 1 p.m. at All Saint’s Church. Guests are welcome, and it will be a different subject, “Every Button has a Story: What story do your buttons tell?” The 133-year-old Brooklyn Bridge is billed as “the most well built bridge in the city” and surely it has stories to tell.
Or perhaps I’ll inspire you to come to the NJSBS Show and Sale on Saturday, May 7 in Titusville.
Three decades of dance: Mary Pat Robertson
After 35 years at Princeton Ballet School, Mary Pat Robertson has retired. I’m very sad for the dance community but glad for her to have a less compressed schedule
In a comprehensive article by my colleague Anne Levin at Town Topics, Robertson says — and I know this to be true about her — that she loves coaching young dancers and mentions two of her former students among the many. Kraig Patterson (formerly with Mark Morris) and Unity Phelan, Phelan, whose father is entrepreneur John Phelan, was named in a March 1 essay on rising stars at City Ballet by New York Times critic Alastair Macauley. I saw Phelan teach a master class at PBS and was captivated by her energy and fascinated by her feet. More on that at another time.
Meanwhile I hark back to what was, for me, the heyday of modern dance in Central Jersey, the early ’80s, when Robertson launched an innovative company, Teamwork Dance. Teamwork concerts were never dull, The late Geulah Abrahams and Michelle Mathesius had their own companies — and even Mark Morris performed at Trenton’s Mill Hill Playhouse. Grant money was available and — surprise! — just a little bit of dough encouraged a lot of dance.
One of Teamwork’s principals, Janell Byrne, also danced with Abrahams and has had her own company for three decades at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre. Her choreography is on the program this weekend at Rider University, which is now the center for innovative dance. “Transforming and manipulating a scenic element…..” sounds intriguing!
. 
The Female of the Species is more deadly…
….than the male.
A Princeton University researcher captured, on video, a Panamanian bird rolling another mother bird’s egg out of the communal nest. As the saying goes, “It’s not enough to succeed, to be truly ‘happy,’ your friends have to fail.”
How to help girls be confident? This was an often raised question at the 2015 New Jersey Conference for Women on Friday, October 16. The state’s counselors explore that in a conference on Friday, October 23. The New Jersey Association for Multicultural Counseling offers Girls to Women — a Multicultural Celebration. For details, click here.
Princeton Comment 