a fall for dance concert

 chanda and i had tickets last night to the fall for dance festival at city center on 55th street. every two nights about four or five different dance companies perform during a two week celebration.

this evening we saw pam tanowitz dance, justin peck and patricia delgado, gemma bond dance, and the paul taylor company. paul taylor died just this past august, so there was a special feeling in the air for his dancers, encompassing enthusiasm, respect and sadness. his dancers are always incredibly strong and their ensemble work this evening brought the house down. they danced promethean fire and took everyone's breath away, receiving five curtain calls. my favorite piece this evening was the pas de deux performed by justin peck and patricia delgado, followed by pam tanowitz's piece and then gemma bond, whose work was whimsical and deep at the same time. these three pieces were commissioned for the festival and, thus, were world premiers. two other companies i wish i were seeing is dance theatre of harlem tomorrow and saturday night, and acosta danza, next friday and saturday. fortunately, dance theatre of harlem will be back in april, but carlos acosta's acosta danza . . i'm not sure when they will be back. they're from cuba. maybe i should check now to see if there are still tickets available . .

 heading home . .

vail dance festival at city center

 the vail dance festival presented several pieces at new york city center this evening, one of them being an excerpt from sir frederick ashton's rhapsody with dancers alessandra ferri (who has been retired from american ballet theatre since 2007) and herman cornejo.

 alessandra ferri has always been a favorite dancer for me, but i've never seen her perform in person.

unfortunately, this is what i found when i opened my program.

because of an injury to herman cornejo, the piece wasn't danced at all. i kept hoping that ms ferri would announce that she would perform a solo piece . . but that didn't happen.

 we were very sad . . . i do have to write that the program was extraordinary and we did see some beautiful and exuberant dancing. i'm glad i still found the night to be very special, but sad not to have seen alessandra . . 

and i enjoyed this man's singing while waiting for the train just as much as the dancing at city center.

a saturday that was too busy . .

why was it too busy? because we left chanda's violin at the ballet audition and we didn't realize it until we were on our way home after the duncan dance rehearsal at 7:30 pm!!!! actually, we're not even sure if it's at the gelsey kirkland school. they were closed when i called, and they won't reopen until 8 am monday morning. it's just too painful to think that we may have left it on the subway platform. we were just so starry eyed after meeting miss kirkland! chanda said the class she taught was "amazing!" in the photo above she has her violin strapped onto her back . . we're on our way to soho after group lessons at third street.

at the third street con spirito rehearsal. i like where i'm sitting here. it's a much better vantage point.



i think i need to sit here more regularly.

in the locker room at GKACB. the violin is outside this room, in a corner by a chair with all our bags. (exactly a week ago i left chanda's shoes in a bag on a chair in the church after the string stravaganza. i'm really battin' a thousand.)

we got on the train at canal street and took the Q to 57th street and 7th avenue . .

for the isadora duncan dance class and rehearsal. sam is on the left. he ended the class for lori, the teacher. the girls love when he leads class or rehearsal.

all the little girls from the dance class that came after sat down on the floor to watch the end of rehearsal.

they were adorable in their black tights and yellow leotards . . they looked like little bumblebees.

an isadora birthday: city center

happy birthday, isadora! we continued the celebration at city center. lori created a beautiful and fun night of dancing and laughing. my friend cindi made the cake (which was a masterpiece) and numerous very busy, special and loyal people made it happen.

waiting to go on for the class/technique demonstration.

lori and cherlyn describe the class exercises.

the company and the beliloveables

the masterpiece!

after the class demonstration and the company performance, we ate cindi's incredibly delicious german chocolate cake. the girls danced while lori's childhood friend, peter mintun, played the piano, and sam surprised all of us by playing also! it was quite a night.