There's lots happening this week, and since my stupid internet (and insomnia, and achilles tendon, and multiple other problems, haha) will likely stop me from posting in detail, I thought I'd quickly mention them here in case people are interested in going!
Tomorrow (Monday 5/18) night two exciting things are happening. Not counting the obvious fact that it's opening night of ABT's Met season.
First off is the new Great Dance Internet - Technology Meetup's first gathering. Organized by friend and fellow blogger Doug Fox, the inaugural event will focus on "Promoting Dance Through Video & the Internet." Several interesting people are scheduled to speak at Cedar Lake's great facility tomorrow at 7pm. Go and report back! I can't make it but I hope to attend future meetups, for sure.
Also tomorrow night is an event at the New York Public Library for Performing Arts: "What I Learned from Balanchine - an Evening with Gloria Contreras." Gloria became an apprentice in NYCB the same year Carol did, and while hearing her name pop up often in our interviews, I did a Google search for her a while back. Keeping with my (strange?) habit/fascination with finding old/out of print/unheard of dance biographies, I was SO excited to find that Gloria had recently published a book herself! I ordered her book immediately and read it cover to cover. Thin and relatively self-observant as it was, I enjoyed it and hearing about her personal experiences learning the craft of choreography under Balanhcine, something few of his dancers set their sights on then. Tomorrow it looks like she'll be reading from her book and speaking more. Interesting!
Speaking of books, I'm going out of chronological order here, but this Friday 5/22 the 92nd Street Y is kicking off a new series: "Dance Books at Noon." I know I'm a dork and there's about a handful of people in the world who care about dance books in particular, but I think this is excellent! I hope it continues, because really there are few press opportunities for dance authors today. We (me being an aspiring, first-timer...) barely have a sizable demographic compared to trade publishing, and to have events like this with the New York dance audience is wonderful! This Friday features Marian Horosko and her book "Dancer's Survival Manual." I'll look forward to seeing who else they feature...
Moving away from my writing obsession and back to the stage obsession, another event this week is a performance by Rebecca Kelly Ballet. I was an apprentice with them last spring (gosh, it seems like forever-ago) and I really admire Rebecca's work. They perform in a studio showing this Wednesday 5/20 at 7pm at City Center's Studio 5.
And then, this weekend is my old studio's annual spring performance. Ballet Academy East's student company is performing excerpts from Don Q and Balanchine's "La Source" at John Jay College 5/22-5/24. Perhaps the most beneficial thing I gained from my two years dancing their was the opportunity to learn and dance Balanchine repertoire. How amazing it was to dance one of the solos in "Raymonda Variations"! Few SCHOOLS have the chance to dance his wonderful ballets, so I'm looking forward to seeing former classmates (and lots of young-ins now grown up!) in another of Balanchine's great works. If you're around, go!
As for me, on top of trying (and likely failing...) to attend some of these fun things, I have work, a few auditions, and rehearsals for my lovely ABT super-ing gig. And hopefully a doctor's appointment or two to check out this darn achilles tendon.
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