Larry Keigwin at Fashion's Night Out

About a month ago on a scorching August morning, I got to walk the runway in front of fashion queen Anna Wintour.

Me and 180 other mere mortals.

We were volunteering to help popular modern dance chorographer Larry Keigwin prepare a big-scale event as part of Vogue's Fashion's Night Out, which happens for real tomorrow, September 7 (the full Fashion's Night Out is the 10th). It's to be the largest public fashion show in NYC history, featuring over 150 of the industry’s top models and giving over 1,500 guests a look at Vogue’s key trends for the fall.


Keigwin put out a call to the dance community for volunteers to be the "models" while he tested his choreography. Lincoln Center plaza was the stage, and the gray titles coiling around the new fountain marked the "runway." We were broken into groups and given different colored Gap t-shirts to wear (we were told in real life the distinction would be different fall "looks" rather than different colors). Then we took places in a giant circle, stretching from Avery Fisher Hall to the Koch Theater (I really still want to call it State Theater...) and close to the Met.

It was a game of follow the leader. Group by group we followed our real model leaders through an intricate path around the paved "runway," trying hard to avoid collisions. All the while the morning sun beat down on us - is it over yet?

After several goes and some spacing practice, we got 10 minutes to relish in the air-conditioned lobby of Avery Fisher. Then we headed out and down to Lincoln Center's new underground traffic tunnel to wait for the real deal: Anna Wintour as our audience.

When she finally arrived an hour after expected, I was already late for a class and frustrated with the heat. But...it was cool to see her in person! Each time I circled past her on the "catwalk" I tried to sneak a closer glimpse - she had huge sunglasses on and was whispering the whole time with her entourage. Probably about how un-model-like we all were, haha. (Oh and if you haven't seen "The September Issue" yet, I highly recommend it! And of course my favorite...)

The whole time Larry kept us laughing and made the mood light. There wasn't much in it for us except a free t-shirt (which, ahem, I never got...) - but it will be cool to see the real event and know I played a small part in making it happen!

There will be a live webcast of the whole evening, including Larry's show at 7:30pm - watch it here.

play it cool at nycb

Just got home from seeing NYCB's American Songs and Dances program, which concluded with West Side Story Suite and Robbie Fairchild *singing* Cool from the famous West Side story score. As I've always been a fan of the film version and was reinspired by the stage version when I saw Chita Rivera do an excerpt in her brief Broadway engagement 2 years ago, I was so excited when I saw it on NYCB's program...and it made me want to dance!

Formal review to come on ExploreDance, but this and the rest of tonight's works were really different from the traditional evening at the ballet. It was all very Broadway-esque. Of course all the dancing was great.

I ran into Evan and Philip sitting a few rows in front of me in the orchestra, and we chatted and people watched during both intermissions.

As we walked out late (3 hour long program...sheesh) Evan and I ran into a huge crowd staring up to the sky over Broadway. At first we could only see them looking up, but the sky and everything was blocked by State Theater. When we finally got out by the (boarded up) fountain we saw what was going on...the lunar eclipse! Haha cool. But it was definitely a funny sight to see a huge pack of ballet-goers staring up...it was like what, is there a fire, or someone jumping off a building, or what? It actually reminded me of when I was in this press picture thing for Dancing with the Stars where we all had to look up to the photographer atop Avery Fisher Hall. haha

It was a nice night.

Right before running to Lincoln Center I rehearsed with my friend to embark on the process of making audition videos, as I mentioned earlier. She had found a ballet coach to work with but neither of us knew exactly who it was, and when we met tonight it turned out to be a teacher I had a few days back in my early Boston days! Small world! It was nice to have a different pair of eyes on my variation (gamzatti from la bayadere...performance this sunday :) but I'm finding some contradictions between different versions I've learned and what I should be doing. I guess it's all in the interpretation of the choreography...I like working in depth on this thing though, as I don't really get the time or chance to do that much nowadays.

Okay, it's definitely almost bed time...busy day at The New Yorker tomorrow. Keep a lookout for my NYCB review on ExploreDance.

This Day in History - Dancing With the Stars

(picture of a picture...Sept. 12 2006, Dancing With the Stars Promo in Lincoln Center)

(our group of "stars")

Okay, so actually it was a year and two days ago that this happened, but you get the idea. This Day in History...September 12, 2006: I was in a city-wide promotion for ABC's tv show Dancing With the Stars.

They were promoting the new season for the fall, so they had about 75 dancers (girls in black dresses, boys in gold "star" costumes...so attractive) go to various places throughout New York City and just dance while people gave out magnets to advertise the show.

We were in groups of 4 dancers (2 girls 2 boys) plus 2 others to give our ABC stuff. It was an all day affair: our group was first sent to some big subway station in Queens (sadly I don't even remember where it was...) in which we received many a strange look from commuters. Who's doing a tango in heels with a huge star at 8am? Yeah, that was us.

Later we got to dance on the balcony of this nice restaurant in east midtown. Again, many a strange look (and honks) from cars, busses, and people on the street. We had music blasting the whole time of course, and it was so much fun to just let loose and dance! So out of my realm (nooo ballet here...) but it was the most fun couple hundred bucks I ever made for a few hours of dancing!

At the end of the day they gathered all the dancers and "stars" near the fountain in Lincoln Center (in our fabulous outfits we walked all the way from First Ave across town!) for a big group shot (see above). They also filmed a quick little number where we all formed a big star on the plaza (which was supposed to be used in a commercial, but I never actually saw it...)

Anyways, it was quite an amusing experience. I was just reminscing and thought I'd share the memory on here...another new season of Dancing With the Stars starts September 24.

(a folded up star costume)