My sort-of-boss Greg sent me information on “Ward 9,” a show he’s directing with budding choreographer Matt Williams.

“Ward 9,” according to the site (viewable: here) is a full length dance play, set to Beethoven and based from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” They had a benefit and preview performance last Sunday at Steps.

I need to ask Greg when and where it will be produced, but I will definitely keep you updated on this blog!

Update: This just in from Greg, just in case you missed the comment:

The full length dance play will be presented in September as part of the New York Musical Festival (updates coming eventually).

There will be a short and “suite” version of it presented by the Eidolon Ballet Company June 21st.
Details:
A Glimpse of Sound (Summer 2008 Concert)
Featuring the world premiere of A Glimpse of Sound, by Melanie Cortier, providing a fresh perspective on the way dance relates to the cultural transition from early 20th Century folk music to its early 21st Century equivalent and challenging musicians to improvise the sound of movement. And The Ward 9 Suite, a darkly comedic 20 minute ballet by Matt Williams inspired by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The evening will aslo include the return of fan favorite Interchange.

Saturday, June 21 at 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Where: 92nd St Y, Buttenweiser Hall
1395 Lexington Avenue, 2nd floor
New York, NY

I was up late last night, and a friend at the NYCB gala ball sent me a text message, followed by an e-mail with all the details from the evening. They even met their favorite dancer, Adrian Danchig-Waring at the dinner after the show.

This person reported that Daniel Ulbricht and Sara Mearns were the highlights in an otherwise uneven performance of Robbins’ “Four Seasons.” Also noting that Robbie Fairchild was “a total triumph as ‘Tony’ in ‘West Side Story Suite,’” and that “the dancers of the entire company deserve high praise for keeping up with the improper tempi throughout the evening!” I like having friends with good eyes that I can live vicariously through.

Philip, over at Oberon’s Grove,  sent me an e-mail letting me know that tonight, the star from my hometown, Kathryn Morgan will be debuting in “Western Symphony.” Readers, please send her good vibes.

I’m little stressed at the moment, and a little busy with work. I wanted to see City Ballet in Saturday’s matinee to celebrate my graduation from college next week, but I doubt I’ll make it.

A light bulb turned on above my head last night. I was discussing “Step it up and dance” Bravo TV’s  latest reality competition show with Tonya.  In “Step it up and dance” dancers are given challenges each week like auditions, then split into a winning and losing team to learn choreography for their final challenge (or “call backs”).

The first few episodes were stale, and the final challenges were like casual rehearsals. The build-up during the show is tepid, and the endings always so anticlimactic.

As I was chatting with Tonya, I began to compare the other Bravo TV competition shows with “Step it up and dance” and realized that the formula is completely different.

In their other shows: “Project Runway,” “Top Chef,” and “Shear Genius,” the contestants have all been creators. In “Top Chef” contestants create their own dishes, in “Project Runway” designers conceive their own fashions to send down the runway, and in Shear Genius, hairdressers create styles revolving around their challenges theme.

To me, those shows are successful partly because of the drama, and partly because a lump of the show is watching each chef, designer, or hairdresser take their ideas from conception to final product in a short amount of time. We’re inside their heads for a few moments, and we watch their decisions effect their overall final result.

We don’t see this in “Step it up and dance.”

If I had my way the show concept would be overhauled, and redone to match those previous shows. Instead of just dancers, they would have budding and aspiring choreographers as the contestants. The challenges would then be revolved around what the choreographers/dancers create (alone and in teams) and how their music, costume selection, casting and other choices effect their work for the final challenge.

Watching a bunch of dancers rehearse, perform for five people, and squabble in an apartment is something anyone could do any day. I think “Step it up and dance” could be so much more.

I was invited by Terry Teachout,  the chief theater critic of the Wall Street Journal, for lunch and a viewing of “Thurgood” on Broadway. We met this afternoon at Citron on the Upper West Side. I hadn’t seen Terry since July, so he caught me up on the excitement surrounding his opera and his Louis Armstrong book “Rhythm Man.”

After lunch we caught a cab and raced to midtown. In the middle of a traffic jam, we ditched the cab and walked to The Booth theatre. Mr. Teachout was exhausted (read his blog and you’ll know he’s always busy) so he prayed that the play would be just 90 minutes with no intermission.

We were in luck, the play clocked in at 100 minutes. It was a one-man show with Laurence Fishburne, who you may have seen in films like “The Matrix,” etc., playing Thurgood Marshall. History books, (and teachers) have a way of skipping to the triumphs, so I knew nothing of his road to the Supreme Court. I’m glad I went.

After the show I waved Terry goodbye, and he was headed home before another play that evening. I’d be filling a theater seat again, Tonya  had invited me to so see the Akram Khan Company at City Center.

I raced home to change, as the temperature dropped a bit. I ended up eating a rushed dinner standing up, something I hadn’t done since Fashion Week. I arrived in midtown early enough to take a walk past Carnegie Hall.

I met Tonya in the lobby of City Center. I was going to the show completely ignorant to Khans company, the program, or the performers. They were a pleasant surprise.

The program was short, just one piece, “Bahok.” Conceptually, the work was fantastic. Eight strangers trapped in a layover. They wait, they interact. They tell their stories about home.

I was discussing with Tonya afterward that a lot of the movement seemed a little too loose to have been choreographed. Just moving to move is okay…sometimes. I found the choreographed portions with more defined movements and narrative more engaging. I also liked that the topic was deep, and easily accessible. I kept thinking back to my layovers, and the strangers I spoke to and connected with before parting. I thought about home. One of the dancers kept asking “where do I come from?” “Bahok” was profound enough that I turned it over in my mind on the chilly ride home.

As part of National Dance week they’re having free dance classes all over the city! That’s so exciting!

You can get a printable coupon for a free class here.  At Alvin Ailey Studios, a coupon gets you two free classes, though they expire on May 17!

Every year my building plants 2,000 tulips in the dual gardens within it’s walls. They are absolutely gorgeous, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of them today to show my parents!  Unfortunately, there’s a glare; I was standing inside when I took it!

Don’t you love spring?

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”

- Henry Miller.

For the past few months, when in season New York City Ballet (NYCB) has been that blade of grass. So much so that every time my mother called and I told her I’d just been to the ballet she’d laugh, “Well didn’t you just do that yesterday? And the day before that?”

With City Ballet, Fashion Week and blogger get-togethers, winter was like one long celebration.

But now it’s spring and City Ballet starts again next week. Who’s seeing what and when? My lucky sort-of-boss is going to the Gala Ball. Lucky.

I’m so late these days with news, but I’m dying to see the Philip Glass film that premiered recently, “Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts.” The trailer is above.

 At the risk of being hated by his wife, I’ll admit I’ve always had the smallest little crush on Philip Glass.

My full-time job does not allow me to make 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. curtains. So I must admit, with a hint of sadness, that I did not purchase tickets to the Youth America Grand Prix Gala.

If anyone goes, please tell me how it was?

Additionally, I won’t be making any 7:30 p.m. City Ballet curtains either, which also depresses me.

Friday’s are the worst for me. I’m usualy off my full-time job, and spend it wandering around libraries and the city. This afternoon an interview for an article I’m writing wanted to call late, so I missed the library. I decided to do my usual Friday thing: walking.

I walked 86th street, then down 5th Avenue. I live on the East Side, but it’s amazing how little time I spend there. At 76th a crowd was there hoping to see the Pope. I waited there for a few minutes and no one showed up. A woman promised he’d be there by 5:30, so I called my mother and was too excited. I’m a very devout Catholic, so this was a dream. [Editors note: I often refrain from speaking about religion on my blog because it's such a turn-off.]

No one came, and I ended up walking down 5th to 51st street. I took the subway back to 86th and parked myself in the Starbucks on 87th and Lexington.

I was at the right place at the right time. Cops closed off Lexington, and so I raced to the barricades on 87th Street. According to a group of nuns, he’d be coming by soon.

I stood for fifteen minutes with a few people excitedly chatting about his arrival. When he came, I could see the top of his white hat and outfit through the tinted windows of a limousine. We all screamed, crossed ourselves and dialed our friends on our cell phones.

A nun there and I began to chat, and I started telling her about my first false alarm, and how happy I was to have been there when he passed. Everytime I see nuns I feel a little odd, as I spent a small portion of my life considering being one. I always wonder sometimes… “What if?”

I walked with the nun to 86th Street, she told me there was going to be a candle light procession to where the Pope was spending the night. I went to wait on my building shuttle and called my mother.

I feel so inspired tonight.