Keeping up with Kelley Donovan and Dancers

Kelley Donovan, joined by guest choreographers Sharon Montello, David Parker, Jessica Parks, and Stephanie Booth, presented a strong program last weekend. Read about their work at this link. To find out more about the Company, take a look at their blog.

Next spring, Kelley will return to Boston to work on performing with Across the Ages Dance.

Pirouettes Rewarded--Angelina Ballerina: the Musical

Vital Children's Theatre does it again! Wonderful production of Angelina Ballerina: the Musical.

jennifer Muller The Works at Bryant Park

last night Jennifer Muller The Works performed live at Bryant Park, NYC, for a crowd of more than 1,000 New York spectators. The welcome was warm as the  company highlighted its 38 year repertory, reprising excerpts from the recently premiered full evening The White Room and the gorgeous Hymn for Her and Aria pieces along with the popular closer Momentum. Jennifer just returned from a project in China. Find them on Facebook to see what's happening next! Thank you Bryant Park!

Invasion! by Jonas Hassen Khemiri Takes over The Flea

On this tenth anniversary of 9-11-2011, we can continue to wring our hands in despair, or we can go see a play that takes us by the lapels and rages, "what are you going to do about it?" You will laugh more than you've laughed in a long time, and then it will make you weep. More than once. You will understand a story in Arabic better than you understand the interpreter. You will say, "never again," to scapegoating, and you might just mean it. That is, if your heart hasn't left your body. But you will be left to figure out who is your Abulkasem.

It's taken a Swedish Arab to make the world look in the mirror. Like a good teacher, Jonas Hassen Khemeri offers us humorous examples, and then he yanks out the rug. Every word contains a meta message, and this bounding word-loving dark comedy is full of them.

The play won an Obie in February, and The Play Company has brought it back with a director Erica Schmidt, and the deeply affecting performances of Francis Benhamou, Nick Choski, Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte, and Bobby Moreno.

Go see Invasion! before the job creators move it to a higher-priced theater.

Lessons about Freedom: Box by Fred Shahadi

What do a slave named Box and four modern  stowaways from Haiti have in common? Think out of the box and go Off-Broadway to see the play, Box, no playing at the Midtown Theater at 163 West 46th St., NYC to understand how the imagination feeds our desire for freedom.

Excellent acting by Kevin "Dot Com" Brown of 30 Rock, Lawrence Saint-Victor, Remy on Guiding Light, Brandon Alexander as Box, Ayinde Howell, of the web series, "Status Kill," and Rashad Sensai Edwards, who just wrapped three films and makes his Off-Broadway debut in Box. Produced by Stuart Films, LLC, and Browntown Entertainment Inc., this play is an excellent, filling evening. An excellent reflection on the meaning of freedom.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Galileo

Sure, science can be confusing. Reducing it to soundbites won't help to clear it up. Want to learn more about the voting down of Galileo? Try these links:

PBS , Wikipedia, The New Yorker.

The Inquisition is over. We need to listen to the scientists. Your teacher serves a purpose.

Ann Coulter says teachers are useless--Was that balanced coverage by Fox News?

Perhaps Fox News and Friends will need to rethink its "balanced coverage" motto if they don't invite a school teacher to rebut Coulter's remarks about kindergarten teachers. See the video. Or perhaps Coulter will volunteer to spend a day managing a kindergarten class according to the rules. Most of us learned in kindergarten that we shouldn't, uh, demonize people just to win an argument.

Give Gretchen her due this morning. She didn't let the malignant remark slide, but it still might be a good idea to check in with a person who does the job.

Even Thomas Jefferson thought an educated citizenry was important.

New Photos for Across the Ages: Audra Carabetta

See stills for a beautiful dance called, "Roots," as performed in Cambridge, Massacusetts last fall by ATAD as choreographed by Audra Carabetta.

Pinkalicious: The Musical--Pink is not just for girls!

You might think that a play that obsesses about pink would be a princess-only event, but you'd be wrong. Vital Children's Theatre gets it right in New York City with the musical production, Pinkalicious,  which argues in bodacious fashion that everyone--including Dads and Brothers--can love the color! This production deserves its (so far) three-year run. Great production values and choreography compliment the stereotype-busting story. Pink is in--Just in time for the start of school at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on 60th Street in New York City.

Elder Women Stay Strong

Cheers to Diana Nyad and the many women returning to professional challenges after 50--
A website for the prime of your life: BravaBody !

Whatever Happened to Positive Images for Girls?

Well, at least the "I'm too Pretty T-shirt" is coming off the racks at J.C. Penney, but--CLICK!--it's more than a little troubling that the retailers' buyers did not figure this out until people complained:
For those of you who think it's too supid to focus on these incidents, please do your homework. The long-term consequences of ignoring the women's movement for equity have cost us a presidential candidate and equal pay. Women need to collaborate more and keep doing their homework--Intergenerate!--We need to watch what's happening to the generations that follow and do something about it.

Don't be part of the backlash that discourages women from going to school. Did you miss the Gloria Steinem bio, In Her Own Words, on HBO? Do we all need to become bunnies again to get the point?