When you discover two of your favorite people are performing in the same weekend in separate but (kinda) nearby venues, albeit in completely different kinds of shows, and you think you can somehow make it to see them both, you tell them, Heck yeah, I'll be there. Every opportunity to go to the the theatre for a performance of merit … Continue reading Carpe Diem, and All That
Month: October 2015
Postscript: A Fire in Her Belly
Yesterday I posted about my former students at Knoxville Ballet School who worked like crazy to achieve high marks on their American Ballet Theatre Affiliate exams, and three of them who went on to attend the Young Dancer Summer Workshop at ABT in August 2012 after a successful video audition. I wanted to share images … Continue reading Postscript: A Fire in Her Belly
A Fire in the Belly
Three tired Knoxville Ballet School monkeys after a <successful> video audition for American Ballet Theatre's Young Dancer Summer Workshop in 2012 The same three monkeys at ABT in NYC later that summer, with their idol, one Catherine Hurlin Last week during a discussion at a writers' workshop I attended over in Cambridge, NY, I listened … Continue reading A Fire in the Belly
The Day The Sheep Shearers Came
You need not go far in my home state of Vermont to find a farm. Lots of people live and work on them, the rest of us drive past them going to and from. Same thing applies to upstate New York, a stone's throw away. Writer Jon Katz and his wife, fiber artist Maria Wulf live on … Continue reading The Day The Sheep Shearers Came
Pruning Away Neurons (And Re-Growing Them)
Of his own writing Evelyn Waugh famously quipped, "I put the words down and push them around a bit." In Freshman Comp 101 you'd identify that literary device as understatement, of course. Sometimes I worry an entire generation of writers may be losing the penchant for pushing words around a bit. If I could distill writer … Continue reading Pruning Away Neurons (And Re-Growing Them)
Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
That is one Gwynn Root, a beautiful professional ballerina who currently dances for Festival Ballet in Providence, Rhode Island, although she has danced professionally with several other companies in her career to date. Here she is more recently, with Festival this past summer, in an image from the WaterFire Providence website: I met Gwynn eight … Continue reading Homecoming Finale: In the Company of Artists
Creative Workshop Takeaways: Publish or Perish
Today I attended a creative workshop led by New York Times bestselling author Jon Katz at this really groovy yurt in Cambridge, NY. (By the way, yurt is the word of the day.) I attended sessions on writing, photography, and blogging. One thing Jon underscored in his writing and blogging sessions was the importance of producing … Continue reading Creative Workshop Takeaways: Publish or Perish
Homecoming, Part the Fifth
That's me up there, flanked by my bosom buddies Bett and Emily. The three of us and our families have known each other for decades. They are the kind of people who see you through everything that happens in your life, and you them. I assumed we'd be together as friends forever. And there are … Continue reading Homecoming, Part the Fifth