2021 Year of the Ox

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021 Somehow, we made it through that one!! Well, here’s how. We had each other and we had a terrific group of friends and colleagues to share the wonders and terrors of that past year. Lets focus on the former. Jan – Feb: Life is good! Hartt Dance is named “Best College Dance Program” for the second year in a row. We prepare for a year full of our usual activities. “Man plans – God laughs!” March -April: School closes. Stephen gets back to NYC and battles the COVID-19 virus which doesn’t stand a chance against Miki’s invincible healing powers. We shift into the remote teaching mode with alacrity and grace turning our railroad apartment into not just one, but two Dance Studios! European tours and live productions are canceled. Life goes on with “unprecedented ambiguity” but we and our neighbors pull together in very beautiful ways. Come rain or come shine we meet on the roof every evening at 7:00 to celebrate our essential workers, exchange recipes, develop wicked cocktails, plan group projects and offer each other emotional support. and Miki develops an exercise group for the ladies in our co-op each morning. 405 rocks! Please try to dance with us!!! @my best - Seated @my best - Standing Rooftop@9 Original music by Karin Fukumi May – June: 19th Wedding anniversary! Miki creates rooftop herb garden for all in our building to enjoy. We get super creative and productive in the kitchen turning out new dishes, baking bread, experimenting with techniques like sous vide, stove top smoker, and every imaginable desert! Finding ways to respond to all that is transpiring in the world around us, delving inward seems our best path. SP enrolls in an 8-week course in NVC, Non Violent Communication. July – August: Preparations for returning to classes at Hartt start getting intense, even more intense, and outrageously intense. Stephen studies everything available concerning COVID-19, is guided by a terrific team from the Yale School of Public Health, and is very grateful to his father for an upbringing immersed in microbiology and aseptic technique. Dance specific protocols are developed and miraculously supported to a large degree by the University! After 5 months in lockdown, SP ventures out to teach live dancers in a studio in Pennsylvania. Scary, but empowering! Of course I am baking and making deserts too. I had fun and I am still having a good time! Sept – Oct: Miki’s project in Berlin finally admits defeat but she continues teaching remotely and in person, working on her Graham Technique DVD Part II, cooking, sewing costumes, developing her rooftop exercise class, gardening, helping our ward, Karin, find a piano and stay in her masters program at Hunter. Stephen tries to get through each day at Hartt navigating his crew through uncharted waters, taking it moment by moment, and having the conversations that need to be had with students, faculty, and administration, to make the changes that need to be made. Oct-Nov: Miki had 16 live performances. Yes! LIVE performances!!! New York Theatre Ballet's Lift Lab Live! 10 audience member, air filters, open windows and doors, partitions, masks.... It was very special. I was so happy to be able to actually dance in space!!! NYTB is awesome!!! Nov – Dec: Hartt Dance finishes the semester having delivered in-studio classes to all students every day and producing performance series for streamed audiences of more than 3,000. Not one case of COVID among the dancers. MIKI turns 60! We celebrate with beloved friends from around the world thanks to Zoom! Of course, we did our best to celebrate the holidays and get ourselves in the spirit for a very NEW year, 2021! We wish you all good health and great joy. The second animal of the Chinese zodiac, the ox denotes the hard work, positivity and honesty that will be manifested in all of us in the coming 12 months, according to astrologers.(Online source) Stay well and Keep smiling!!! Much love, Stephen and Miki