Happy New Year! 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2024!!!

Miki and Stephen in 2023

It was an active year to say the least! Here are a few of the highlights, only to give you a starting point for a real live, person to person, exchange should the new year provide such a luxury. We would embrace it (and you) warmly and eagerly!

Top L: Berlin, Top R:NAC, Mid L: with Diana,Mid R: Graham Gala, Bot L: Graduation, and Garden Apples

January found us in Berlin, ringing in 2023 with friends and former colleagues while I was at work with her Berlin-based "Dance On Ensemble". As soon as I was back in NYC I went to work presenting the story of her life in dance at the National Arts Club in NYC. MY fan club of younger generation Graham dancers was in attendance and all were enthralled! In March I then went to work coaching the internationally celebrated ballet star, Diana Vishneva, in Graham's "Deep Song". I then set and coached a group of our Hartt students who we brought to The Joyce Theater to perform "Primitive Mysteries" with the Graham Company's NY season. May brought the graduation and immediate professional placement of another amazing group of Hartt Dance seniors and in June, our community garden apple tree was produced its most robust crop in years allowing me to give bushels of this deliciousness to the neighborhood and Hell's Kitchen passersby.

Throughout the year our lives were enriched by many friends of all ages, from 2 weeks to 9 decades! I was able to have a wonderful visit with SP's first major dance mentor/teacher, Betty Toman, just before she passed at 98. Her presence in SP's life made all that he has done in the field of Dance possible. It is not an overstatement to say that Betty changed his life. We are so very grateful for all we get to learn from all of them, young and old, and how our lives and relationships continue to grow and develop in the most rewarding ways.

Speaking of relationships, SP's summer was spent mostly in Europe starting with the celebration of 50 years of John Neumeier's Hamburg Ballet. 250 dancers attended! His 9 years there was a significant chapter in his life, and it was terrific to catch up with friends and colleagues and even have the chance to sit and talk with John a bit. From there he was off to London to teach for Rambert Ballet and reconstitute an urban garden in the center of London. Then, Copenhagen to visit with friends, reconnecting with another of his former hometowns. A trip to Sweden brought him close to a dear friend and allowed him to create a rose trellis from hand split cedar as his gift. He headed down to Amsterdam next to teach and introduce another cohort of Hartt Dancers to the wonders of that fantastic city and the International Festival of Contemporary Dance. All this while I was in Japan twice dancing the work of Akiko Kanda and the work of my mentor, Nanako, at her memorial.

Our fall semester at Hartt has started extraordinarily well with a fantastic group of dancers and faculty. I was pushing her group further forward than I have ever done before. SP's seniors decided to all dress like him for Halloween, including bald heads! We took a group to Lincoln Center to see the Paul Taylor Company and three Hartt alumni in the company came out between shows to talk with the students. It gave a powerful message of continuity and possibility. SP thoroughly enjoyed choreographing for and directing our fall concert. Bournonville, Limón, and three new works were on the program and while it seems hard to believe, the program seems to continue to proceed from strength to strength. We were named among the 20 "Best College Dance Programs" by DanceUS for the 5th year in a row! We got to celebrate on the island of Tenerife where I had been performing and SP got to join me. That was a true Thanksgiving! Incredible climate, views, history, and FOOD!

We are looking forward to an exciting 2024 and we hope that it brings us all a little closer together. We will keep you informed so please know we'd love to meet up with you!

Much love and gratitude with all our best wishes for the year ahead!

SP and me~~~