New York Post - March 16, 2008

Wanted:

A dozen pregnant women for a ballet production.

Far from being heavy, lumbering and clumsy, pregnant women are often fascinating, beautiful and serene, according to the artistic director of the British ballet company.

And to prove it, Balletlorent is recruiting 12 pregnant women to star in a dance production.

"MaEternal" will be performed in the northern English city of Newcastle in May.

-Cathy Burke, Wire Services

Friend

When a leaf
makes friends
with a river
a tree
must bid
farewell.

--Devin McDonough (4th grader from NYC)

Another Postponement of Destruction
by Henry Taylor

Banging out the kitchen door, I kicked
before I saw it a thick glass baking dish
I'd set outside for dogs the night before.
It skidded to the top step, teetered, tipped
into an undulating slide from step
to step, almost stopped halfway down, then lunged
on toward concrete, and I froze to watch it
splinter when it hit. Instead, it kissed
the concrete like a skipping stone, and rang
to rest in frost-stiffened grass. Retrieving it,
I suddenly felt my neck-cords letting go
of something like a mask of tragedy.
I washed the dish and put it in its place,
then launched myself into a rescued day.

Feet are sliding
heart is rising
NDI! NDI! NDI!
Im pulled out of class the second time
put in the hall
to learn from the emptiness
but NDI is next its next period
its my next life
I whisper it slowly in the hall
keeping myself to myself
feet sliding in my shoes
heart quietly waiting to rise

Efran, NDI dancer, 2008

Tribute

Even though my house is small

I still have the greatest of All

Even though I don't lie in France

I can get up and DANCE!

Brett Alston - North Carolina Arts In Action Dancer

"RENT" - Jane Cooper

If you want my apartment,
sleep in it
but let's have a clear
understanding:
the books are still free agents.

If the rocking chair's arms
surround you
they can also let you go,
they can shape the air like a
body

I don't want your rent, I want
a radiance of attention
like the candle's flame when we
eat,

I mean a kind of awe
attending the spaces between
us---
Not a roof but a field of stars.