"I hear America singing," said our great poet Walt Whitman.  I’m lucky—I get to see America dancing.  And what fun that is!  Here are my adventures in 2012.

Sunday, January 15, 2012—Washington, DC

What a wonderful beginning we had yesterday for our audition tour!  Carol Bellis and I met at the Trenton train station, on a crispy cold morning (it always seems to wait to really cold until we’re ready to start travelling).  We like to get to Washington early.  Old habits of theater people die hard, and we like to arrive in places with some extra time, just in case.  Then, when all goes well, we have a few hours to do something fun.  This year’s fun was a trip to Hillwood, the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post, in lush northwestern Washington.  We had a good lunch in the little café in the former carriage house, then enjoyed touring the mansion and gardens, especially the beautiful Japanese garden.  From there it was a quick ride over to Washington Ballet.

Once there, it was great to catch up with our friend Septime Webre, formerly Artistic Director of American Repertory Ballet, and now AD of Washington Ballet.  I enjoyed hearing that our mutual friend Elaine Kudo is now Balletmistress for Washington Ballet.  Elaine was one of our guest teachers for Summer Intensive 11, and a former balletmistress here after her career in ABT.  Then off to the audition class, where we had a large and very enthusiastic group of dancers.  Excellent focus, good positive energy, a really upbeat experience.  It was really fun to see a couple of our students from last year coming back to the audition—Sarah Poklabla was there, and Karina Rozenburg too.  And I recently heard from Sophie Andreassi, also SI 11, who was admitted Early Action to Princeton University—so we look forward to seeing her next year.  Back to the station, home, and now off the next morning for Boston.

Monday, January 16, 2012—Boston, Massachussetts

Wow, it gets cold up here!  I spent freshman year of college in this area, at Wellesley, but my southwestern girl blood couldn’t take it, and I had to de-camp to Stanford.  But as I speed past the beautiful Wellesley campus on the MTA to Walnut Hill, I have fond memories of good times and good friends.  But yes, it’s 11 degrees out there, so I’m glad to be all bundled up.  After a cozy cappuccino at the little bakery in Natick, I’m ready to go meet some more dancers!  There are so many terrific teachers and schools in this area, and it’s always great to meet each year’s crop of dancers.

I always enjoy visiting Walnut Hill and teaching in this gorgeous big studio.  Today it’s full of some really eager dancers from all over New England, and we’re getting to know each other.  Great to see Elizabeth Dresser-Kluchman and Tess Bissell, from SI 11, and Joy Lima, from 2010 SI.  Beautiful music to move to, as well.  A quick farewell and off on the MTA back to Boston, to catch my train south.  I’m looking forward to next weekend doing our “home” auditions, Princeton and New York City.