Week 7:
Make Your Own Kind Of Music!

July 27, 2021

I spent this first week after Stella Adler on my own in New York City, working on my independent research and dance study. I visited the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center to get my physical library card, explored the Library’s exhibit areas, and searched the catalog of their Theater on Film and Tape (TOFT) Division to set up appointments to view materials. I have had an intense passion for dance, particularly Bob Fosse and his style, since a very young age, and have decided to base my research at the TOFT on his life and legacy. 

This week, my other focus has been exploring the class offerings at the Broadway Dance Center (BDC). The first BDC class I took was an advanced beginner theater dance class with Jason Wise. I had an absolute blast in this class and am so excited for next week when I can take it again. After class, my friend Jade and I helped our classmate Ephraim with a self-tape he is submitting for an audition. I told Jade about my experience at BDC, and she decided to come to a class with me. 

The class Jade and I took together was Beginning Broadway Jazz with Sue Samuels, and it was so much fun! We had a wide range of ages and experiences in class, and Sue was such a wonderful teacher and encouraged us to put our best selves forward. After class, Jade and I thanked her, and she gave me her card for her dance company that she owns called Jazz Roots. That evening, we met up with Ephraim and took some headshots at the Piers, which quickly became one of my favorite places in the city.

The Library for the Performing Arts is a pretty fantastic place with a wealth of unique materials, including recordings of live concerts and Broadway performances that are available for viewing only by researchers and by appointment. I started my Fosse research by viewing productions of Sweet Charity and Cabaret. The shows were absolutely stunning and moved me to tears several times. I had never seen Sweet Charity before, and the production I was able to view was actually a benefit concert from the late 1980s. It was a special and extraordinary event, and it was such a privilege to view it! 

The production of Cabaret was the 1998 Broadway revival with Alan Cummings as the Emcee. The entire team did such an amazing job with the recording. It felt like I was in the theater watching it live. The woman who played Sally Bowles completely blew me away. About halfway through the first act, I realized that this actress, Natasha Richardson, had died in 2009 from a skiing accident, which I remember hearing about when it happened. She had an incredible voice and was fantastic in the role.

I met up with two of my friends from Chicago, Kin, and Yash, on Saturday. At lunch, we were talking about our favorite things to do in NYC, and Yash said he really loved to visit the “Film Forum.” A man at the next table turned to us and started telling us about his own experience and love for the Film Forum. He mentioned a documentary airing that evening at Lincoln Center about the life of Alvin Ailey – another choreographer I researched during college. We expressed interest in the film, and he gave us three FREE TICKETS! It was a beautiful event, and I am so grateful. 

One of the bittersweet things about this week has been spending time with friends from the Stella Adler intensive, some of whom are beginning to leave the city. Early in the week, a group of us met at Kyleen’s rooftop for breakfast, and I cooked french toast sticks and turkey bacon (a treat that my roommate Zakki and I enjoyed many times in our apartment in Wilch back on campus). We also visited more NYC sites: the High Line, a park built on an old elevated railroad system in Manhattan, and the Drama Book Shop on 39th Street, looking around for monologues and books on the queen herself, Stella Adler. On Sunday, I went to brunch with my buddy, Ephraim. We spent the day together going to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Piers, and I said goodbye to him as he had to go back home. I will miss him dearly as he was my Midtown neighbor and train buddy. 

I have now entered the last week of my NYC adventure. I am so excited for what is to come and be discovered in my final days out here! Until next week!