![]() Beverleys 80th Birthday BashDecember 3, 2006 The first event was a performance at 3:00 p.m. at the Storefront Theater on E. Randolph St. in Chicago. I flew in from Newark that morning, took the elevated to the theater, stashed my bags in Bevs dressing room (she had not yet arrived), and met Dorothy Vislocky, who had come by overnight train from NYC, and we ventured out to find food. The theater is a black box with good bleacher seating and an exit sign eight feet in the air at the center of the cyc which everyone forgives in deference to the Great Chicago Fire. The first dance was a premier, Short Stories, choreographed by Jan Bartoszek, a vehicle for presenting a series of ballet dances, duets, solos, and groups, which used a moveable set piece that provided both transportation and a shadow screen, an intriguing design for motion. The group of dancers came from such varied ballet backgrounds as the Chinese Opera and Ballet in Taiwan, the National Dance School in Havana, Cuba, numerous ballet companies and university programs in mainland USA, and from such far-flung places as Australia and Alaska, which demonstrated the cohesion of ballet technique. Ms. Bartoszek's approach to motion provided a freshness to their immaculate performances. Next we were treated to a trio of Beverlys dances, a collage she called Little Agonies (2005), a group dance revived from 1981, A Dream of Brides, and excepts from the 2003, Cello Lessons. Beverlys performance at 80 is probably more honed and more immaculate than I have ever seen it. Each word, each gesture enunciated and timed with exquisite clarity; each step of her sparse movement sequences, precise and logical. It is her group piece that was new to me. The slow-motion parade of seven identically costumed frozen brides, with identically frozen faces, made a statement of pre-marital apprehension that is at once familiar and enlightening and thus thoroughly entertaining. ![]() University of Illinois dance students in performance of Brides at the Beverly Blossom Memorial Gala
on November 1, 2015, at Hunter College in New York City ~ Photo by Costas The concert closed with a premiere of Ms. Bartoszeks Night Blooming Jasmine. Then came the party in the couch house of the Glessner House Museum, one of Chicagos landmark homes with Beverly's friends from, well, almost all overa college mate came from Oregon, students from her teaching days at Urbana (how far they traveled I do not know), neighbors of our host, Bevs son Michael, many local dance and art friends, and the contingent from Bev's Nikolais and New York days. Luise Wykell, who is now resident in Chicago, hosted Gale Ormiston from St. Louis, and Phyllis Lamhut and husband Robert Small flew in from New York City. Jeanette Stoner, Dorothy and I stayed with Beverly. The buffet was delicious and fun because the plates were hidden and uninhibited dancers ate with fingers. The tables were beautiful, decorated with crystal-shaped Christmas tree lights. The DJ was loud and the dancing continuous, of course, and we all had a ball. Tiny cup cakes, each with its own lighted candle, were passed around and we all honored Bev with a loud rendition of the traditional Happy Birthday. Bev's fifth floor apartment, with the railroad running along side it, has a view of the stadium, the museum, a Greco-Roman building, the Sears Tower, and lots of Lake Michigan. floor apartment. We four talked into the night, and come morning saw Jeanette to a cab for her plane. Beverly, Dorothy and I had a great dinner in a retired firehouse and then Bev drove Dorothy to Union Station for her train. Turned out that we left her at the wrong door, but it really didn't matter as her train was delayed (see, it happens to trains as well as planes). My plane left the next morning. I do laud Chicago's transportation; even I who am a transportation idiot can find my way. I do have one lovely story, unrelated to all but transportation. When I retrieved my e-ticket at Newark I had to remove my gloves to work the machine. Hours later as we approached Chicago, I realized I had left them on that counter. I toured the shops at Midway but felt that thirty bucks was a little much for fancy gloves that barely served the purpose. On the train into the city I conversed with a couple of ladies from Buffalo and conveyed my glove misadventure. When I got up to leave the train, one of them handed me her gloves. Take these. Are you sure? Oh, yes, I have another pair. So I now have a pair of stretch wool gloves that I shall treasure for more than their useful warmth. Thank you, thank you, Lady from Buffalo! All performers deserve mention as their performances were immaculate. They were Kira Blazek, Mei-Kuang Chen, Justin Deschamps, Phillip Edgecombe, Kristie Mackellar, Tetyana Martyanova, and Katie Matteson. Ruth Grauert ![]() |