For those of us who love dance, there’s only one place to be on July 4, and it isn’t sweating atop some Brooklyn rooftop watching the boring fireworks, but at Bard SummerScape Festival, where Mark Morris will unveil is new production of Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare. In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Mark Morris Dance Group has announced some enticing casting plans. The double-cast leads will be Maile Okamura and Noah Vinson, and Rita Donahue and David Leventhal. And Morris has something else up his sleeve, as he announced this morning on WQXR. For the choreographer, the real casting coup is that of the Montagues and Capulets—he has talked four former company members into returning to the stage: Teri Weksler and Guillermo Resto (the Montagues) and Megan Williams and Shawn Gannon (the Capulets). "I refer to it as the antiques roadshow," he noted in the radio interview.

Apart from the lovely prospect of new choreography by Morris, the production will also feature Prokofiev’s original score and scenario by the Soviet dramatist Sergei Radlov, based on documents uncovered in Moscow by Simon Morrison. A Princeton University musicologist and Bard’s scholar-in-residence, Morrison has stated that the project has "no parallel in ballet history and will correct a historical injustice." In other words, his discovery is twofold: The music will finally be performed according to the composer’s wishes (there is more than 20 minutes of new music) and, in keeping with Radlov’ s reimagined libretto, the lovers don’t die. That’s right—Juliet wakes up before Romeo can kill himself. How good will that feel on a hot summer night?

Just for the record, selecting CDs at random to serve as soundtracks for dance footage makes me happy. At least when it works. I’m pairing Choreography by Balanchine with Copenhagen’s Kirsten Ketsjer (the Rock Band). They won the hearts of millions (okay, maybe hundreds) while they lived in Brooklyn last year, and they’re doing it all over again for me right now. Come back soon, KKRB!

If a piece such as this were to actually be performed, it would fit well in a space bult by artist Fernanda Gomes.

"The house is the place where it’s possible to create a way of living that is closer to the imagination…it is the ideal place to do things," she says during an interview in the current issue of Bomb.

Every scene in this movie is filled with rhythm. Even the camera moves in rhythm. I think the music is actually allowing me to see this, and not just causing it by suggestion.

Scenes where shots of twirling ballerinas are juxtaposed with shots of striking workers pumping their fists and charging a line of armored police work easily, as do the chase scenes. But scenes of dialogue work just as well. The facial gestures have certain movements, the hands have certain movements, even the grandma character provides a static counterpoint. Damn. I’m rambling on like I’ve been up for 22 hours and I’ve only been up for 21.

I’ll just mention that some of John Ashberry’s poems, selected at random, seem to describe some of the scenes in the movie. I’m falling apart.

Psych! I’ll be here as long as Bartleby is crazy, which is to say, I prefer not to give up anytime soon. But I am going to brush my teeth now.

The 12-hour mark seems like a good time to fill everyone in on my day.

Culturethon officially began with Pilobolus’s executive director, Itamar Kubovy, at 9:13 a.m. We got right down to business: He did a bridge on the floor and I did a handstand off his stomach, Pilobolus style.

Not really, but our conversation was nearly as exciting. I’ve summed it up here:

Of course, this doesn’t give any credit to the help they had early on from Times critic Anna Kisselgoff or financial-backer Pierre Cardin, but I think you get the point. If not, check this out:

WWBJD?

There is a time and place for festive holiday decorations, and the time is now and the place is Dustin’s desk. He doesn’t know yet but I have plans for an extensive Nativity scene to be unveiled on his newly neatened workspace. If he puts up a fight I’ll hold the Baby Jesus in front of my face and make crying noises till the guilt gets the better of him. Plus, he’s so busy training for the Mr. LES Pageant (seriously: he bought a book and everything), I doubt he’d notice if I replaced his computer chair with a small manger.

But let’s say you don’t have the luxury of cracking open a can of Christmas on your coworker’s cubicle (if this were a video game and I got points for every c, I’d have just racked up a crapload of points). Then hie thee to Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular!

…a last-minute weekend show from Chez Bushwick:

Lise Vachon—choreographer and dancer based in Brussels—presents BLISS,  with lighting and scenography by Arnaud Gerniers and Benjamin van Thiel, and music by György Ligeti and Stevie Wishart.

The details: Saturday 3 at 6pm, Chez Bushwick (info@chezbushwick.net). It’s free, but reservations are necessary.

Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses made its New York debut last week with two programs and an open rehearsal for Mesmerics, a piece he originally choreographed in 2003 and has since expanded. Morphoses week was better than I feared it it would be—the company is a shell of what, with luck, it will become, but already apparent is integrity, devotion to classicism and a certain brashness on the part of its young director; he’s trying to do something and, for the moment at least, giving up isn’t an option. (Yesterday, my beloved Cincinnati Bengals beat the New York Jets. Maybe it’s a sign about the underdog?) A few thoughts…

1. Obviously, for Wheeldon, providing context for ballet is an issue. There’s nothing wrong with that. But films by the Ballet Boyz (Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, who also danced with the group)—close-ups of body parts, Read more »

Another choreographer called yesterday wanting to know my reaction to the recent news that Shen Wei had been awarded a 2007 MacArthur Fellowship. Apologies for the delay—sometimes it’s just easier to block out bad news. But the reality is that Shen Wei is in possession of a "genius" grant and $500,000, no strings attached, which he will likely use to make more mediocre dances. The news is discouraging on many levels—take into consideration how few MacArthur Fellows in dance there are; but what’s really being validated is modern dance packaged with a safe, Asian sensibility for American consumption. It’s not surprising that he was nominated—he’s a darling of Lincoln Center Festival—but it is alarming that he won. The selection criteria focuses on "exceptional creativity, as demonstrated through a track record of significant achievement, and manifest promise for important future advances. Emphasis is placed on nominees for whom our support would relieve limitations that inhibit them from pursuing their most innovative ideas." Shen Wei? Future advances? What?

American Ballet Theatre just released casting details for its City Center season, and Ballo della Regina looks so promising (thank you, Merrill Ashley): Gillian Murphy with David Hallberg (Oct 23, 26 and Nov 3); Michele Wiles and Maxim Beloserkovsky (Oct 25, 27 and 28—obviously it’s Wiles we care about); and Sarah Lane and Herman Cornejo on Nov 4. At 1:30pm (strange new time).

Finally, start pricing flights to Florida. Twyla Tharp’s newest, still-unnamed ballet, set to music by Elvis Costello and performed by Miami City Ballet, will open March 28. Isaac Mizrahi, it’s just been announced, is designing the costumes. No more Billy Joel! Hurrah!

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll tell you about the time I made my coworkers take a tap dancing class with me!

How’s it hanging, my sweet kadota figs? Enjoying the heat? I’m not, but then that’s because I’m a human being, not an iguana, camel, dromedary, lizard or anteater (the previous is the result of my turning to my coworkers and asking, “What’s an animal that likes the heat?” Michael misheard me though and thought I said, “What’s an animal that likes to eat,” hence anteater) and so I do better in temperate climes than in this inferno wrapped in a fire doused in a blaze sitting on a hellmouth that I call Tenth Avenue. Read more »