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There comes a time in a woman's life when, faced with half a pound of deboned chicken, she ponders the eternal question: butter chicken or pad thai? They're both soooooo delicious! Tonight, however, this woman is going to see The Company with A-L, who can probably be easily persuaded to eat Lebanese food. This woman had the best shawarma she ever had last weekend and is craving more.

Another week gone, another month almost gone, another letter asking me for money... And here is my very own Punkie G In Da House, who will soon actually be in da house. His own house, that is.

The Company

That's a movie it'll be worth getting on DVD, just to watch those exquisite dance numbers over and over.

The trouble with films about dance is that I always want to go out and dance myself immediately afterwards. Wich explains why I'm sitting here in little more than my pointe shoes.

When I see forms of dance that I've never tried myself, tango, for example, or Ukrainian folk dancing, I always feel a longing to try it, to make those motions my own. Dance is communication; one must adopt the movements and interpret them, just as each person speaks in a particular way. It's like learning another language, each new movement a new word. When I see ballet, I always feel a bittersweet longing to be able to reach that far; unfortunately, I'm not flexible enough, I weigh too much -- but somehow, I've always felt that I have the stamina and the drive in me, somewhere. If only I had the body for it... That's a regret for another life, though. For now, the bulk of my thighs and my limited flexibility have always conspired to reduce my turn-out.

Despite all the negativity surrounding the issue of weight in dance, I understand why a ballet dancer must be that thin. Obviously, female dancers have to be light enough to be lifted easily, but aside from that, if you reduce a body to the bare essentials, your message becomes that much clearer. Talent is needed to communicate through movement, of course, but the fewer curves there are, the less the audience is distracted from the movement. In other forms of dance, hips are supposed to be shaken and wiggled; in ballet, you think straight and up and light and controlled. For me, the beauty of a ballerina's body is in the movement. At rest, most of them aren't that attractive at all.

And would you believe that if I clear my livingroom floor, I almost have enough room to start working on my choreography?