Dance Education

The 11th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention celebrates the African American experience in comic books Friday and Saturday. The convention will offer an awards ceremony, film screenings, youth workshops, a parade, a comic-book marketplace, and other events at the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia. Convention activities begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the museum, with a free reception and ceremonies for the Pioneer and Glyph comic awards.

Linda A. Kerns has been confirmed to a seat on the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing by the state Senate. She is principal at the law offices of Linda A. Kerns.   Ari Rabban , founder and chief executive officer of Phone.com, Mount Laurel, has been named to the board of the New Jersey Technology Council .   Greenwood Racing Inc. , owner and operator of Parx Casino and Parx Racing in Bensalem, appointed Thomas C. Bonner to its board. He is group vice president/legal and chief counsel of the company.

LAST I checked, the city's homicide rate stood at a disgraceful grand total of 84 for the first three months of 2012. That's practically one a day. Not to take anything away from the hoodie rallies and marches around the country protesting the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed, black Florida teen killed last month while returning home after buying Skittles and iced tea, but where's the outrage for the homicidal madness that passes as...

It's almost two miles up Broad Street from Washington Avenue to Callowhill Street. But for the Pennsylvania Ballet, the northward trek has been a journey of unimaginable transformation. Two decades ago, the ballet company almost went out of business. It was drowning in debt and could no longer afford to keep its building at Broad and Washington, or maintain its own school. Tuesday, it plans to break ground at 321 N. Broad St. for a $17.5 million project that will feature five dance studios, offices, and facilities for a soon-to-return School of the Pennsylvania Ballet.

Yvonne Patterson has just divulged the secret to a long and healthy life - "Movement: That's the key" - and now she's about to demonstrate. So down on her knees she goes, then flat on her belly on the Oriental carpet in her book-lined Flourtown living room. "I do push-ups," she explains. "Though there's more push and not enough up. " Patterson can be forgiven. She was born on March 20, 1910, which means that today she's 99 years old. Happy Birthday, Yvonne! Mix the regal bearing of actress Helen Mirren, the mordant wit of Dorothy Parker, the lust for adventure of Amelia Earhart, the cultured intellect of Susan Sontag, and the physical vigor of Babe Didrikson and you'd approximate the type person that is Yvonne Patterson.

Philadelphia's long-serving airport director, Charles Isdell Jr., took early retirement yesterday after a Fox29 television investigation questioned whether he lived in the city. Isdell, 59, a 37-year city employee who had served as director of aviation at Philadelphia International Airport since 2000, notified Mayor Nutter of his decision yesterday afternoon after being confronted by a Fox29 reporter who had footage showing him coming and going to work from his wife's home in Cherry Hill, according to the Mayor's Office.

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $1.47 million in federal stimulus grants to 32 arts and cultural groups in Pennsylvania. An additional $600,000 will go to 14 organizations in New Jersey. The arts agency received about $50 million for distribution nationally as part of the federal economic recovery effort. In Philadelphia, 21 organizations will receive a total of about $1 million, according to a spokesman for the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. That includes $250,000 for the alliance, which will pass it along in grants to arts organizations.

Philadelphia Aviation Director Charles J. Isdell said he believed he could prove he was a city resident - an issue raised by a television station that prompted him to resign abruptly this week - but he did not want to waste time trying. Isdell, who has managed Philadelphia International Airport since 2000 and been a city employee for 37 years, said in an interview yesterday that after he married a New Jersey woman 18 months ago, he "worked very hard to maintain my residence in Philadelphia.

For the next six months, students and residents here will be able to stretch, sweat, dazzle and twirl side by side with professional dancers with no price tag attached. The only toll, dancers warn, will be on the muscles. The Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, a North Jersey contemporary-dance group, and the school district have paired up under the Arts Alliance of Pennsauken banner to promote dance as an art form and to give residents a chance to wiggle and jiggle their way into spring.

His mother says he started to dance while still in her womb. At 9 months, he tapped on tables. Now, at 17, William Burden is dancing his way through school: in the lunch line, at his locker, down the hall - even in English class, where he settles for "always moving my feet. " "It makes me feel free," said Burden, a student at the Philadelphia School District's High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). "I can show my emotions without actually having to talk. " He was one of more than 1,800 high school dancers participating yesterday in a biennial international dance festival held this year at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.