Dance

NEW YORK - Now, the only things Villanova will have to worry about come Selection Sunday are where it's going next week and whom it'll be playing. If nothing else, the Wildcats have eliminated the bubble part of the equation. We'll never know what would have happened had they lost to St. John's Wednesday night. So much for conjecture. By beating the 10th-seeded Red Storm at Madison Square Garden in the second round of the Big East Tournament, 66-53, a team picked to finish 12th in the conference has seemingly secured at least an at-large spot in the 68-team NCAA tourney field for the eighth time in 9 years.

ST. LOUIS - Twenty minutes from a potential upset and a huge step toward the NCAA's dance card, La Salle crash-landed on Saturday. Ramon Galloway, La Salle's leading scorer and one of the Atlantic Ten's top players, was held to just eight points in a critical 78-54 loss to 16th-ranked St. Louis at Chaifetz Arena. The Explorers (21-8, 11-5 A-10), like at Temple a few weeks back, had a chance to all but secure an NCAA tournament at-large bid, and this time maybe the top seed in this week's A-10 tournament.

For college basketball fans, this is a great time of year. As the season winds down and the conference tournaments near, it's great fun to speculate about "who's in and who's out" of the NCAA Tournament. Many schools have no realistic chance of winning it all. Just making the tournament and stealing a game or two is the whole goal of their season. Here in Philadelphia, we have a rich tradition regarding the NCAA Tournament. Every team in the Big 5 has not only been in the tournament many times, but each has advanced to the hallowed "Final Four.

Emily Vaughan, 19, came and sat on her bucket Tuesday in the courtyard of Liberty Place. She put a second bucket down in front of her, and began to drum. She was surrounded by 14 other drummers. They were University of the Arts students drumming up attention - literally - at lunchtime for Art Unleashed, a university fund-raiser and art sale from April 10 to 13. Vaughan, smiling in her red bandanna, drummed perfectly in sync with her ensemble, called Rumble, as it pounded out a rousing, breakbeat groove.

Greg Pease figured it was an easy "A. " He was a star linebacker on the Paul VI football team. He thought he would skate through some cushy course about performance arts, improve his grade-point average, and increase his chances to play his favorite sport in college. Drama class? How tough could that be? "It was extremely hard work," Pease said of the course he took in the fall of his junior year. "I had no idea what I was getting into. But I loved it. And I still got the 'A.' " Pease got more than a good grade.

By day, Jannie L. Blackwell is an oh-so-serious Philadelphia City Council member, known for helping the homeless people who show up at her office and for overseeing her West Philadelphia district like a fiefdom. But Thursday night, she was "Jannie from Cheyney. " Clad in a black-and-white Adidas track suit, bulky gold chain, and sunglasses, the councilwoman - a graduate of Cheyney University - and several staffers did their own version of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight. " "And in conclusion / I'd just like to say / I'm Jannie from Cheyney / have a blessed day," she rapped.

Though conceived as a ballet about human sacrifice, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is heard in concert more often than it's staged, but in this 100th-anniversary year of the piece, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is out to change that. The Philadelphia Orchestra's presentation Thursday, Saturday and Sunday includes aerialists, multiple scrims for video opportunities, and onstage dancers in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center. "This respects the spirit of the original," says Nézet-Séguin, "but it may be more extreme than usual.

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend of one year, "Eddie," has been invited to the wedding of a waitress who works at a restaurant/bar he frequents. I was not invited. Eddie doesn't dance and has slow danced with me only once. When I told him I would not appreciate him slow dancing with anyone there, we had a heated argument. Eddie told me I have no right to tell him what to do. I have run this by many people - male and female - and they all say it's inappropriate to slow dance with anyone but your significant other, especially when she's not present.

On the eve of a snowy nor'easter, Pennsylvania Ballet danced the company premiere of Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain on Thursday night at the Merriam Theater. It is a gorgeous - and hopeful - homage to love and weather. Set to music by Arvo Pärt, the piece features three pairs of dancers clad simply in gray - Julie Diana and Zachary Hench, Evelyn Kocak and Ian Hussey, and Lauren Fadeley and James Ihde - storming the stage. The men first slide their partners, who are en pointe, across the floor; they sit while the women lean over them in arabesques; and finally, they lift their partners across the stage in succession, legs at various heights.

Izon, 13, has an abundance of energy and enthusiasm that he channels into sports and dancing. He loves to move and dance and has won a school dance contest. He also enjoys playing basketball and swimming. Izon likes school, where his favorite subject is science. He works to the best of his ability and learns the most when he is in a small-group structured setting and receives individual attention. Izon is a visual learner who benefits from simple directions given one step at a time. He responds very well to support.