Author: ruhlwrite

“I wanted to greet you as the Italian Fairy,” says Simona Rodano as she opens her arms and embraces me like a long-lost friend.The Italian Fairy, aka Simona Rodano. Her Italian-flag red, white and green costume, which culminates in a three-foot-high cone hat sprouting streamers, is, like the character, of her own creation. A singer/performer/producer/teacher, Simona got the idea in a class of toddlers she was schooling in the Italian language. “One of the fathers called me the Italian Fairy,”…

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Alina Faye’s life is all about movement.Alina joined ABT when she was 17. She’s a former professional ballerina, so she doesn’t so much as walk through a room as flow through it like a gentle stream. Her story entails a physical journey as well as an inner expedition. Dance was simply the movement that started her on her continuing path of self-discovery.Her toes took her all over the world. Alina, who is from Long Beach, California and has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship, was 3 when she…

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There are bags under Nabeel Alamgir’s eyes. It has nothing — and everything — to do with age. Nabeel, a 25-year-old with a black beard, a child-like face and enough enthusiasm to power the sun, has been working a lot, probably too much. That’s why he’s so happy. The marketing director of Bareburger, he also is a co-founder of the startup Tapt, a social media app for college students. “Tapt is taking up all my spare time,” he says. “I gave up having a girlfriend or friends…

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At Steinway Street and 35th Avenue, there’s a patch of pavement that since May 1947 has been designated a public playground. Nancy Silverman knows this not because she has children, which she does not. She knows this because it’s the only open space near her apartment, and she frequently walks or cycles by it. Imprisoned like a penitentiary by a sky-high chain-link fence, the space, which has been christened, inmate-like, as Playground 35, is not a pretty place. And it’s always crowded…

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The lights and stars are twinkling in tandem. The women are shopping in the outdoor farmers’ market, and the men are sawing logs and stomping on grapes to make wine. A crowned king on a camel approaches, bearing gifts for Mary and Joseph’s newborn babe in the stable. It’s Christmas time in Jose Leon‘s village. Every time Jose looks at it, he thinks of home. Nativity scenes such as this are a tradition in Cabra, the rural town in Spain where he comes from. Most people…

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