The 92nd Street Y is a little bit like a desert well, attracting people to what would otherwise be a cultural wasteland at night: restaurants have begun to spring up around it, like date palms. Last Valentine’s Day, a couple from the neighborhood, Silay Ciner, a Turk who grew up in Istanbul, and his wife, Jill, who is from Denver, opened Peri Ela, a block south of the Y. The food is traditional Turkish, but the space, formerly home to a Greek coffee shop, of all things (Molon lave!), is what you might call Manhatto-Turko-NATO chic: exposed brick, pressed tin, semi-nudes on wood-panelled walls, Amy Winehouse on the stereo.
We’ve written about local dining options before and recently went to Peri Ela with a group of co-workers, including one who is from Turkey. Smiling nods all around, our enthusiastic recommendation is authentic and earnest.
“I became a belly dancer against my conservative beginnings… against the notion that to be a dancer one has to be a size zero, and start ballet at age 3. After years of painful work, I realized that it was all for nothing—until I connected with my spiritual side and began to dance from there.”
—Blanca
If you ever wanted to learn the art of sensual bellydancing, the captivating Blanca—a company member and featured soloist in the off-Broadway show Goddessdance—will get you there. She’s teaching a Fluid Belly Dance class for beginners at the Y starting in February. If the video above has you in a trance, there’s more here.
In the video above, actor Alan Alda talks with award-winning author, playwright, essayist and personal friend Roger Rosenblatt on creating stage drama and how an audience “listens.” Visuals are very important for this lesson. The multi-versed Alda returns to the Y on April 29 and the following night to unite his two passions, music and theater, in dramatic presentations of two colorful chamber works.
In February, Rosenblatt hosts a panel with other modern humorists, including Patty Marx, David Rakoff and Frank McCourt, to discuss his new satirical novel, Beet, and warn Americans to steer clear of higher education.
