Dance School

WASHINGTON -- They don't teach the kind of pirouette Washington Mystics guard Nikki McCray did last night after her team's 74-71 WNBA win over the Charlotte Sting at any dance school.Truth be told, McCray's impromptu victory dance wasn't one a lot of players can manage, since most haven't experienced the kind of misery the Mystics have over their 1 1/2 years of existence."We deserved to win this game. We needed to win this game. It's like you reward a dog with a treat when it does good. This was our reward," said McCray, who had a game-high 26 points, including three three-pointers.

The Ballet Theatre of Annapolis is conducting a children's poster contest in conjunction with the April 13 and 14 performances of "Alice In Wonderland."The winning entry will become the official poster for the production, and the artist will receive a prize.Entries should be drawn on 10-by-15-inch paper, in any medium, and depict a scene from the story. The drawing must fill the entire page. Winners will be chosen from two age groups; preschool to 9 and 10 to 16 years of age.Prizes will be awarded in both age groups, butonly one of the winning entries will be selected as the official "Alice In Wonderland" poster for 1991.

Pasadena goes tropical this weekend with Hawaiian steel guitarist Henry Allen strumming in concert at St. Jane Francis Church hall.Two local dance groups, Baltimore's Magic of Hawaii and the Hawai'i Aloha Lu'au Dancers of Pasadena, will join Allen tomorrow in a four-hour celebration of Hawaiian culture and entertainment."

Christian de Portzamparc, architect of the City of Music conservatory in Paris and a number of apartment buildings there, has been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 1994, it was announced Sunday by the Hyatt Foundation, sponsors of the award.Mr. Portzamparc, who is 49 and lives in Paris, is the first French architect to receive the Pritzker Prize, widely considered xTC architecture's most prestigious. Born in Morocco in 1944, he is also the first Pritzker laureate of the generation that grew up after World War II.Unusually, for an internationally prominent architect of his age, Mr. Portzamparc is better known for buildings than for theoretical or unbuilt projects.

Rodgers Forge Elementary School Principal Missy Fanshaw has seen her fair share of triumph this summer. Her son, Patrick, is a junior attackman on Loyola University's national champion lacrosse team. Andrew, her middle son, helped Calvert Hall to an MIAA lacrosse championship this spring, and youngest son Michael won the MYLA championship with his Kelly Post youth lacrosse team. Now Fanshaw, who took over as principal at Rodgers Forge in January after Susan Deise retired late last year, can add a sterling achievement of her own to the mantel.

Q: I am a nonprofessional dancer who would like to take a two-week respite in New York from my desk job to be in residence at a modern dance school. Do any of the well-known dance companies offer a short-term program?A: Many well-known companies tailor programs to nonprofessionals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.The Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, 211 West 61st Street, New York, N.Y. 10023, (212) 767-0940, offers open enrollment throughout the year and a number of summer programs.Under open enrollment, students 15 or older, from adult beginners to professionals, can take classes six days a week in all levels of ballet, jazz, modern, African, tap and Dunham (Afro-Caribbean)

Washington - Mary Day, grande dame of dance here, has stepped down as director of Washington Ballet, and now the task of packing up has begun.Her office is crowded with photographs and gilded, beribboned award certificates; stuffed with dance books - historical artifacts in themselves; and piled with memorabilia, from programs to dried flowers. Just outside the door, a coat rack holds dirndls and peasant skirts from some 19th-century ballet."I start reading, and I get so interested in everyone," Day says, sounding helpless and nostalgic.

WITH THE HELP of years of dancing lessons and an American go-getter attitude, Megan Harper is the newly crowned North American National Irish Dance Champion for girls 18 years and under. This is an amazing accomplishment for an American teen-ager in an art form traditionally dominated by dancers from Ireland, Scotland and England. Before capturing the North American crown - a gold and silver tiara befitting royalty - the 2002 Severna Park High School graduate participated in her first international competition (called a feis in Gaelic)

Alvin Mayes, a member of the dance faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park, has been named artistic director of the Kinetics Dance Theatre. He succeeds Dorothy Fried, artistic director of the company since its founding in 1984, who will assume the position of executive director on July 4.Ms. Fried will begin her new position the day after the company's Wednesday 7 p.m. performance at Wilde Lake High School as part of the Columbia Festival of the Arts. The performance will include Ms. Fried's dance-theater piece "State of My Art," described as a satirical reflection of her experiences in forming a non-profit organization.

The east Columbia branch library will throw a party from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 11 to kick off its summer reading program, "Wild About Reading!" Visitors can register for the reading program, enjoy shows and strolling entertainers and purchase refreshments. Entertainers will include Sam "The Muleman" Miller, who plays guitar, sings and is to emcee the event, and poet Truth Thomas. Class Acts on Tour will perform The Elephant's Child. Also on hand will be the Kangaroo Kids precision jump-rope team, and magician Mike Rose who will perform a "Wild About Reading Magic Show," an interactive comedy that includes mind-reading stunts and sleight of hand.