Ever listen to people go on and on about the good ol’ days, when the East Village was a hotbed of creativity and originality? It’s usually third-hand. But Beverly Blossom was there. And now, at age 79, she’s coming back to town to tell us about it all.

This weekend, Ms. Blossom will perform “The Incomplete Lament of an Old Dancer” at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. The one-woman show is an evening of movement, dance, and spoken word from the heart.

“It’s incomplete because it hasn’t ended yet,” Ms. Blossom told me from her home in Illinois. “I express my thoughts throughout the work.”

Ms. Blossom spent 10 years in Alwin Nikolais’s original company, which was a pioneering troupe in the world of postmodern dance. “It was about 1962 when things really began to be active and chaotic,” she said. “It was a really interesting time, when I think back. It was all very instinctive.”

She also had friends in the legendary Judson group, which was founded by Robert Dunn at the Judson Church. “It was a time to explore new concepts and multimedia. People had discovered strobe lights and discos,” she said. “When we did shows at the Judson Church, there would be sculpture all around. I would create costumes out of things I found on the street.”

And she found a husband in the mix, too: “He was an actor. He did pieces, some was his work and some was that of a poet friend. I still have original films, and I reconstructed them in the 1990s.”

After the heady days of the 1960s, Ms Blossom took a job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne that included booking performing arts groups in a new theater. She moved back and forth between New York and Illinois a few times, but settled in the Midwest with her sister.

“Little by little, I’ve been starting to work again,” she said, adding that she still dances regularly. “I’m 79. It’s not really class. It’s physical therapy.”

But it was her physical therapist who encouraged her to keep moving through dance. “He said, ‘If I give you these exercises, they’ll be so boring. Just keep dancing. Maybe you could do a little show?'”

And that’s exactly what she’s doing.

Her performance will include two sections, one of which is titled “Cello Lessons.” It’s a tribute to her sister, who passed away recently. “Before she died, she was doing wonderful things for people. She was going to buy me a beautiful chair,” said Ms. Blossom. “I told her, ‘If you buy me a chair, I’ll just sit in it. Why don’t you buy me a cello?'”

Though she has taken a few cello lessons, the instrument will not get too much attention: “It’s more of a prop, really.”

The cello portion is a dance lament for her sister, and it also raises memories of other friends and dancers. “I don’t dwell on it. I mention Nikolais,” she said.

One portion includes a lecture and demonstration. But she also calls in a longtime friend to dance a short work Ms. Blossom choreographed. “At the end, I realize how melancholic it is, so I call forth my former protege Cynthia Pipkin-Doyle, one of the first students I had at Illinois,” she said. “I asked her to do that dance to cheer people up.”

Though the project is personal and intimate, it’s also part of a larger film project, sponsored by a private foundation. “So if you go, you’re getting a sneak peek,” Ms. Blossom said.

Ms. Blossom will perform September 15 to 17 at 8 pm. The Bernie West Theatre of the Baruch Performing Arts Center is located at 17 Lexington Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets, on the ninth floor. For reservations, call 646-312-4085.Tickets are $25.

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And now for something completely different. Choreographer Noemie Lafrance has brought dance to a stairwell in Lower Manhattan and a public parking garage on the Lower East Side, and this month she’s staging “Agora,” a work set in the 50,000-square-foot Mc-Carren Park Pool in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. While Ms. Lafrance is capable of creating movement and dance that fascinates the eye, the draw here is the interaction among the crowd, the dancers, and the remarkable space. The enormous empty pool is splashed with graffiti and peeling paint, creating a most unusual setting for dance.

Tickets to stand are $20 ($25 at the door); seats are $35 ($40 at the door). Standees (“floating”) will be allowed to move about the pool to change their perspective during the show. Seated guests (“anchored”) will have one spot for the duration.

This is the sort of only-in-New York endeavor that’s perfect for a group of friends to see together. And ticket prices are structured as a group discount: 10 tickets for $10 each or five for $15 each. Shows are September 13-17, September 20-24, and September 27-October 1 at 8 p.m. Call 718-302-5024 for tickets.

One last thing: Wear comfortable shoes. Really. It’s the rule.

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Last week I had the good fortune to attend New York City Opera’s “Capriccio.” And it was a bit of a surprise to see New York City Ballet principal Ashley Bouder as the ballerina in the shenanigans in Act II. The choreography, by Sean Curran, was pretty simple stuff, though Ms. Bouder and her two male sidekicks executed it on a raked stage. Which is not easy.

The interesting thing was that during the final bows, the singer in the role of La Roche, Eric Halfvarson, went over to Ms. Bouder and brought her forward. She was then stationed between him and soprano Pamela Armstrong for the group bows. This looked to me like a gesture of professional respect – State Theater is Ms. Bouder’s stage, too – and an olive branch between an opera company and a ballet company that do not always get on charmingly. If that’s the case, then well done, Mr. Halfvarson.