Swan Lake in a swimming pool

[Treefrog]

How cool is this? :jump:

Lifeguard on duty at this `Swan Lake'

Joffrey dancers teach classic ballet to kids wearing swimsuits instead of tutus

No swans were harmed during the production, though several got water up their noses.

Others got the shivers.

But there was also much grace and beauty during the swimming pool version of "Swan Lake," performed Thursday by 33 kids at Tuley Park in the Chatham neighborhood, under the direction of four members of the Joffrey Ballet.

Here's the full article from the Chicago Tribune.

[grace]

i can't get this article at chicago tribune. i'm not registered there, and i don't really want to be, since its unlikley that i'll ever want to read anything there again.

can anyone else, who CAN read the article, give me the gist of it? is it done IN a swimming pool? if so, is it ballet? or dance-like movements, like dance exercises in the water? - or is it real synchronised swimming (you know, ethel whats-er-name stuff)?

thanks for any help... i am having visions of trying out an idea like this, with students in the water here, this summer!!! :shhh:

[Treefrog]

Grace, it's extremely hard to tell from the article. It sounds more like "dance-like movements in water" than real synchronized swimming. I think it was done in standing depth. The girls were from a dance program, though.

Perhaps incidentally, perhaps not, all the dancers shown in the original photo (which no longer accompanies the article) were African-American. Given the neighborhood, I'd expect that all the participants were African-American. Our studio, which is extremely diverse racially, takes in several African-American kids each year who are referred by the Joffrey's outreach program. I think this speaks very highly of the company's commitment to diversifying ballet dancers and audiences.

[BW]

I'm going to try again to get to this article - I tried registering three times and each time it said something had "already been taken"...as in my name! I will persevere.

[grace]

thanks ari for privately helping me out with this article. and thanks to treefrog for explaining. BW - i wouldn't try too hard. the article is not at all specific, as treefrog says.