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A preview of Alberta Ballet's new mixed bill by Salena Kitteringham in The Edmonton Journal.

George Balanchine died in 1983, but Elyse Borne worked directly with Balanchine and spent almost four weeks with Alberta Ballet, set-ting two of his pieces, working very quickly like they did in those days in New York. "Her father was pianist to Fred Astaire, so every time you hear piano in a Fred Astaire film, Elyse says, 'That's my dad.' She grew up with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly," says Grand Maitre. "This woman has the influence of unbelievable geniuses to share with our dancers. You have to imagine it's like a student of Monet teaching our dancers to paint."

Photo gallery.

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A look back at Pacific Northwest Ballet over the years by Moira Macdonald in The Seattle Times.

Deborah Hadley and Benjamin Houk: "(They) dance together like few other couples in ballet -- or in any other dance endeavor. They have similarly lean, muscular bodies, the same nervy impulse, the same hot energy channeled into lyrical shapes or punchy phrases that could explode at any moment." (By Carole Beers, Feb. 2, 1990; photo courtesy of PNB.)

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A preview of Scottish Ballet's new program by Kelly Apter in The List.

Principal dancer Claire Robertson has seen some been changes since she joined Scottish Ballet in 1994. The latest of which is the arrival of new artistic director, Christopher Hampson.

But while all eyes are on what the company does next, the legacy of former leader, Ashley Page is still being played out, in the shape of an exciting triple bill. All of which Robertson will be dancing in. Even for somebody as technically proficient as her, jumping from Martin Lawrance’s Run For It to William Forsythe’s Workwithinwork and Hans Van Manen’s 5 Tangos isn’t easy.

Related.

Newly in post, and charged with not only ensuring Scotland’s national ballet company has an interesting repertoire to perform, but an audience who wants to see it, Hampson has to think of the long game. Scottish Ballet’s autumn programme and Christmas show were put in place by Hampson’s predecessor, Ashley Page, months ago. So it’s spring 2013 onwards that counts, in terms of how we view Hampson and his ability to run a company (his first ever).

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A preview of the Cinédanse Montréal film festival by Victor Swoboda in The Montreal Gazette.

Claude Bessy, a legendary French dancer of the 1950s, will introduce two films: Something to Dance About, detailing the life of choreographer Jerome Robbins (for whom Bessy briefly danced), and Lignes d’une vie, a portrait of Bessy’s own life. (The first screens on Sept. 22, the second on Sept. 23.) Now 79, Bessy performed at Expo 67 as an étoile with the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris. She later served for more than 30 years as director of the company’s famous school. In her younger days, Bessy was known as the Brigitte Bardot of ballet for her looks and figure. (Ironically, Bardot had studied ballet for three years with the aim of becoming a dancer before she got into acting.) Bessy’s festival presence is a plum.

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Kevin O'Hare offers the rationale for closing down ROH2.

New contemporary work will now be commissioned by the directors of the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera House, O’Hare and Kasper Holten. O’Hare said: “When [Bull] left it seemed like another opportunity to look at it all again and we felt the programming should come into the companies.”

He added: “But it doesn’t mean we will be losing out on the new work. We will actually be encouraging more new work between the companies and also from outside influences such as choreographers and with the opera and its composers as well.”