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Although Russian, it looks like she's been performing in Germany, Hungary, and Monte Carlo for many years: http://www.operaballet.nl/en/node/2244

English is the new lingua franca for Europe - the one language most people are likely to understand. Younger people especially are eager to learn to improve their employability in the EU. I don't know the situation in Russia (it appears that Osipova never learned English), but in many eastern European nations, it's been required for K-12 since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the Netherlands, English language instruction in the schools has been mandatory since WWII. They realized that in order to regain their trading status in the post-war world, they needed citizens fluent in English. I might add that Rick Steeves, in his PBS travel show on Europe, often says American's don't need to bother learning a language to travel. Seek out younger people, and you'll be amazed at how fluent they are in English, no matter the country. It's nice to learn a few greetings, but not essential, he says, and that's certainly been my experience. So she's had plenty of opportunities to learn English, if she wanted to.

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^^ At least in Germany, where there are a large number of professional ballet companies, the languages most often used in the studio are English, French and Russian. (with local differences, depending on how many speakers of what languages are in the company and which the director/s speak/s).

Most Europeans nowadays are at least bi-lingual, and many also have working knowledge of other languages, too.

Pretty cool, actually.

-d-

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I loved watching Hans van Manen work and listening to him talk about how he creates these ballets and in what ways he likes to work with the dancers. Fascinating! And hard to believe he is 81, he has such vitality. I wish there were subtitles for those of you who don't speak Dutch, as there was very little English spoken in this episode.

Too bad the series had to come to an end, it was wonderful to watch.

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