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I've got to ask Tom. I know that the performance was quite recent but I do not know when the agreement was made.

I recall Beatriz Rodriguez and Paul Sutherland barely looking at each other. To me the pas was all about their feelings boiling over inside and not showing one iota on the outside.

Wilma Curley was the statics girl 24/7. She used to drop her cigarette and put it out with her foot, on the marely dance floor.

My friend Tom Mossbrucker was allowed to reconstruct and present Laura Dean's first ballet for Joffrey - NIGHT for his Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet just two or three months ago.

This is real difficult for me as I fell madly in love with this ballet in the 70s watching the Joffrey. I even got to learn it but knew I would never be right for it. What an honor to work with Wilma Curly!

To me this ballet is perfect in the way it captures its time. But this new interpretation is approved by the Trust so I will certainly hope it is a great success. I definitely have no objections to the wonderful cast!

A snippet from a New York Times review:

BALLET: 'FORCE FIELD, BY LAURA DEAN, IN PREMIERE BY THE JOFFREY

By ANNA KISSELGOFF

Published: April 4, 1986

ROBERT JOFFREY was the first artistic director to invite the experimental modern-dance choreographers who emerged from the 1960's and the 1970's to work with a major ballet company.

The company is, of course, the Joffrey Ballet and the latest entry in this category is an exhilarating and complex new extravaganza by Laura Dean. ''Force Field'' is her third ballet for the company, and its New York premiere Wednesday night at the State Theater showed Miss Dean working on a new and expansive block-busting scale.

Costumed completely in white and danced with the human equivalent of jet propulsion, ''Force Field'' is the ''Sylphides'' of the space age.

The new ballet, set to a metallic-sounding tape of Steve Reich's ''Six Pianos,'' employs a cast of 20 but has the density and appearance of twice that number. Miss Dean has always known how to fill a stage, even in her most reductionist days, when she honed her choreography down to a deliberately limited vocabulary and the simplest of geometric patterns.

Pereyaslavec.

Thank you very much.

Did some goggle searches and found nothing. Not even sure if I'm spelling correctly.

Can anyone direct me to an online biography?

Any info would be appreciated.

Thank you Mel. I can't express how much I adored this woman. I was not a regular student of hers. I was allowed to take her pas de deux class on Friday evenings and I lived for Friday evenings. What I loved about pas class most was that I got to take her barre. I was fortunate to get to dance in her Miami Ballet rehearsals Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights plus Saturdays and Sundays. I was in heaven in her studio and begged her to let me clean her studio and wash her air conditioner screens just to repay her in a small way. It was at her studio that I first met Victoria Leigh. Martha Mahr will forever remain the most important influence for me in the dance.

It seems very THE RED SHOES, another era.

I'm thankful that one good thing I learned from Gerald Arpino was to not stand in the way of the progress of an artist.

He would have never held a dancer back.

I'm pretty certain but not 100 per cent sure that Tulsa Ballet did 'Suite en Blanc' under the directorship of Roman Jasinski.

I hope somebody can help.

God I love that trailer. Can't wait!!!

The trailer is on You Tube (sorry I always forget how to do links.)

It's smashing!

Wish I knew how to patiently wait for Nov. 29th.

I think bringing in Mimi Paul and Violette Verdy to coach the dancers in Emeralds shows a great deal of thoughtfulness when it comes to quality.

I saw Saturday evening - January 31st and Sunday matinee - February 1st.

I must say that I am quite smitten with PNB, much more so than SFB so I have very little to quibble about.

Louise Nadeau in the Verdy role was perfection. She's just incredibly beautiful in every way. Her dashing partner Olivier Weavers was the perfect compliment to her charming presence.

Maria Chapman was lovely in the Mimi Paul role (last year when I went up for R&J I asked Peter Boal after class "Who is she?!!?), she's a stunning young lady/soloist. She was a tad bit too aloof for my taste but I think she is one of PNB's treasures. Chalnessa Eames, Seth Orza, Sarah Richard Orza were excellent in the pas de trois.

I think I could listen to and watch Emeralds non stop forever. It's reallly heaven to me so I was one happy guy.

Jodie Thomas was a blonde Patricia McBride in Rubies. She's tiny and sassy - loved her. Jonathan Porretta has great technique and sophistication. The audience was in the palm of his hand. He's a local star for sure! I LOVED Ariana Lallone. She was spot on - TALL, in control - beautiful line, beautiful smile!

I imagine Balanchine would have fallen hard for Carla Korbes! Her Diamonds had the musicality and spiritual soul of Suzanne Farrell and her line and technique were flawless. Last time I saw her was at State Theatre when she stepped in at the last minute for first movement - Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3. She was hair down and barefoot - gorgeous. But in Diamonds she was the most beautiful young Tsarina imaginable.

For me, the Sunday matinee didn't quite pack the punch of Saturday night but it was still a wonderful performance. I especially liked the sweet natural smile of Benjamin Griffiths. He was not grinning ear to ear but just smiling in respect for this beautiful gift of a ballet he was dancing. I must also mention the great performance of Olivier Weavers in Rubies. I go all the way back to John Clifford and Sara Leland and I believe Weavers dancing a role against his type dazzled perfectly. Laura Gilbreath in the tall Rubies role was also a delight.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it up to see this. It's going to be incredibly gorgeous.

I hope I get to see Louise!

Sorry I did not see this performance but Ms Jensen has recently been taking class with Ballet West. I believe this is her home when she's not in NY or performing in Europe.

She is looking beautiful and in my opinion an artist has taken the place of a the little girl technician I saw last year.

The costumes for Mr. Joffrey's last venture into choreography- POSTCARDS, were a gift from Gage Bush.

What a gorgeous Ballerina!

I saw her last season as Lady Capulet and she was stunning!

Sorry I didn't get to see more of her career.

PS - I'm a newbie to PNB but I think Maria Chapman is a beauty to watch.

Joffrey Ballet - September of 68 (Cover of Dance Magazine).

It was revived in October of 77 (when I first saw it) and again in Chicago.

Flemming Flindt came to Chicago to oversee the staging and I believe we received letters complaining that it was too violent for children.

I saw a video of San Francisco Ballet's 90s? production. The sets and costumes were revised- the wife/pianist was in pants and boots in what I interpreted as a Nazi uniform.

From "La Vivandiere Pas de Six"

Text and Labanotation by Ann Hutchinson Guest

Language of Dance Series, No. 6

"In 1968, as a wedding anniversary gift, my husband, Ivor Guest gave me a rare copy of Arthur Saint-Leon's 'Stenochoregraphie', a gift to which a gentle string was attached......Of all companies in the United States and Britain, that of Robert Joffrey was the best qualified to tackle this first reconstruction. Joffrey himself was always aware of and interested in ballet history - witness his re-interpretation of the 'Pas des Deesses' and his invitation to my husband to talk informally about the Romantic ballet to his principal dancers when his company was in London....My experience in working with the Joffrey II dancers, directed by Sally Bliss and Maria Grandy, was in every sense a joy. Ellen Troy and Ursual Burke who shared the Cerrito role were each very different, but delightful. Among the boys it was difficult to cast the Saint-Leon role as they all turned exceptionally well. In the end we selected Mark Goldweber and Larry Harper to partner our Cerritos."

"A visitor to the Joffrey II rehearsals was Pierre Lacotte who had starting working on Saint-Leon's score a few months before. Excited at the thought of having Paris as the setting for the first performance in over 100 years, he pushed ahead to achieve a September 1976 premier..... As Jean Pastori mentions in his book 'Tradition Pierre Lacotte', Lacotte uses his research as a basis and inspiration to which he adds his own creative understanding and imagination. Pastori quotes Lacotte: "There are two methods of reconstructing. The archaeologist's who leaves the traces he has exhumed in their original state, and that which consists in breathing fresh life into the finds. I have chosen the second."

"The pas de six had thus been taking shape on paper for some years before Robert Joffrey invited Ann Hutchinson Guest to produce it for his second company, Joffrey II, in 1976. Seeing it in rehearsal, however made him realize its importance, and he decided it should be performed by his main company, by which it was given its first performance at Ravinia Festival, Chicago, on 18th August 1977 with Ann Marie De Angelo and Kevin McKenzie in the principal roles."

Those who saw Joffrey Ballerina Francesca Corkle in the role of Fanny Cerrito might argue that her batterie was unsurpassable.

We've talked about great ballets at length, even discussed memorably bad ballets. Are there any that stand out in your minds as so mediocre that they are memorable? For me that would have to be "Opus 1", Cranko, to the Webern Passacaglia. We worked like devils on it, and it was difficult, and well-crafted, but what am I left with as a recollection?

The women wore brown leotards.

Do you have any recall of ballets so eenh! that they were outstanding?

Oh Mel - I know I was a very green 17 year old from Miami but 'Opus I' has haunted me since the first time I saw it at City Center - 1975. The uneasy music, the shapes of the body and unusual usage of the corps. I remember Ingrid Fraley and Burton Taylor in beige or as Arpino would call it mushroom doing wonderfully crafted architectural pas de deux work. But the lighting was so spooky I couldn't tell the corps was in brown.

I consistently ask for a revival in every rep. meeting.

I saw Houston Ballet perform Ben Stevenson's version of "Peer Gynt" at City Center in the early 1980s.

Cranko has "Holberg Pas de Deux" (done first by Joffrey and then by ABT in the U.S.) to Grieg and Arthur Mitchell did a "Holberg Suite" for DTH.

If you're interested in pictures of Bronislava Nijinska and Georgina Parkinson check out the blog.

Not sure if this is OK to say because I do not have it directly from Ms Smolen but a friend of mine who is a member of SFB says she is retired and starting law school.

I was riveted to every second of the HBO series (several times per episode) and I also love Mel's knowledge on the subject.