Leigh Witchel

The male variation in Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is one of the few Balanchine pieces I can think of where it's become acceptable to self-choreograph - on this tape you see that the most with Edur, Sarabia and particularly Solymosi. Baryshnikov and Radetsky are doing closest to a canonical version - both were assumedly done in more than one take, though Baryshnikov's doesn't look as cleaned up as Radetsky's performance.

Now to throw in my part of the argument I'd argue that the director-as-iconoclast model is not the only one that works - particularly if it's no longer a choreographer driven company. There's no question of what that style has produced but it has its flaws (Bournonville threw out most of Galeotti's ballet, for instance.) When you get a mediocre iconoclast, you're really in trouble. I'd prefer an artist - but I'd also prefer an artist who respects the institution. In the absence of one, I'll take someone who keeps the place treading water until an artist comes along.

Please let them name him Oscar . . .

And so are bad ones. Being a ruthless jackass isn't a mark of artistic genius. It only signifies the intention to wield power.

must. . .not . . .make. . .joke . . . hard . . . to . . . resist. . .will . . . failing . . .

Think again, Sir Loin of Beef . . . http://www.spike.com/video-clips/m9dbcc/king-bugs Sincerely, Count of Basie.

I either want "HE Senora" or "The Venerable."

Leta! She was the youngest girl in my ballet in 2001 CPYB choreoplan - and completed her training at SFB. Besides her talent, I can never forget her because she lost a baby tooth during a run of the ballet in rehearsal - and kept going.

If you have a reconciliation at the end, Bathilde has to be sympathetic to make it work. (particularly to make it work in revival.) You saw this most in Kaori Nakamura's final scene as Giselle Sat. evening - she (and I believe only she) pointed to the ring finger on Lucien Postlewaite's hand and pushed him back towards the world. It's her final lesson to him about what it means to be an adult. Without the reconciliation, the character of Bathilde becomes more open to other possibilities.

Brief remarks - as I'm writing on this. It was a great effort, absolutely worth doing and seeing. Several revelatory moments - the greatest in Giselle's restored mime that gives her a far less wilting character than is common now. Even so, you need to see this production several times to adjust your viewing to it. Much more mime, much more "genre" scenes. The mime is the greatest benefit and the biggest problem. If they don't do it well - miming without acting (alas, Karel Cruz was particularly guilty) it's like declaiming and stops the whole production dead. My takeaway from it - the historical material does matter, and it's easier for a good production to be a great "Giselle." But success or failure hinges not on the steps, but on the leading couple. There is no great "Giselle" without a great Giselle and Albrecht. For me, the most rewarding performance was the Saturday matinee with Seth Orza and Rachel Foster - it was the strongest in conception, both are good actors but most of all, if only to see them both achieve their own personal bests.

Jack - I could be wrong, but I would assume the seats are not actually sold, but reserved for both VIP attendees and press. The Joyce is only a 400-ish seat house, and Farrell gets a lot of critic attention. Because it's a small house, once you get back a few rows in the orchestra, all the seats have a good view.

David Lamarche, one of the conductors, is a friend, and he is not taller than me (I'm about 5'9")

Different expenses for men and women, puppytreats, but yes. I was told to dryclean my suits as little as possible, but there's an area in my tiny apartment set aside to "stage" an outfit - pick the right tie, links, pocket square. Luckily, men's formal shoes are easy to walk in, but I have a pair of "weather beater" shoes each winter - shoes towards the end of their career that are the ones that get worn in the rain or snowstorm. Where I get jealous of women is summer time. For a man to be well-dressed in the summer takes a lot more ingenuity than for a woman!

Actually, there isn't - the full version is significantly different. What got excised was mostly theater - two speaking characters, a full section (the third, weakest, portion) the character of the "mud woman" is more robust (the solo woman - who in the full version is in fact caked with mud) and the remainder has been rearranged. Parts of the first section of the full ballet are at the end of the suite. I happen to like the Suite, and love the full ballet. I'd like SF to tackle the full version. It's demanding for the audience and occasionally pretentious as well, but it has a courage no work has had for decades.

I'm glad that people go to performances, no matter what they wear. That said, especially because it's now my profession, I've discovered the joys of dressing for a performance. Some might say to excess. I started doing it because I really enjoyed the job at The Post, and wanted to look outside like I felt inside. So, I started wearing suits. People noticed immediately, and not only did I feel good, it was good business. It also felt like a sign of respect to the effort being made by the performers. So I wanted my suits to look better, and I got them tailored. Then I wanted better suits. And because I got better suits, I wanted better shirts. And because I got better shirts, I wanted better shoes. On second thought, dressing for the ballet can be an expensive, if elegant, proposition. I recommend it only to the committed!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, it is a beautiful ballet. Over the years of watching Balanchine's work, one of the things I find most interesting about Serenade is that it is both typical and atypical of his work at the same time in both subject and construction. Serenade is one of the most enduring of the ballets and the most changed from its first performances in the 30s. There were no men. Only three movements were performed (I think the fourth was added in '41 - but I'm not near my references) The soloist sections have been divided in several different ways. Structurally it's freer than some later works, which are more "gridded." Balanchine uses more circles and irregular shapes when moving the corps around. It's more openly allusive than a work like Agon or The Four Temperaments. Balanchine had a romantic streak in him - this is perhaps the most clear example. It will be interesting to see if Serenade comports with your idea of a "Balanchine" ballet, or if that shifts over time.

Reading an older friend's report on hearing d'Amboise speak, another friend wrote her, livid. She was there at some events d'Amboise describes (a trip to Paris, I believe) and her recollection of it is completely different than his. It sounds like d'Amboise may be like Arthur Mitchell - a great raconteur, but I'd double check everything.

To add to the conversation, Kathleen O'Connell - a familiar writer here, subbed for me on the opening night at The Post while I was in the UK last week.

The first three works were shown as a triple bill in Paris last season and on tour the season before that. Giselle and Orpheus are both full-evening. Orpheus is in four tableaux - Bausch deletes Gluck's deus ex machina happy end, and it's about 2 hours long.

Bausch's Orpheus is absolutely worth seeing. It's bleak and it's not ballet, but her theatrical sense is whole and true, the designs by Rolf Borzik are stunning and the company gives it a top-notch performance.

If you're bargain hunting, two good sources are Travelzoo (check periodically to see which hotels are discounting their rates) or Priceline. Don't use Priceline without learning when to use it, how to bid and doing research - but if you put in the work and know what hotels might come up (that can be done), you can save a bundle. For an upcoming London trip, I just got the Marriott Marble Arch (been there before and thought it lovely) for $93/night plus tax, which is more than half off.

What I really do not understand, Simon, is why the Royal Ballet didn't snap her up in a flash to do all the remaining performances of "Black Swan Lake." Instead of a True Swan, they've got some chicks named Marianela and Tamara doing it while I visit. Who are these women anyway? They are certainly not Natalie Portman!

Was there anyone else who listened to the last line and wondered how any dancer, no matter how nutty, could fall out of an overhead press in the third act - and not only finish the performance without a fractured kneecap but think it was perfect? Girlfriend. It wasn't perfect.

The Post and The Times have different goals, styles, editors and readers. But in the two years writing at The Post, the most refreshing thing has been the full-on immersion in making my own taste less important. Sure, it's there and it's essential, but it's not where the column starts nor where it ends - which is with reportage and giving the reader a visual sense of what was on the stage. I'd love another paragraph for context and analysis, but that's not in my word count. I couldn't do the sort of meaty criticism or comprehensive coverage possible in The Times, but it's refreshing for it not to be central whether I like what I see or not - and it's a different school of thought on arts writing. I've long tried to evaluate things by how well they achieve their goals, not mine - these two years have given me a lot of practice!

Others may know with more certainty, but I believe the New Yorker is very committed to Acocella and her writing. If she did not write on something, the better possibility is that she chose not to write rather than that she did not have the space allotted.