ascballerina

And the director pulls his hat off and hides his face in it.... It's true, though. I remember being in the wings once and stepping closer to the wall to get out of the way of some performers coming offstage. My foot hit something hot, which turned out to be a wire when I investigated. I got lucky I didn't hurt myself. I know someone else who fell off of a stage into a tuba (and I do mean into a tuba--her leg got stuck in there and broke), and she was a child. I remember in chemistry class there were "posted lab rules" and then "common sense rules" that weren't listed, but it made sense to follow (being careful around broken glass falls into that category). Sometimes, as bart pointed out, the big effects are really closely watched and taken care of, but the little "common sense" rules don't seem to have been looked after...

I read Pick Your Poison. It was a really interesting book. What surprised me was the overwhelming negativity of the comments below. Some of them were fact-checking, but others were quite nasty, saying she's living in La-La land, etc...

You could try Chinese Tea, Spanish Hot Chocolate, Mother Ginger [insert a ginger dish here], or anything from there....ooh, you could do a dish with nuts, too At the end, it would be pas marche: don't--or rather, can't--walk! A Risotto Adagio would work.... Yes, I was thinking about this for the last several hours.

Happy 2013, everyone!

That is the best, kbarber!

I was mentally comparing her to the Queen watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics, actually. Now that you mention it, it does seem strange.

I did enjoy it. But wonderful as Markova is, I do not appreciate seeing her face for 10 seconds when it's not doing anything and people are dancing! ("Come on, cut back to the dancers...come on....THANK YOU!....no....there they go again!")

Oui, Joyeux Noel! I hope that your day is full of laughter, and many "perfect" moments.

Oh, you're welcome.

Point taken. Instead of linking to the Nutcracker, when clicked on, the doodle should have linked to the page on this site where we discuss what a sugar plum actually is!

True, but then the general public probably wouldn't have gotten it.....

Today's Google Doodle is a tribute to the Nutcracker, celebrating its 120th anniversary. It can be seen at Google's Homepage all day today. After that, you can find it here.

Now I have that in my head, where it will stay for several hours. I'm ashamed of myself. I know where they cut it... (blame goes to my brother)

Those are the best. My mother always used to make recital cakes for me, with ballerina cats or ballet shoes (I distinctly remember her making two ballet-shoe cakes when we had a class party--a pink one for the girls, and a white one for the boys! With the flavours being strawberry and blueberry) She also loved to make chocolate moulds of ballerinas and ballet shoes--she'd paint the colours into the mould with tinted white chocolate, and then pour the rest of the chocolate in.

I have always wondered this, thank you for enlightening me! And that clip of the Sugar Plum Fairy was one of the best versions I've seen to date.

I believe you go to "My settings" and then "ignore preferences", add the user, and check the "message" box. But I'm guessing; I've never had to ignore a member before. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

Here's the link for those who a) missed it or b) have the Grey Cup (or some other sports thing) over top of it: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50135740n

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!

That was beautiful! There's a truly magical moment at about 1:37 where the two of them seem to float....I think I'm going to watch the whole thing again.

That was lovely, thanks for sharing!

I second what Ms Leigh said, minus the bookmarked list, signing in, and address typing--I didn't try the first two, and the third worked for me.

This is just cosmetic, really, but there are now two "forums" and "members" buttons at the top of the page....

Yes, my teacher was Cecchetti-trained. It's a lovely step!

I've been taught demi-contretemps with a very small attitude to the back, then chasseing through to fourth, which is why I said it looked like a demi-contretemps, but really, it was hard for me to tell from the angle, which I'd never seen it done at before. I will bow to those with superior knowledge, and agree from the descriptions that it is most likely the failli-assemble combination.