diane

This was really great to read! It tells so much; I found it very enlightening. Thank you. -d-

carbro: Very good! Yeah, I suppose they just want to see if they can get away with it; pad their pockets yet some more... -d-

I hope so, too! This is ridiculous! -d-

this happens a lot to me. :/ There are so many talented dancers around, and not so many talented choreographers getting the commissions, apparently. Or something along the lines of "the emperor's new clothes" is happening with the choice of who-decides-what's-on-the-program, perhaps? ;) -d-

Good grief!! That is awful! I danced back in the late 70s and through the 80s - it was not that bad where I was then. There does appear to be more pressure now, though, and at many of the _schools_ (pro) there are weigh-ins, though as far as I know not always public. -d-

Yes, I really like it. I now find the BT4D just a wee-bit too "wintery", in comparison. (or it could just be my winter-fatigue...) -d-

That is a good idea, to make the two boards optically a bit different to each other. Well, I know you are not looking for opinions, but I quite like the way it is now - at 10:22 (GMT+1). But, I will happily go with whatever you choose, I am sure. -d-

unfortunately, NDT III does not exist anymore. The Dutch gov. decided to no longer fund it. (please correct me if I am wrong, but that is the info I was given..) -d-

None of the stages I have danced on had markings on them, either. We used to use the conductor as "downstage-centre", and took it from there. (oh, now that I think back, I _think_ that sometimes there was a tiny, white "x" in the very centre of the stage...) It is so true that one has to start early with this in teaching spatial awareness! The whole concept of where one's body is in the space around takes time to internalise. -d-

Thank you for posting the interview, and for the excellent information on Danish humor, etc. That has made some things much clearer for me (from my childhood, involving my Danish relatives) -d-

Happy New Year to you all, too! I really enjoyed that video where the man got so many people to dance with him all over the world. What a nice idea. Even without video-taping it - a nice idea. -d-

You are all such a wealth of knowledge and information! Thank you! This is fascinating. -d-

Thank you, Mr. Johnson! That is very helpful! -d-

I realise that this is quite an old thread, but I have a question regarding Don Quixote as a ballet, so I am adding it on here. I hope that is all right. Here goes: Does anyone know who was responsible for the libretto, so-to-speak, of the ballet version of the story? I have read that Petipa (and later many others) did the choreography, and worked (perhaps) closely with the composer/s, but who decided which scenes from the very long book by Cervantes to put into the ballet as we know it? ....Or was that work generally also done by the choreographers and composers? (nowadays I believe most choreographers do that sort of work by themselves, largely, if they want to use a literary source for their ballet; but I am not sure if this was always the case) We would like to give credit where it is due, that is why I am asking. -d-

totally agree, innopac. -d-

This one is maybe something somebody can answer. I always thought it was 'I couldn't care less', but then a lot of people say 'I could care less' and always mean the same thing. Is one of them more right than the other. That is what I meant - the phrase only really makes sense when it is "I couldn't care less"; as in: it is so unimportant to me. When the person saying it gets slightly confused and says instead, "I could have cared less", then it means the opposite. (or it does to me) I have noticed that " I could've cared less" has been used for a long time, but it still bothers me. -d-

Does anyone know about what the average taxes are people pay in, say, France, as opposed to the US? I have the impression that at least those who earn fairly well pay more taxes here (Germany) than in the US, and that tax money also goes to things such as theaters, etc. I have nothing against taxes, especially if they are used for things more than just weapons.... -d-

"... I could've cared less" -d-

Great! That was really something! Thanks! -d-

It looks a bit like the old Mercury Theatre in Nottinghill Gate; but I am not sure. (things could have looked quite different then, and I do not even know if it was used as studios back then!) -d-

So funny, CoCoyote! Thanks for the laugh. I suppose what bothers me most is that - this type of article gets published (with its dearth of real information, sadly), and that there appears to be a very strong leaning toward anti-intellectualism, yes, even towards proud-ignorance in society in general and echoed in the press. That is scary. The world needs thinkers and ponderers - more than ever before, and not only in the area of music-critics. It appears that non-thinkers are poised to take over (slightly exaggerating here...), and the results will not be positive. -d-

You are probably not the only one to feel sick about this sort of thing. ;-) I was unaware of a concerted campaign by the British press to be scornfull to anything that is not pop-culture, but I do not live in Britain. It also happens in other places, alas. It is so easy to scorn anything one does not understand or just has not grown up with. Things take time; someone hearing rock-n'-roll for the first time may not like that, either. The debate about supporting arts is an old one, and will probably never end. -sigh- -d-

"... unlikely to succeed if it tried to educate the audience in music at the same time it tried to present good choreography." I lke that. Happens all the time, doesn't it? -d-

just an aside, which came to mind here.. Dylan Thomas' poem, where it is stated again and again, It does seem as if Nureyev was doing that. -d-

Wow. That is interesting! Do you know _why_ there would be those provisions? Did the composers have some axe to grind with dancing / dancers? Perhaps they felt that dancing to their music would somehow make it less the center of attention? -d-