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I was fortunate to be able to see Etudes (twice) earlier this month in Copenhagen. Both performances were very impressive. It's such a rigorous, unforgiving piece, and very few companies would be capable of pulling it off as well as did the RDB. It would have been a good piece to bring to the States, except for the toll it exacts on the dancers. What a punishing ballet . . . .

I question the wisdom of having the dancers make a 17-hour, 9-time-zone trip on Sunday, rehearsing Monday, and performing Tuesday. I understand touring is expensive, but 8 pm in Orange County is 5 am in Copenhagen.

There's now a free iPhone tour App available.

Amy Watson and Hilary Guswiler (via Eva Kistrup); Carling Talcott (via Ballet News); and Kizzy Matiakis (via The Ballet Bag).

There is a special blog for the tour, with contributions scheduled to begin May 20.

In the June issue, with a gaggle of RDB dancers.

For a lighter take on the plot, such as it is, see Carling Talcott's blog post here.

See here for a nice description of the "Bournonville Variations," authored by RDB dancer Carling Talcott as a guest post this past May on the "Ballet Bag" blog. What I'm really looking for is a Bourbonville Variations, which of course would be the ballet's answer to Margaritaville.

I'm not sure that Morphoses is "finished" so much as "morphed." While Wheeldon may have abandoned his baby, there are others who are continuing with its care and feeding. That said, I also wonder whether with the shortened Saratoga season, this new troupe will end up saving the company money in the long run.

That's the name of the new touring troupe announced today. Sounds like sort of a "NYCB Lite," bringing quality ballet to summer resort destinations across the country . . . .

The Guggenheim's Works & Process series is featuring a sort of mini-performance of RDB dancers and Bournonville dances, with Nikolaj Hübbe participating in a panel discussion, on March 20 and 21. This venue seats only about 250. Tickets are on sale now.

Eva Kistrup's pre-US-tour interview with "Poster Boy" soloist Alban Lendorf. "Lendorf’s career has, in less than two years, catapulted him not only to the front line, but to the position as the leading male star, the most coveted position in a company where the male wing is the historic determinator. Although not a traditional danseur noble, he is the first cast for both Peter Martins’ 'Swan Lake' and Christopher Weeldon’s new 'Sleeping Beauty” and in the spring production 'Danseur Noble M/K" he had the lead in three of the five ballets."

Jane Simpson's review of Wheeldon's 'Tornerose' from Ballet.co. "In other words he's taken some of the classical grandeur out of it and replaced it with a more human, demi-caractère feel - a long way from the Maryinsky, but a much better fit for the present company."

When your dance company's country has a queen, if you're lucky she'll pop by when you retire.

I've read most if not all of the "Chronicles," and find them generally wanting. Perhaps it was a mistake to send a critic on this tour; I'm more interested in reading about the variety of Nutcrackers that are out there than critiques of each one. It seems as though Macaulay is trying to do a bit of both with his reports, and as a result doesn't give us enough of either. It's probably a no-win from his perspective: if he focuses too much on critique, he's damned for attacking the non-NYC companies that rely so heavily on Nutcracker revenue to support the rest of their seasons. If he focuses on the individual variations on the traditional story, then people wonder why a critic was sent on an errand that would be better handled by a features writer. It reminds me of when I cook dinner for my spouse's (large) family: if I try to please everybody, it's guaranteed to turn out mediocre.

I do forgive you, Dirac. If you have been spared the ordeal of having to deal with serious weight and body-image issues on a first-hand basis, then consider yourself blessed. As you correctly suggest, influences come at dancers from all angles and all sources. While Macaulay's one sentence in his review is just another straw, it was not a sentence that needed to be written in the way it was written. As for the backlash - I think that's helping. While it may have spread his comments far beyond his original audience, the fact that most of the backlash appears to be on the side of the dancers sends a far more positive signal than what his one sentence did in his review.

As a reviewer for a major newspaper in the country's cultural capital, writing about the season's most heavily-attended ballet, Macaulay must have known that his NYCB Nutcracker opening night review would have a much wider audience than most of his reviews do. Given the many young dancers who encounter issues with their weight in the course of pursuing their goal of becoming "just like" a Jenifer Ringer or a Jared Angle, it would have been better had he expressed his thoughts in a more professional and responsible manner. What are young dancers who have body image issues to begin with supposed to think when two NYCB principals are subjected to such a withering attack? Borrowing Leigh Witchel's gentler phrasing for Angle - that he "looked a little out of shape" - would have done the job without any snark whatsoever, and without sending the not-so-subtle message that skinny = better.

The Royal Danish Ballet has introduced a number of social media initiatives this season. -- The KGL Theater Facebook page has been there for awhile. -- Both the theater and the ballet have Twitter accounts; the theater (@kglteater) posts in Danish, the ballet (@rdballet) in English (mostly). -- Individual dancer bios (examples here and here) now link to blogs and twitter accounts -- The information pages for each of the ballets now include a section where audience members can post their own reviews. See the Swan Lake page for an example. This last one could get interesting.

RDB Corps member Carling Talcott's contribution to the Ballet Bag: a description of the mens' opening night.

For those with an interest, at least three RDB dancers have blogs: The first two are in Danish. Use Google Translate to read them in fractured English Bella Figura (http://bellafigura.cover.dk/) by Cecilie Lassen is a nice mix of fashion, art, and some ballet and personal items. Fashion Bits (http://mathilde-fashionbits.blogspot.com/) by Mathilde Søe is all fashion. Mixed Nuts (http://rhymeswithdarling.blogspot.com/) by Carling Talcott is humorously subtitled "[DUBIOUS] LIFE LESSONS FROM AN EXPATRIATE BALLERINA CHILD."

Background article; Hubbe is using a jazz band for the music (Google-translated version): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=a...ticle794503.ece A nice review (also Google translated): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=a...ticle797396.ece The Google machine translations are a little awkward, but you get a decent sense of what's being said.

Copyright law essentially protects original expressions of ideas that have been recorded in some fashion. Thus literary works, musical scores, films, and records are protected by copyright. Choreography that has been recorded is protected by copyright law. This can be by way of notation or a video recording of the work. Copyrights expire, and the copyrighted work then passes into the public domain. One can perform a work that is not protected by copyright (say a Shakespeare play), record that performance, and the recording of the performance will be protected by copyright because it represents the original expression of that play by the performers thereof. This means that others may not make copies of the recording without the permission of the owner of the copyright. It does not prevent others from staging their own Shakespeare play. The owner of a copyright can control access to the work. This is what allows the Balanchine Trust, for example, (which controls many copyrights to various Balanchine works), to decide which companies get to perform which pieces. Conditions can be placed on the use of a copyrighted work; in the case of the Trust, it frequently conditions its permission to perform a Balanchine ballet on having an approved repetiteur (one who knows the dance) go on site to teach the dance to the company. So, yes, a ballet company should pay close attention to copyrights, both for the music it uses and for the choreography it performs. Failure to do so does a disservice to the artists who created the works, and is illegal to boot.

Just a 'shout out' (as they say on stage at the music award shows) to Alan Hineline for his Tchaikovsky Concerto, performed this past weekend at the Ballet Academy East year-end workshop. I thought it was a wonderfully sophisticated work for these girls to be dancing, and the audience seemed to appreciate it as well. And while all of the classical pieces were very well done, it was also nice (with Scott Thyberg's pas de deux) to have something more modern in the mix.

I share a general lack of experience as an audience member, but I've always rationalized the mid-variation applause, as well as the multiple-curtain-call-applause/brava/flower-throw as a form of extra compensation for dancers who survive the major-league-type odds and debilitating injuries for a life of minor-league pay. Of course, all the 'bravas' in the world won't get you on the downtown local after the show . . .

Here's the theater website; nothing there yet, though, for the POB school: http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/theater/