perky

Keep the Saratoga seasons going. But is it also too much to ask that NYCB tour it's own country? Not just the two coasts, but also the rest of us? I live 3 1/2 hours from Chicago. I would drive there in a heartbeat to see NYCB.

My husband and I watched this movie for the first time in August of 1997 in bed in a bungalow in Goa, India about 6 months after we were married

So..........I have very fond memories of this film. I prefer Branagh as the German conductor rather than the American PI. More scenery to chew there!! Thompson is lovely in both of her roles. Although the ending is rather wacky it definately is cool. And remember that scene where an aged Andy Garcia blows cigarette smoke out of the hole in his neck? Yuck!!!

If you haven't seen the film I do recommend it.

The vulnerability, fragility, lightness and innocence of the young character were embodied in Kent the dancer -- the self-sufficiency, toughness, bitter cynicism were expressed by Lenya the survivor.  The unforgettable moment for me is when Lenya, who made some kind of pronouncement, turns to Kent (the young Anna) and asks her:  "Right, Anna?"  Kent starts to open her mouth to respond, perhaps to disagree.  Lenya puts her hand over Kent's mouth to keep her silent and answers her own question:  "RIGHT, Anna." 

Although it's been a long time, I can still see both performers positioned next to one another, Lenya to the left, facing the wings, Kent slightly behind her facing the audience, hair down -- hear the raspy intonation of Lenya's voice -- and remember how powerful it was when it seemed that this gentle dancer, to whom so many dreadful things had happened during the ballet, actually might speak her feelings out loud on stage. 

This is probably my single favorite memory of any stage performance.

(Great Kurt Weill score, too.)

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Wow!!

Thanks Bart for that firsthand account of The Seven Deadly Sins!!

Like Paul I too wish more of Allegra Kent's dancing was on video.

The Hip-Hop Fairy- brings much needed bling and street cred. to Aurora

The Hummer Fairy- Aurora's got to have the biggest baddest wheels a princess can get.

The Reality TV Show Fairy- brings Aurora her very own show. Carabosse is the bad guy of the show (think Omarosa), ratings go through the roof.

I just want to know who is going to come running out from under Bush's skirt?

In the lobby today the following cast change is announced for Friday & Saturday evenings:

Antonio Carmena replaces Benjamin Millepied as Oberon

Is this a debut for Carmena? It would be nice to see him dance a bigger role. Reports please!

When did ballet become an obsession for me? When I joined this board!! Or is this just the food that feeds the obsession?

Of course it's more than just the steps, but is thier one ballet step in particular (especially if done well) that always manages to bring a smile to your face or makes you lean forward in your seat in anticipation?

I love hops on pointe. From Giselle's traveling hops in her first act variation to Balanchine's Ballo Della Regina with those three hops as the ballerina pivots four times. I don't know the technical term, but to me they are the Mount Olympus of hops on pointe and they make my heart go pitter patter!

One of my favorite Bancroft screen moments is the beginning of To Be Or Not To Be, when she does a song and dance number...............in Polish!!! She looked lovely and glamorous in that role and funny too.

Is this available for purchase?

A Room With A View is one of my alltime favorites. He was a class act.

I'm curious about Balanchine and how he used emploi with his dancers and in his choreography. Violette Verdy and Patricia McBride are two dancers that because of size, and stage personality would be classified as soubrettes and Balanchine did make some lovely soubrette type roles for both. Verdy had Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, McBride had Coppelia and Tarentella. However he also explored a different side of both dancers, a side you normally don't assume to see in a soubrette. Verdy's role in Liebleslieder Waltzer, McBride's in BS Quartet.

You can see the same thing with the men. For instance, Arthur Mitchell I would classify as a dancer noble. But Balanchine cast him as Puck. Eddie Villella seemed like a demi-character, but Balanchine cast him in Swan Lake and so on.

Did Balanchine believe in using emploi when casting dancers? Or was it simply a case of knowing what a certain dancer could do, and then wanting to stretch that dancer. Or how about the theory that he picked, nutured and advanced these wonderful dancer because they could transcend emploi? I mean good grief, what emploi would you classify Suzanne Farrell as belonging to?

Wasn't Marie Jeanne the lead ballerina on this tour?

I usually think most of the people in the NYCB Corps would be stars in any other Company.

And they inspire the passionate following that people usually asssociate with stars from other companies. NYCB dancers do seem to make very good writers. Must be something in the water!

I'd want to be a Balanchine Muse. But not a wife. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

I don't get to see NYCB as often as I would like, it's every other year or so for me. However, when I do see them it feels like I'm home. I don't know any other way to describe it. The ballets, the dancers, the music, it's as beloved and as familar to me as my daughter's smile.

I recently saw a picture of Natalia Makarova with very short hair dancing the girl in Afternoon Of A Faun. It looked horribly out of place in that ballet. That loose sweeping long hair is part of the character. And I happen to love the ending of Walpurgisnacht with the flying hair and barely restrained edge of hysteria.

Long hair in a Balanchine ballet implies all sorts of mysteries and mystical doings. I love it!

I Whatever one may think of Bejart, Farrell's sojourn with him had the effect of greatly deepening her art. No less an authority than Jacques d'Amboise said in "Elusive Muse." "When she came back she was better!" I agree.

Perhaps it was also a matter of Farrell finally feeling comfortable in her own skin.

Nice to see Korbes name on the casting list so often. Which one is the Albert Evans ballet, Broken Promise or Distant Cries? And finally, is anyone planning to attend?

On my trip to NY last year to see NYCB I bought Ashley Bouder's signed shoes. On the bottom is written "Dances 1", could this be a reference to Dances At A Gathering? Anyway, I just love them. I like to take them out occasionally and just handle them, even try them on my feet. Next trip to NY I'm hoping to get Carla Korbes shoes.

Would love to have Farrell's, Tallchief's or LeClerqc's. I would actually start to hyperventilate if I saw those.

How wonderful that after 30+ years with the company Kyra gets a chance to dance a Balanchine role new to her!

I just learned that Altria (a.k.a. Phillip Morris) has underwritten the entire 2005 ballet and dance season at the Kennedy Center. This leaves me with very mixed emotions. Glad that ballet has some much needed funds for the season, including Suzanne Farrell's restaging of Balanchine Don Quixote. Unhappy that Phillip Morris has the be the corporation to grant it.

Ballet, which uses the human body to express music, emotions and at the best of times illuminates the soul. Big Tobacco, whose product weakens and eventually kills the human body. It doesn't seem right. Is it a neccesary evil? How do Kennedy Center regulars feel about this?

Ian McShane for Tito

Vladimir Malakhov for Rudy

And if they cast a non-dancer for Margot, how bout Kate Beckinsale.

From today's links comes the news of a planned film based on Meredith Daneman's biography of Margot Fonteyn. Apparently they might use digital animation to reproduce her dancing, so you could in reality cast a non-dancer. Who to cast then?