perky

This may sound kind of strange, but I'd like to do a ballet set to old Hindi Bollywood film songs from the 40's, 50's and 60's. I'm not talking about the disco/hip-hop lame songs that populate Hindi films today. Back then those songs really meant something. They were actually poetry set to music using traditional Indian instruments. They were orchestrated to the highest level. They could be quite fun too, one of my alltime favorites is Hoton Mein Aise from the film Jewel Thief. It's got an amazing display of drum beats and slowly builds to an exciting white knuckle finish. Anyway, the steps to the ballet itself would be a combination of classical ballet and Bharata-natyam. The singers would be in the pit with the musicians. Perhaps Asha Bhoshle could be persuaded to sing . The dancers would be costumed in rich gold brocaded silk. The men would be sexy, tender and loving. The women would be flirty, charming and exotically beautiful. I could go on and on, but I'll stop now

Marnee Morris Andre Eglevsky

GeorgeB fan I agree with you completely! I would love to see Albert Evans dance Apollo. And perhaps in few years Ask LaCour.

I would have liked to have seen Javier Bardem nominated for The Sea Inside. I think of DiCaprio as sort of a junior version of Johnny Depp. Both very good looking leading man types who like to portray offbeat character parts. Much as I love Kate Winslet I'm rooting for Annette Bening. Vera Drake hasn't played here out here in the cultural boonies ( I happened to see The Sea Inside while out of town recently), has anyone seen it?

Matinee and evening........during a blizzard! Oberon you're a prince! Thanks for your posts!

I'v always loved Dick Button. Perhaps we could call his ideas on Kwan's Bolero program his Big Bang theory.

For me Arlene Croce is the alpha and the omega of dance critics. I've learned more about dance from her, how to view it, what to look for, what musicality is, than anyone else. She never talks down to her reader. She always assumes that you know as much about dance as she does. And while this isn't true in my case, just the fact that she writes that way has opened mental doors for me. I might not always get what she writes about the first time, it sometimes takes repeated readings, but when the light bulb finally goes on over my head, the feeling of enlightenment and discovery about dance I feel is priceless. I haven't read as much Denby as I should have, but he should definately be addressed as Critic Emeritus. I love to read Mary Cargill from DanceView. She writes about dance exactly the way I think about dance. Although she expresses herself much more eloquently and intelligently than I ever could. A critic I would like to read more of is Ismene Brown from across the pond. I haven't read a lot of her stuff but what I have read has fueled my curiosity. And I might say that I love to read dance critics in general. One of my favorite things to do is read DanceView while soaking in hot bubble bath. It's a little slice of heaven.

Not dwarves per se but: Once upon a time a girl named Snow White was running from an evil stepmother who gave her fright. "I'll lose her at The Met," she thought, "and see Nina A. in Don Q, but she hopped on the wrong bus and now was lost too! "Oh what shall I do!", wailed the frightened young girl, "I'll help you", replied a lady covered in diamonds, rubies and pearls. "My name is Mathilda", she said with an imperial wave of her hand, "and my boyfriend is the Grand Duke of a faraway land!" "You know Dear, I'll help you," replied a cultured voice. "In order to get to The Met there is only one choice! I am George and my advise to you, if you want to get there than Dear JUST DO!" "I'll help you!" shouted a fiery young man with a Tartar face, as he leaped in the air with a patherine grace. "I am Rudi, and I can get you there, but first I must ask Margo for the required bus fare!" Suddenly a calm gentle voice could be heard above the fray, "I shall help you", she replied and floated toward Snow with a lovely pas de bourree. "I am Suzanne, but you can call me Roberta Sue." Then she waved her alabaster arm and transported Snow to The Met with nary a wrinkle on her Diamonds tutu. A happy and relieved Snow White raced up to her seats, unfortunately her sightlines was so bad she should have crossed the plaza to see The 4T's.

The entire Ashton festival in New York. Because it was there and I'm......well.....here!

atm711, I've read that Danilova was considered more of a Soubrette dancer, since she was so acclaimed for her "Champagne" roles, so I'm curious what her Sleepwalker was like. Any memories? Also, since Danilova helped stage the NYCB version of Coppelia and I'm assuming coached the Swanilda's, did you see any of her dance influences in McBride's Swanilda? Thanks!

60 years of ballet going! Congratulations! I love to read firsthand recollections of ballet going memories. Thank You!

Locally, a performance by the Fort Wayne Ballet called The Bad Girls of Ballet. Some of the lowlights included Cell Block Tango from Chicago. Which I happen to like in context, but take it out of context and present it as a ballet danced by ballet students and it's awful. Also don't care to see teenage dancers dressed as tarts grinding and slithering on the floor. It made me squirm in my seat and wish I had bag over my head. They also had a Western themed ballet, complete with saloon girls. It was Balanchine's Western Symphony minus the taste, talent, musicality, intelligence and humor. Ugg. A Darci Kistler performance I saw in May of the "Clara the Muse" role in Davidsbundlertanze. It was overwrought, frantic and just weird. She could overcome her miscasting in this part by just toning it down. Balanchine's muses never try too hard, they don't have to. The Suzanne Farrell Ballet having to cancel a planned tour.

The Gottlieb and Teachout Balanchine books A performance in May at the State Theatre of The Four Temperaments that featured Albert Evans, Sofiane Sylve and Teresa Reichlen among others that brimmed with energy, intelligence and wit. The continued success of Eldar Aliev's Ballet Internationale of Indianapolis. Bringing Kirov purity and style to America's heartland, and having the extreme good sense to hire Irina Kolpakova as his Assistant Artistic Director. Bravo!

Amazon.com has the book's release date as April 2005. They are not taking pre-orders as of yet.

Got it. It's a lovely book. Love the interviews with Nikolaj Hubbe and Wendy Whelan. I'm always thrilled to read anything Ms. Whelan says. She sparkles with intelligence, humor and human grace. The Maria Kowroski and Gillian Murphy pictures are stunning. And judging by a picture of Albert Evans with arms posed over his head, I think he should guest star with ABT as the lead in Le Spectre de la Rose. Pronto!

Glad that the Kyra Nichols Dewdrop is preserved on video. Wish I had seen Marnee Morris's Dewdrop.

I can't believe something this insignificant is bothering me, but there it is! I've always wondered about the shoes the dancer in the Arabian dance (in this case Wendy Whelan) wears during her solo. Most of the dance is on flat or demi-pointe and it looks almost as if she is barefoot. At first I thought she was wearing ballet slippers but she does go on pointe very briefly. Is it a deshanked or very old worn in pointe shoe? In the finale of the ballet she has clearly changed into a standard shiny pointe shoe.

I forgot one: Stephanie Saland

After reading both the Gottlieb and the Teachout books on Balanchine I'm more besotted than ever with Tanaquil LeClercq. Gottlieb's book in particular has two gorgeous photos of her that I had never seen before. It really makes me wish their was a biography out about her. But at the same time I'm almost glad one doesn't exist. She lived her life with such grace and discretion. I don't believe she has ever publicly stated anything with regards to her polio or her life with and after Balanchine. I admire that tremendously. And also her courage and dignity. Would a biography take away that dignity? I wonder. What do others think?

Alla Shelest Tanaquil LeClercq Margot Fonteyn Patricia McBride Lourdes Lopez Pauline Golbin Sofiane Sylve

That Pointe magazine article is what alerted me to this book. It sounds fantastic. Santa has it on order for me

Has anyone seen this new book? It's got pictures by Roy Round and interviews with dancers of NYCB and ABT by Joseph Carman. It's coffee-table sized and is priced under $20 at amazon.com. Should I put it on my Christmas list?

Of the two I think Gottlieb's book has the better pictures. In particular, there are two of Balanchine and Tanaquil LeClercq I have never seen before. In the first one its looks like they are on a beach somewhere, she is gazing off into the distance, he is gazing at her. She looks so young, fresh and happy. The other picture I find so striking is a staged group portrait later in the book, all of the people standing around the piano are looking at Balanchine, he himself is seated on the piano bench with Maria Tallchief seated behind him, she also is gazing at him, but Balanchine has eyes only for LeClercq seated on the other side of him on the bench. She looks stunningly beautiful in her La Valse costume. Her arms are crossed and she looks at no one, spendid in her isolation. Teachout's book includes a funnyand for me poignant comparison Balanchine made between Tallchief and LeClercq: "She (Tallchief) was like a tiger" he told an dancer years later, "and after awhile you get restless and tense living with a tiger all the time. Then I found Tanny-she was like flower."

Halfway through the book and the thing that strikes me the most is how different this book is to MF's own autobiography. I think the older we get the more we tend to filter the memories of our youthful romantic entanglements. Not that we are ashamed by them, although that may be part of it, it just our values and perceptions mature along with our minds and bodies. My feeling is that at the time she wrote her book, not only did MF have a certain chaste public image, she herself might have felt ashamed of her romantic past, hence the exorcising of it from her memiors. Also, she came from a era very different from today's celebrity tell all free for all. Something else about this book and MF's autobiography is that with the Daneman we get loads of information about Fonteyn's sex life, romantic entanglements and so on but the subject herself remains a bit of an enigma. With Fonteyn's own book filtered though it may be, you at least get a sense of her personality, her warmth, her humor, her doubts. I just don't get that with Daneman's book.