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I've been cooking Indian food pretty much every day for over 10 years now so I know my way around a masala but I cooked idli for the first time yesterday and totally screwed it up. You could use the damn things for brick mortar! Back on topic I'm pleased to read these reports from our London members. It gives a fresh perpective on my favorite topic. I am confused by the Brit repulsion for the Karinska Symphony In C tutus. You have to see these costumes close up to really appreciate how stunning and well constructed they are. I think they're gorqeous but to each her own.

I hope so too Haglund! In spite of my dislike for this ballet I would love to see Ansanelli's Juliet.

This is a wonderful and very welcome idea! The tee-shirts and coffee mugs are a great way to start. Future products could include dance bags, sleepwear, sweats, and key rings. On a different note how about Ballet Talk vodka to drown your sorrows in after seeing a particularly bad ballet performance?

When I read that sentence I immediately thought of two buildings that qualify as art , both churches, Notre Dame du Haut by Le Corbusier and La Sagrada de Familia by Antoni Gaudi.

As a Karinska fan I have to ask if the Bouree Fantasque costumes for this revival were based on her original designs?

I remember reading somewhere that the actual clientele for haute couture is only about 2000 women. It's an extremely limited clientele, due to the high cost of the garments and the fact that they are fitted directly on the client. Also a gown that takes 1000 hours to hand bead is not something you can manufacture for the masses. Having said all that I don't think the exclusivity of haute couture makes it high art, although some designers ( John Paul Gautier, Claude Montana) have more of an high art mentality than others. Perhaps you're right miliosr in calling it a fine craft.

And I'll go with Javier Bardem When a guy can still be sexy playing a stone cold killer with an idiotic bowl hair cut, that's some MAJOR MOJO!!!!!

Can't teach an Old Trock new tricks! I know it's a groaner, but I how could I resist? Welcome Mike!

I had read somewhere recently that his performance was filmed, but that's all I know

I would add Balanchine's Alma Mater (1935) and Concerto For Jazz Band And Orchestra (1971), two ballets that seem to be very much of their time and should probably stay there permanently. Another Balanchine that might fall into this catagory is Tyl Ulenspiegel (1951). It's probably dated too, but it looks so darn interesting and Jerome Robbins as the title character has mentioned that he got some of the best notices of his dancing career from this ballet.

How long has it been since Watermill was last performed? Casting prediction for the lead?

I've been an admirer of Daniel Day Lewis since I first saw him in Stars And Bars, a quirky little fish out of water comedy. This man's talent is mind-boggling. Due to living in the boonies, There Will Be Blood hasn't opened in my town yet. Dirac, your comments would be appreciated if you have seen it! The other English actor that came to my attention at about the same time as Lewis is Gary Oldman. He gives such intense, deeply soulful performances.

This is a very interesting observation. And one with which I identify.It seemed to me this fall that the stature of Diamonds has grown since I (we) first saw it several generations of dancers ago. This may have to do with the passage of time, with changes in audience expectations, with the accumulated experience of several generataions of viewers, or all of the above. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I'm going to sound like an old-timer but they don't make them like that anymore. The pas de deux you see being made now have a different feel and look to them, and this includes the pretzel pas de deux that seem to be very much in vogue. The Diamonds pas de deux evokes images of mutual admiration and respect between the two dancers, with the man showing off the woman in all her power and glory. Because of this she is allowed to be vulnerable too. Balanchine didn't just place Farrell on a pedestal and admire her, her learned from her and from that advanced his own art. Personally I don't mind being put on a pedestal every now and then, the air up there is awesome

Were these the costumes with the royal blue sash on the ladies tutus? They were beautiful and very regal looking, perhaps that's why they were dropped when the Ballet Imperial title was changed. I saw the archive video of Marie-Jeanne coaching Barocco. Her comments that it was more jazzy and compact makes me dearly wish that a video of her perfomance was out there somewhere!

Maybe I'm a nutter, but the posts I've always enjoyed the most on your blog are about your travel experiences and She Who Must Be Petted! Speaking for all the non-dancers out there, I want to see and read about the process as well as the product. The chance to share in the blood, sweat, tears and hopefully joy that goes into making a dancer or a dance is truely a gift for us outsiders.

Tanny was the Greta Garbo of ballerinas

What I love about Mel and Maks is the risks they take with just about everything. From costumes and choreography to especially the music they dance to. The Pasa Doble to En Voque's Free Your Mind, The Tango to Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and this week the Viennese Waltz to Queen ! When you think of these song selections together with those particular dances you wonder how in the heck can anyone pull THAT off! After watching them dance to those choices you wonder why no one has ever thought of that before. They do such a wonderful creative job. However, all of that skill and energy doesn't mean they will win. I like Marie Osmond, I grew up watching her and Donny, but she's got no business being in the top three. Don't be suprised if she wins the whole thing.

You hear many older dancers saying of a ballet "That's not the way we danced it back then." I want to know what the difference is. Is it changed steps? Is the accent or tempo to slow, to fast? Not lyrical enough, not jazzy enough? These details facinate me. I would also ask when did these changes take place and why? Did the choreographer change them? Did the dancers or ballet mistress/master? I guess that's why I love to watch the Interpreter's Archives videos from The George Balanchine Foundation. In one Marie-Jeanne is setting the original version of Concerto Barocco on SAB students and she becomes increasingly upset at how lyrical and flowing the girls dance it. She explains it should be much more compact and jazzy. These insights are priceless.

James Wolcott on Robert Gottlieb, "Although, he's been attending ballet since the invention of the chandelier" "His aesthetic is little more than pet likes and pet hates which he peddles as if campaigning to have his favorites crowned prom king and queen during intermission." So......, according to Wolcott, Gottlieb is ancient, out of touch and possibly senile. His taste's also lack maturity, focus and impartiality. MEOW!!! When Wolcott can critique a critic without resorting to bitchiness and personal attacks then I'll take what he has to say seriously.

Don't Look Now (1973) starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland is a movie that scares the bajeebers out of me although it isn't really a horror movie. The plot is about John and Laura Baxter, a couple whose young daughter drowned in a horrific and avoidable accident. Now living in Venice the guilt ridden John starts to see images of his daughter in her red raincoat (she was wearing it when she drowns) walking through the streets of a forebidding Venice. He doesn't catch up to her until the end of the movie and when he does it's a head scratching shocker. Sutherland is fantastic is the role of John. Driven by guilt, haunted by images of his lost daughter, he makes John's pain a living overwhelming entity.

Wow! I had no idea. Can you imagine NOT catching Maria Tallchief! This reminds me of a moment in the third pas de deux in the Andante of the Mozart Divertimento. There was a tricky spin that was removed after Allegra Kent fell while executing it. Did anyone ever see it?

Her costume looked like something a 3 year old girl would wear to her Glamour Shots photo shoot. I'm not an expert either, but I like my Samba slow and sultry and Marie/Jonathon's was too punchy and frenetic.

Ostrich I can't help but think that you and Farrell Fan are thinking of two different books. The one FF refers to is Arlene Croce On Balanchine, a book we have been waiting on since 2003, the year of the Balanchine Centennial. First the release date was pushed to 2004, then followed a series of setbacks on the release date. I emailed the publisher, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux at this time last year and was told to expect a release date of February 2007. Of course Feb. 2007 saw no new book (big surprise). So being the persistant little bugger that I am I emailed them again in August of this year. This time I got no reply at all. Perhaps they think I'm some sort of Arlene Croce stalker?

After just re-watching my Ballet Russe DVD, I'm craving an Alexandra Danilova biography. I've read her own autobiography which was nice but think an objective well reseached biography is needed. So many of the younger female dancers recall her taking them under her wing, almost becoming a mother figure to them, yet we also know what a forceful strong personality she could be. I think she was a dancer who never knew how to be anything BUT a dancer. Every breath she took she breathed as a BALLERINA. A true creature of the theater. I think she was facinating. Editing to add: I also agree that a Tanaquil LeClercq biography is overdue.

When I was about 14 years old I got hooked on the PBS series All Creatures Great And Small. This prompted me to read the book by James Herriot, followed by the other three books in the series. I adored these books. The humor, compassion and emotion really hit a nerve with the awkward, nerdy and socially inept girl that I was. When I was on complete bed rest with my unborn daughter 7 years ago I re-read all them (after all what else was there to do?) Re-reading them again brought back all the warm, happy feelings I got when I first read them.