Helene

Thank you so much for that. I didn't find it on the VAI site, and then I searched amazon for "D'Amboise" and "Jacques D'Amboise" and nothing came up. "By D'Ambroise" was on the search results page and in the browser title, although it I didn't see any name on the details page, and a search on "D'Ambroise" will bring up the DVD on page two of the search results.I sent them the correction on the feedback form, but it could be centuries before anyone looks at it, if they view it at all.

I think this is a very important point. While Russell danced for several years and was in the original casts of ballets like Agon, she also spent years at Balanchine's side as Ballet Mistress, and her focus in that role was much different than Hayden's as a performer. During one Q&A, Russell said after she had made a correction, Balanchine said something to the effect that "Soon you will be the only one who knows that."You described in the DVT piece how Russell deferred to Hayden as a host would do to a guest, and it reads as if if Russell did not emphasize her knowledge of Balanchine's intent during that session, but let Hayden take the lead.

We are proud and happy to host these wonderful photos of a great ballerina.

This is very sad news. Yisgadal v' yiskadash sh'mey rabbah.

I saw a documentary, I think on PBS, in which Schwarzkopf gave a master class, and disliked her immensely from it. However, I had never known that she was mis-typed until I read her obituaries, which put her advice to one guy to start over in a new voice type in a different light. Most complex issues cause contentiousness, and in making judgements about art, each must decide what is appropriate to combine or keep out of the equation.

The latest issue of Ballet Review (Summer 2006) includes an interview with Charles France by Laura Leivick. I'm not sure whether it was published before and it is a reprint, or if this is the first time it's been published. France mentions Baryshnikov (born 1948) being 50 and La Fosse (born 1959) being 40, which would suggest the late 90's or early 00's, but one of his answers is "This year, they're [ABT] going to do a new Swan Lake," to which Leivick replied, "Kevin McKenzie is doing it," which would suggest a later date. I can't find rep/production info for anything but the 2006/7 City Center season on the ABT website; the Great Performances website describes that the Murphy/Gomes/Corella broadcast "captures all the grandeur of ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie's visually stunning new production."

The ballet is listed on the Opéra National de Bordeaux website (French only), but only the 2005-6 season is updated on the site, and there's no list of dancers that I can find: http://www.opera-bordeaux.com/artistes/ballet.htm The ballet main page is mostly dedicated to Jude and his accomplishments. Ballet performances in Bordeaux for the 2006-7 season are interspersed with opera and classical music performances on this site: http://www.bordeaux.fr/ebx/portals/ebx.por...e&listeTotale=0 Le Messie Maurizio Wainrot Nutcracker Charles Jude Rite of Spring Massine/Les Noces Nijinska

To many, many people Schwartzkopf was like Jerome Robbins: a very deliberate and intentional artist, whose work was received and felt as spontaneous, fresh, and sublime. Others she did not touch, but it is the rare artist who appeals to everyone.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder whether we're still dealing with the underlying resentment at the Ford Foundation mega-grant for ballet training in the US that was distributed in the 1960's almost exclusively to Balanchine-affiliated company schools, even though ballet class is/has been standard training for the majority of modern dancers. Add to that the institutions behind ballet as it matured: the real estate, endowments, continuing grants, government support (varied by country) and "friends of" groups with substantial funds (see: Mariinsky underwriting for its recent London tour). I suppose in this financial climate ballet is supposed to say, "We're a moribund art form. Here, you take the money, upcoming geniuses of relevant art. We'll just keep watching that old archival film of Anna Pavlova's Dying Swan on YouTube while holding onto our walkers and ruing what has been."

Part of the rehabilitation of even the worst of criminal offenders, is putting their past life behind and moving on to make a positive contribution to society. An important part of the criminal justice tradition in the US is admitting the crime and taking responsibility for it. I have two thoughts on this: first, that it is responsible to acknowledge the cultural importance and ability of an artist, but it is not required to admire that artist fully or partially, and second, that each person is responsible for making his or her own judgement about how to weigh the life events of an artist in determining whether to admire that artist.

Amen.