Helene

Kitchens was in the corps of La Valse in the "Points of View" program, and in Jonathan Porretta's Jubilant and Kiyon Gaines' {SCHWA} in the Choreographers' Showcase on 22 March. She's not listed for the first week of Sleeping Beauty, but the second week hasn't been announced yet.

doug will be doing a preview of Sleeping Beauty at the Central Library in downtown Seattle: http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=bran...d=1143046974384

I'm not sure whether it's possible to generalize. Studio locations can be due to a prior period of urban flight, with concert venues remaining in the city center, and then re-gentrification; a donor with good real estate on his/her hands to donate or rent at a reasonable rate; a successful fundraising campaign; or other serendipitous events. PNB's studios penultimate location was the Good Shepherd Center in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle, a bus ride or car commute away from Lower Queen Anne, in the Seattle Center complexes where the Opera House (now McCaw Hall) is located and where performances are held, very close to the Space Needle. Then the Phelps Center, where the PNB offices, the Seattle school, and company and studios are located -- including one stage sized studio -- was completed in 1993, and it is just next door to McCaw Hall, a mere light installation away. 10 minutes might be pushing it to a hospital, but Seattle Center is not that far from the University of Washington campus hospitals, Swedish Ballard, the hospitals on First Hill, and Harbourview.

Dancing-Times in the UK has a PAL VHS version listed, along with "The power and the art - Irek Mukhamedov," a documentary about the dancer. It was released in NTSC by Nonesuch (40176-3 Elektra Nonesuch), which might be available in some libraries. Western Washington University has a copy listed in its catalogue.

Triad, with McKerrow and Renvall, is listed on the "ABT at the Met" video.

Come to think of it, when NYCB first premiered Peter Martins' production of Sleeping Beauty, there was a Dance Magazine feature article with a photo of the five ballerinas who would dance Aurora, which I think was over a two-week span. I also seem to remember that one was unable to dance the role because of injury.

To use the same metaphor, when that suit needs altering, does it still look appropriate?

If you have a DVD player that can play the PAL format (used in Europe), or a computer that can play this format, and can either borrow the DVD Comme les oiseaux from the library -- it's is on the same disk as Violette et M. B. -- buy it, or request it as a gift, there is a wonderful, priceless chapter in which Vassiliev, in street clothes, coaches Monique Loudieres in two scenes from Giselle, my overall favorite scene in any ballet video I've seen. And then, of course, there is the great Spartacus on disk.

I loved Jeppeson and Englund, but for me, the most striking moment of the performance, enabled by the camera work, was in the scene where James follows the Sylph downstage right during the pre-wedding group dance, and Effy leaves the group to bring him back. At first, Hübbe kept looking offstage for the Sylph, but as Effy pulled him back, his eyes changed for a brief moment, as if his spirit had left his body and he was letting no one in.

One of the things Boal said in a Q&A after one of the Valentine programs is that in a full-length story ballet, there are a limited number of principal dancing roles. In Sleeping Beauty, there are six: Aurora, Desire, Bluebird, Princess Florine, Lilac Fairy, and Silver (in the Wedding act), and that's stretching it. When NYCB does a two-week run of a ballet, that is 14 performances. It is possible to have three dancers do four each, with the other two by another one or two dancers. When PNB does a two-week run of a program, there are ten performances. With 13 active Principal Dancers and 5 active soloists, giving two casts of dancers four performances each leaves a lot of dancers with nothing to dance in the programs, unless they dance the "growth" roles, which takes opportunities away from the corps. I'm not sure that three performances is necessarily that much better than two, in terms of role growth, but I may be mistaken. It seems to me like a very good strategy to give five casts the opportunity to dance such iconic roles, if they can't offer a solid run for multiple dancers. Some of the dancers may have had opportunities to perform the roles with other companies, so they are not coming into the ballets cold. I, personally, like to see multiple casts, to see what each cast brings to the stage. I know some people have multiple subscriptions, but I don't know if they accept the casts as is, or if they use ticket exchange privileges to get a cast they prefer (new or repeat). I have one subscription that I share with a friend, and I schedule for other casts with single tickets. I also don't know what percentage of people go for the date vs. the performers. The Practical: I suspect many parents will attend one of the four matinees with their children, unless their child must see Patricia Barker. (Who, taking her career one year at a time, might be dancing her last performances of the role, depending on when the production will be revived next.) Except during University of Washington football season, traffic tends to be much more reasonable for matinees, especially coming from the East Side, and for Seattle residents who have unreliable evening commutes. The Cast-Driven: Leave early and often to see a specific cast.

It's sad and frustrating when talented dancers are rendered invisible by geography.

Here is Arlene Croce's description of the second part opening, from an essay called "The Pleasure of Their Company" originally published in Playbill (Jan-Feb 1970), reprinted in Afterimages, and quoted in Repertory in Review:

Melissa Hayden was quoted by Nancy Reynolds in Repertory in Review as follows: Here is Croce's quote from her June 4, 1984 review in The New Yorker: Croce mentions that von Aroldingen also danced the Adams role in the revival. (Her performance of the role, partnered by Lüders, was my favorite.)McBride also took over Hayden's role very young, and was on the broadcast that was excerpted in the PBS Balanchine biography. Of McBride in the revival, Croce said:"For McBride, no adjustment is necessary; she has grown back into the role but not past it, and she's as exciting to watch as Farrell." I find it interesting that a very young dancer was cast in the role that has the single most mature single in the piece: the third-to-last waltz, where the women does a slow series of drops forward in arabesque in the tone of the burnished Brahmsian chords. I cannot find who likened these to the trust in a long, close marriage.

The title is a reference to a movie, connoting 1940's glamour and intrigue, as well as an honored profession.

If that's not a call to arms, I'm not sure what is

Union Jack!