Helene

I tend to love Mark Morris, but I understand when people don't. Stick to your guns, Mark D, until he does something that touches you

That's a great one!

I agree with drb. This professor's behavior is unethical, and it's appalling that on the one hand he name-drops about his "friends," and then claims that they are all admitted drug-users. With a friend like him... Because personal interactions are off-topic on Ballet Talk, and only published accounts and studies can be discussed, we can be very little help in helping you in formulating a response. My unsolicited advice would be to reply, "how interesting."

It's usually so that the ballerina has proven that she has mastery over everything: jumps, turns, petit allegro, grand allegro, adagio, etc. Otherwise she'd be a soubrette or a Romantic heroine.

Well, it sounds like he's got enough "spiritual wives" mourning him and worshipping his memory. The results for Skate America are in: In Ladies, Elena Sokolova's lead in the SP held up for the gold. The big story was Alisa Czisny, who didn't have a good skate at Campbell's a few weeks ago, but who came in 3rd in the SP, and then won the LP by a little over a point. Yoshie Onda was third in the LP and overall. Emily Hughes overcame a disappointing 8th place in the SP with a 4th in the LP, but Beatrisa Liang's 4th in the SP kept her in 4th place overall. In Men, Daisuke Takahashi, a wonderful, but inconsistent skater from Japan, dominated the LP to win the gold, having just edged out Kevin van der Perren in the SP. van der Perren came in 4th in the LP, and missed the podium. Lysacek's 3rd in both programs earned him the silver. Joubert, who was 2nd in the LP, couldn't make up the deficit from his 4th place in the SP. In Dance, Belbin/Agosto, Delobel/Schoenfelder, and Domnina/Shabalin were on the podium, as expected, and Wing/Lowe were fourth. What was surprising was the Jamie Silverstein/Ryan O'Meara were so well rewarded: they beat Wing/Lowe, who were 10th at Moscow, in the OD, and were less than four points behind them overall. As a new team, they are likely to get stronger as the season progresses. Also great to see was that Christina and William Beier came in 6th. That means they need an 11th place finish at Europeans for the German Olympic Committee to send them to the Olympics. That's still a longshot, but they were a little less than seven points behind Wing/Lowe, which is an improvement over last year. Unfortunately, there are two strong teams that could compete at Lyon to get judges' feedback on their programs: Drobiazko/Vanagas and Fusar-Poli/Margoglio, both of whom will push the Beiers and other, lower-ranked teams down the food chain, which could knock these teams out of the Olympics. In Pairs what wasn't so surprising was the Zhangs taking the gold, but what was surprising was how little competition Obertas/Slavnov were for them. Putnam/Wirtz of Canada placed 3rd over Obertas/Slavnov's 4th in the LP, but their 7th place finish in the SP left them in 4th overall, with Obertas/Slavnov taking the bronze. (Which is important if they are going to make it to the Grand Prix Final.) After having been 2nd in the SP, Hinzmann/Parchem, the #3 US team, dropped to 5th, after a 7th place finish in the LP. Inoue/Baldwin won silver, with a 2nd place finish in the LP. They attempted a throw 3A, but she fell. It was the second of two throws, rather late in the program. Hopefully, they'll try again in their next Grand Prix event.

Thank you seabreeze! I can see only a couple of OBT's performances a year, and I'm really excited that you've joined Ballet Talk and have reported on a Company that is well worth following.

Thank you, chiapuris, for your wonderful review. I've added Novikova to my list of dancers to watch the next time the Kirov comes to the West Coast.

Yes! The court members just stop walking, as if the Batman villain Mr. Freeze had at them with the ice gun.

Because figure skaters are treated like actors are in the US, all of these soap operas make it into the press. As a result of the Mishin/Plushenko/Yagudin triangle, Yagudin came to the US to work with "Mama Tarasova" and the rest is Olympic gold. It seems that Plushenko and Mishin are temperamentally suited to their relationship, since with all of his success and domination, Plushenko could have the biggest ego and could have decided he needed a yes-man instead of a real coach. Their general demeanor and body language during practices and competion warm-ups is really nice to watch and very respectful. Andrei Griazev also left Mishin to be coached by Tarasova. At Dortmund, one of the funniest scenes imaginable was in Kiss 'n Cry: Tarasova stood behind him, hugging him, with Maya Usova sitting on one side and Evgeny Platov on the other, and with his boyish, innocent face, it looked like a Nativity Scene. You're so right about the about-face the press did on Gordeeva, once she ceased to be the grieving widow -- she was maybe 25 when Grinkov died -- and actually found a new life with Kulik, with whom she created a family for her older daughter, Daria Grinkova. What a hussy. I loved Mishketienok/Dmitriev. I was sad when they split, and thrilled when he came back with Oksana Kazakova. I have so much respect for Dmitriev as a partner, to be able to compete at the highest levels with two different partners. He's coaching in the DC area and had Don/Hunt last year, until they split up. Oh, and this summer, Alexander Abt moved to the retiring Scotvold's rink in Cape Cod.

Balanchine did have some great dancers, but I don't know anyone who watches the Company regularly doesn't think that Peter Martins has some great dancers. The teaching staff at SAB is producing wonderful dancers, and PNB is very lucky to have a large number of them in the Company. In a recent Q&A, I believe it was Boal who mentioned that 15 dancers in the current roster -- about 1/3 -- had Boal as a teacher at SAB. As much as there can be consensus, from everything I've read on the board from regular NYCB goers, Jock Soto, who was Martins' first "find," Wendy Whelan, Ashley Bouder, and Damien Woetzel are all great dancers, James Fayette and Jock Soto were universally considered great and sensitive partners, with many weighing in for Alexandra Ansanelli, Miranda Weese, and Maria Kowrowski, all of whom bloomed after I moved from NYC. This list is not by any means exhaustive. The last time I saw the Company, Teresa Reichlen performed a wonderful Lilac Fairy, and there were at least a handful of corps members who caught and kept my eye throughout The Sleeping Beauty. I'm not trying to negate your experience -- if I had based my opinion of NYCB based on much of the casting of that SB performance, I might have gone away wondering what all the fuss was about. Plus, there are differences in taste with regards to style, and Balanchine technique does not do it for everyone. The main debate here has been over how those dancers are presented, the rep they dance, whether they have opportunities to be coached by people who learned their roles from Balanchine or on whom the roles were choreographed, and the future of the Balanchine ballets.