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Recently I saw Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker on Trio, and the Ovation channel broadcast three British shows from a few years ago -- a tribute to Markova on the occasion of her 90th birthday, an interview with Fokine's granddaughter, and MacMillan's The Judas Tree, with Mukhamedov and Leanne Benjamin. I knew little about The Judas Tree before seeing it, except that it was by MacMillan. When I saw how Benjamin was dressed and all the men, I braced myself for an all out MacMillan gangbang. Wasn't far wrong. Interesting viewing in conjunction with the Markova interview; I could imagine Dame Alicia saying to herself, "Well, thank goodness Pat and I never had to do THAT." Times have changed.

Very nice post from you, too, BW. Isn't it funny how people assume that a work of fantasy can't be about "people" and that a fantasy film on the grand scale with special effects must be a kind of cartoon? Of course LOTR is about people, and human dilemmas. dancersteven, in re the Oscars, talk is that the Academy has been waiting until the last installment. However, they've never given the Big One to a film fantasy, so we'll see. Based upon the other major contenders for the award that I've seen, if Return of the King doesn't get Best Picture we should feel free to view the entire ceremony as a big joke. (Which it is most years, anyway.)

"Striking a Balance" is invaluable – one of the must-have dance books, IMO. British dancers do predominate, but there are also fine interviews with Nora Kaye and Toni Lander, among others. The interview with Le Clercq makes you long for more – her point of view is so candid and down to earth, and the amount of valuable information she took with her is depressing to contemplate. And she is beyond modest, although she does concede at one point, "I wasn't awful" or words to that effect.

The show has always had a kind of split personality -- debunking feminine Prince Charming fantasies while simultaneously reinforcing them. This made for an interesting kind of tension in the first few seasons. (Fantasy dominates these days.) I saw only part of last night's episode because of a time conflict with Laurence Olivier's death throes in "Brideshead Revisited," but last night seemed like one of the blah ones. And what on earth did they think they were doing with Blair Underwood's character? But that's off topic. In re Baryshnikov, my impression is they just don't seem to know what to do with him. And up against actors well versed in this kind of badinage, he looks awkward. He's no great actor, but watching Nureyev destroy himself in "Valentino," which I saw again on cable recently, reminded me of MB's onscreen virtues – his naturalness on camera and relative ease with dialogue, for example, and his humor. Sarah Jessica co-produces the show, so I imagine she dresses that way because she wants to. She certainly has years of back pain and foot problems to look forward to with those shoes.

Thanks, Lisa, for posting this. I had my complaints about Bravo -- the savage editing, the many, many commercials -- but at least it was once there. The situation is looking increasingly grim.

The series' final eight episodes begin airing January 4. We can expect at least several of them to feature our guy.

Caught it this weekend. I don't have much time today except to echo Mel and say that this is a war movie -- and a very moving one, IMO. (I also read the James article. Not every woman in the world watches LOTR in order to ogle "Viggo", thank you very much, Caryn.) I would not recommend the movie, good as it is, to people who haven't seen at least one of the earlier installments or have not boned up on the story beforehand. It is a lot to take in. Also: it may be worth noting at this point that the series, which is now being discussed by some as if it were a safe bet by a big studio, was a big risk taken by a small company, New Line Cinema.

Acting in my capacity as Board Traffic Cop, I'd just like to mention that ideally we should keep the thread reasonably close to the topic of the film (and the books in contrast to the film) and avoid branching off into too many different areas. (This isn't aimed specifically at you, BattementCloche. ) Thanks for your cooperation!

Thank you for the report, lillianna. I'm giving myself a break and not going this year, but it's nice to hear how everyone is doing.

Below is a link to a very nice profile of Sasha Cohen by Barry Witten for GoldenSkate: http://www.goldenskate.com/articles/2003/121803.shtml I truly don't mean this as Sasha-bashing, but I must say I was struck by this comment: Well…..nobody's forcing her to compete in pro-am cheesefests. The Grand Prix alone wouldn't account for no training time. Discuss?

The filmmakers did want to give women a fuller and less passive presence in the story as a relief from all the boy stuff. I think this is a laudable objective when not handled awkwardly, as it all too often is. For the most part they did a good job of it here.

I think the cutting has been pretty judicious, all told. (Although I've often wished I could sit in the theatre and fast forward through all sequences featuring Liv Tyler.) And bear in mind that some have complained that the movies are really too long!

Thank you for posting this. I love the Asian Art Museum. When I lived in the city, it was still in the park. I miss that location, although I understand the reasons behind the move and the new facility is better. Welcome to the board, by the way!

I was afraid Altman was not a director for dance. I'll reserve judgment till I see it, though....

It wouldn't surprise me, but next up for Jackson is "King Kong" with Naomi Watts. It can only be an improvement on the Jessica Lange version ("You male chauvinist pig ape!") but nothing will displace the original, for me. That papier-mache Kong had a heart. Returning to the topic --

I'm braving the crowds this weekend. Can't wait.

Thanks, jorgen. I too am happy to hear about Yagudin. It's too bad his competitive career ended the way it did, but it's good that he's still in circulation. Re: Yagudin's height. Television can fool you that way -- it isolates the skater from his surroundings and makes him seem larger/taller. It can take you by surprise when you see them in person. (I did get Robin Cousins' autograph once upon a time, and he was definitely just as tall as he looked on TV! )

I think it's true that you can't expect peace and quiet at a Nutcracker, but kicking the seat in front and jumping up and down are NEVER acceptable. I don't mind the kids talking -- I enjoy listening, in fact. I would never say, "This isn't a movie" because that implies that bad behavior is more permissible at a movie house, and I don't concede that! Hi, Ed.

As far as Weiss is concerned, my bet is the train has left the station. In his early days he was a repository of the old fashioned virtues – good figures, good edging, clean jump technique. As Funny Face says, it's hard to know what he's doing out there these days. His current program is a canny one – the patriotic music gets the crowd going without Weiss actually having to make a great effort – but he's reached his plateau, I think. It's true that Plushenko has no real competition right now, but I enjoy watching him and like seeing him win, so it doesn't bug me too much. I'm still stunned by Plushenko's combinations when they come off – "wicked and sinister" to quote Scott Hamilton. And there are other men to watch– Ryan Jahnke and Emanuel Sandhu, for example, and personally I don't care if Buttle never gets the quad right as long he does well enough to get plenty of television coverage here in the States. And Brian Joubert. It was nice to see Kwan, although I still don't like that "Tosca" program. As Funny Face says, she's a woman on the ice, and she has a real dramatic flair now. I gather from her comments that she's contemplating another run at the Olympics, too. And may I say it was actually nice to see the old scoring system back?

Well…I agree and disagree. Plushenko could certainly pay more attention to posture and line. His lack of pointed feet doesn't bother me at all. It's a matter of style. I suppose a Biellmann spin can be classified as a trick, but it's a good showcase for flexibility and very striking when it's done well. However, it has to look absolutely effortless to be effective, and both Slutskaya and Plushenko have kept it in their repertoire of moves when they should have eliminated it long ago. I wince when I see Plushenko doing it now. Button's comments can still be very shrewd when his pet skaters are not involved. He was very good on Plushenko and Jeff Buttle. (For me, the latter was the star of the show. I haven't seen him that often, and all I can say is Wow!) Nobody was in perfect form! I read later there was a bad wet spot on the ice, but that alone wouldn't account for all the meltdowns. I'm inclined to think that the problem these days is not too much jumping, but too much eventing. Pace Peggy, limited exposure seems to be doing Kwan nothing but good, while the others may be wearing themselves out. I didn't think the women were very interesting, except for Jenny Kirk's Sixties beehive. What was going on with that? And she's so skinny these days that she looked as if her hair was going to tip her over. (Maybe it did. )

Plushenko would look great in that. I sometimes get the idea that Russian guys don't really care. They don't have the hangups that Western men have about skating, for one thing, so they're not worried on that score. I remember Alexei Urmanov's White Swan, not to mention Ilia Kulik's yellow and black bee ensemble in his Olympic year. The press kept nudging him about it, and all he said was, "Ask my coach." I forgot to mention that little Beatrisa Liang looked very good out there. What a beautiful Charlotte!

Thanks for the alert, kfw. This was certainly....interesting.

Amy, I do see your point, and congratulations to you for sticking to your guns, but I don't think Gottlieb is objecting to the emphasis on choreographers per se – he's just pointing out that the emphasis is skewed. Whether Pavlova, for example, made dances herself isn't relevant so much as the fact that she defined "ballet" for thousands, maybe millions. Even today her name stands for ballet to people who have never heard of great ballerinas who followed her. And one sentence for Plisetskaya versus an entire page for King does seem a bit out of proportion. I agree with you absolutely that popularity alone should not be a criterion. A book such as this has to take many factors into consideration, and a group that performed for a few may indeed have more lasting influence than a more popular troupe.

Lucky you! It's always nice to have an opportunity to see the up and coming junior skaters. Please report back if you go!

Plushenko is looking good, even taking his injury into consideration. (I still wish his outfits were less on the Battlestar Galactica side, but it seems to be the thing these days.) I still have mixed feelings about Cohen, but it's good to see that she and Tarasova don't believe the hype about her "technical perfection" and are working on the problems with her edging and jump technique. (Don’t' get me wrong – she is a skater of the first rank. I just have to grit my teeth when the commentators burble on about her "beautiful spiral" when she's sticking her leg up and coasting on the flat of her blade….) Old Fashioned, I agree with you about the Swan Lake program – although I don't think the music suits her and the editing of the music was indeed poor. As for Cohen's personality – it is unusual for skaters to be as open as she is about how Musical I Am and how I Want It All, but it's worth reminding ourselves that only by figure skating standards does Cohen have "attitude" (compare the public statements of male athletes in other sports, for example, or those of some of our less diplomatic women tennis stars). I want so much for Arakawa to get it together. I enjoy watching her even when she crashes and burns, as she did this time out. Even her crossovers are lovely, her skating has great flow, and she has such ease in her jumping.