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I agree and I love formality, but of course it has to have a sufficient object, something worthy of our focused attention and heightened senses. And we can't just input formality and get deeply shared experience. Even high art performances, while they may bring us together physically and get most of us to dress up and are worthy of our concentrated attention, aren't powerful enough to get most people to turn off their iPhones and talk to their neighbors about the art. Yes, but of course while individual dancers may devote their lives to ballet, a ballet company, or a choreographer, that devotion isn't solemnized in public ceremony, and neither written law nor moral law nor societal expectations hinder them from changing their minds. It was a solemn and serious ceremony, whether individual viewers recognized it as such or not, and would have been so if even the couple had not recognized it as such. Words have meaning. Forms have meaning. Their solemnity isn't lessened by any previous couple's failings.

Yes! I remember Studs Terkel, as he was interviewing David Harrington back in the mid-eighties, saying that "Bartok is your Bach." I was fortunate to hear them a couple of times in the beautiful Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Smith fans, if you haven't read her memoir, "Just Kids," you have a treat in store.

Thanks for the clip and the information, leonid. It looks like I was too hard on her. "Judge not, lest . . " How does that go again? Thanks for starting the thread, dirac. At our house we watched the proceedings with scones and clotted cream!

Does the woman not know how to smile, even on a joyous occasion? I thought her sulk, or whatever it was, made her look ridiculous.

What delights me is that they'll also be performing in principal dancer Momchil Mladenov's home country of Bulgaria this June. From their Facebook page: Congratulations, folks! Jack, can we look forward to a report?

I've just ordered the D'Amboise memoir tonight, my stack of unread or uncompletely read books being tall already. So perhaps he says something to back this up. But while it's evident from many other sources that Farrell provoked jealousy, I recall nothing that suggests she disliked her rivals.

Thanks, flo!

I wish Janie Taylor all the best as a costume designer, but while I shouldn't judge from just a photograph, that ensemble Korbes is wearing in Mirrors is frightful. She almost looks tattooed. Someone tell me it was better onstage.

Innovative choreographers will always come knocking at the door. Best to choose a director who loves the Royal's history, who will both want and have to bring in the new folks, but won't do so at the expense of the old ones.

I have this program on videotape straight from PBS the day after Christmas 1993. We saved our first viewing for New Year’s Day, and while I’d seen most of the ballets by then, I felt so enriched to have the recorded excerpts. I envy you folks who were actually there, but it’s nice to read your memories! The toast did make it to the original broadcast. Do you remember any of the food?

Thanks for posting, cinnamonswirl. I can't understand following Agon with the Four Temperaments either.

I haven't seen her ask for personal publicity, I've seen her object to her work being credited to Portman. It's one thing to agree to work behind the scenes so to speak. It's another to stay silent while people say you really didn't do very much work.

I was at the performance that night, and it would have been a pleasure to meet you. Wasn't Bigelow also something of a bodyguard to Farrell, not literally, but giving her privacy by signaling by his demeanor that she was unapproachable? I think I read that somewhere. In any case, he sounds like such a wonderful gentleman that my appreciation for the company's history has been enriched.

Not in front of a rock band. I was responding to puppytreats' comment in context, not suggesting that blue jeans are appropriate elsewhere. Yes, but a rock band in a church service is a worship band. It's there to facilitate worship. From suits and ties to blue jeans at a worship service . . . wow!

Many churches face a problem similar to that of arts organizations when it comes to getting younger people in the seats and Christian rock has been part of pop culture for some time, so it makes sense that there's been some relaxation in regard to dress codes there, as well. Quite right, but from suits and ties to blue jeans is a lot of relaxation, almost a suspension. I attend an evening service geared towards university students every other week during the school year, mostly to help serve the meal following the service, but I must say I enjoy wearing jeans and a polo shirt. But even leaving aside the concept of worshipping in casual clothes aside, there is an incongruity between our beautiful sanctuary with its Tiffany windows and the casual clothes even the rectors wear for that service. And even leaving other considerations aside, I see the same incongruity when I see people in jeans at the Koch State Theater or the Kennedy Center. I'll be at the Kennedy Center next weekend. Comfortable office casual or suit and tie? It's going to be a tough choice.

Leigh, you gave me a good laugh. I love the comfort of casual clothes, but I can relate, and I don't wear casual clothes to the ballet. You write that dressing up I feel the same way. It's also a sign of respect to my fellow audience members.

Thanks for posting, Slant. I was waiting for casting before I purchased tickets, and just this morning the casting still wasn't up.

I just noticed MCB's blog has a new feature entitled Questions With Bart Wow! Imagine what a great asset this guy would be to Ballet Alert!

Fantastic! I can't wait.

She brought in dancers from Ballet Austin when she staged Episodes, and she worked with the National Ballet of Canada dancers when she staged Balanchine's Don Quixote. So perhaps she'll import dancers for Diamonds. Edited to Add: According to the Kennedy Center's website, Diamonds will be performed

We have a lot of new members on the board right now, and I’d like to "alert!" you all to a wonderful dance magazine, DanceView, put out by Ballet Alert! founder and host Alexandra Tomalonis. The print big sister of danceviewtimes, DanceView is a 47-page quarterly publication in standard magazine size, with interviews, season reviews, descriptions of Balanchine Initiative coaching sessions (not written about elsewhere, that I’m aware of) and book reviews, accompanied by many, often large, black and white photos. The articles are long enough - 11 pages on the Bolshoi in London, 7 on NYCB in this issue – for the writers to be detailed and reflective, and for the reader to luxuriate in them. (I find them delightful bedtime reading). The contents of the current issue are as follows: Ratmansky’s Legacy: The Bolshoi in London, July-August 2010, by Marc Haegeman Poster Boy: An interview with Alban Lendorf, rising star of the Royal Danish Ballet, by Eva Kistrup Notes on Violette Verdy and Helgi Tomasson Coaching “La Source,” by Leigh Witchel Nuts and Mice and Bees: American Ballet Theatre’s new “Nutcracker,” by Mary Cargill Hits and Misses, Marketing and Performance: The New York City Ballet’s Fall Season, by Carol Pardo New Books: “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929”; and “The Oxford Dictionary of Dance, Second Edition,” by Horst Koegler Reports from London and Copenhagen on The Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet, and Jonathan Burros and Matteo Fargion at Dance Umbrella, by Jane Simpson From San Francisco: Diablo Ballet, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Lines Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Carminos Flamencos and Oakland Ballet Company, by Rita Felciano For subscription information, go here: Subscribe

According to Nancy Reynolds' Repertory in Review, D'Amboise danced with Diana Adams in the Five Easy Pieces section of Balanchine's part of the ballet.

It looks great on the website! Too bad the jazz club Iridium is no longer in the basement.

I've stayed in several hotels within walking distance to Lincoln Center, but the Y is my favorite. It beats the Empire Hotel (closer, but negligibly so) for price, and if you ask for a room on the southeastern corner, offers better views as well. I don't go to NYC to hang out in my hotel room, so all I care about there is a comfortable bed. In hot weather it's nice to stop in for a quick change into evening clothes and have only a short block's walk to the theater.

I just downloaded and browsed through a long sample of this on my Kindle, and it looks like a very lively read indeed, illustrated with lots of photos, drawings by the author, and even a recipe for something called "French-Canadian Spread - delicious and fattening." I'm going to wait till I see the book in the store and can check the image quality before deciding whether to buy the hardback or the heavily discounted Kindle version. But a heads up to newcomers who don't know this already: purchasing books (in paper or otherwise) through the Amazon portal at the top center of every Ballet Alert page helps support this site.