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All of your interviews have been great, and I so admire what you're doing. Your questions and attitude are just wonderful. The Watts interview surpassed everything IMO. Wow so much territory covered, and she is so interesting and thoughtful. Thank you, thank you. I'd love to hear parts 3 & 4 of Heather Watts.

I agree with abatt totally. I prefer NYCB Coppelia in terms of choreography and pacing. I agree on Jewels, and aside from Concerto Barocco I'd recommend Four Temperments and Stravinsky Violin Concerto.

Interesting point Helene. I have a friend, a choreographer in musical theater, who has jokingly commented to me as she watches a dancer "If she thinks she's so good, she should try it in my body." Of course it's meant as a joke, but it makes one think about what people can and choose to do with the instrument they have.

Slightly off topic but I just saw a documentary on netflix - Dancing at Jacob's Pillow: Never Stand Still. I really enjoyed it. Lots of history, footage and interviews with people like - Fredrick Franklin, Mark Morris, Suzanne Farrell, Judith Jameson, Paul Taylor etc. etc.

I really have nothing to say at the moment as I think about the comments, but I just want to thank you all! I am blessed to be able to go to a place where serious, thoughtful, intelligent discussions take place about an art form I care about!

Michael, it seems we will have to agree to disagree on this. To my way of thinking a classical body, or classical proportions have nothing to do with super high insteps and a flexible back. I believe that Margot Fonteyn had one of the most truly classical bodies of all time. Macauley favors a certain look in a dancer, as I've said before, and that is of course fine. My problem is that he tends to overlook flaws in a performance if the dancer has a certain body type, and never seems to look at a dancer who doesn't have that body type with fresh eyes. It's almost as if he doesn't have to attend a performance to write a review. For me as a reader there is nothing to be gained by it.

That exactly what I meant. Yes there is a height difference, but both have very highly arched and flexible feet, both are very long muscled and have a similar look to their line, both have flexible backs that allow a high arabesque. It is actually not my favorite look in a male dancer, but I think they are quite similar in many ways.

I wondered that myself. After I read the BT reviews of the Gorak/Lane performance from people I gave grown to trust, I was puzzled. Macaulay has for me become an unreliable critic. It seems to me that for men particularly, there are body types that he so favors, Halberg and Gorak being examples of that body type, that he seeks to write favorably about them no matter what. There are other dancers that I wish he'd stop reviewing, because he writes the same negative things about them over an over again.

I just want to echo everyone's thanks and praise. It is a real treat to be able to read reviews, opinions and thoughts about ballet from people who love the art form.

Years ago when my kids were little, American Girl Dolls were a product of an individual who sold by mail order only. The dolls and the idea behind them were unique, and although expensive seemed worth the price. At some point the dolls became part of Mattel (I'm sure the original owner got a good deal - bless him or her). The price of the dolls didn't go down even though I'm sure that Mattel's cost of manufacturing has to be a lot less than an individual's would be.

I too am grateful for being in NYC and seeing so much. High Points - Getting to see both SanFrancisco Ballet & PNB. NYCB Tiler Peck in anything Andrew Veyette - Theme and Variations and general growth in strength and presence Andrew Scordate - corps member great in principal role in Symphony in Three Movements Robert Fairchild - in Who Cares Ashley Laracy, Lauren King, Lauren Lovette, Savannah Lowery, Georgina Pazcoguin - All soloists of great individuality who bring something unique and special to their performances. ABT Sarah Lane - One of the few engaging things in The Tempest Marcelo Gomez - Every time he comes on stage Low Points Ratmansky - The Tempest ABT's loss of Simone Messmer to SanFrancisco Ballet (probably a good move on her part) Kevin McKenzie - He gets a failing grade in developing dancers and programing interesting rep.

Interesting interview with Mr. Jhung. I respectfully submit Eliot Feld as a possible person to interview. He was child in SAB, was in the original cast of West Side Story, was a principal dancer in ABT, had his own company for a time. I'd love to hear what he had to say.

My pleasure. It's rare to see an interview this long or in depth. I enjoyed the whole thing. The input that her husband had in her development as a dancer was something I didn't expect.

I just watched a lengthy interview with Merrill Ashley that was done last April. If you haven't see it, it has interesting insights into her career and working with both Balanchine & Robbins.

I haven't seen this production since the first year it was done. I was sorry to hear about Lane/Gorak, but not surprised. Ratmansky put some amazingly difficult lifts in this ballet. Given the short rehearsal period and cast changes, disaster is not a surprise. I don't know why Ratmansky built such mine fields in the thing. It seems unwise. As far as having an alternative to NYCB, that's almost impossible - NYCB has generations coming back with kids and grand kids. And it is a delightful production.

Totally agree. I loved the whole production, and all the performers were aces. That last fugue was indeed mind blowing. Go Verdi

You might help your tiny human find out about Debra Austin. She was one of my favorite NYCB dancers in the 1970's. Balanchine choreographed a great solo for her in Ballo Della Regina. She now is a ballet mistress for the Carolina Ballet Here's a link to a picture and some information http://theballetblog.tumblr.com/post/30757229728/george-balanchine-observing-as-debra-austin

Natalia Makarova was known for a very slow Odette adagio and it was not her 210 degree extension slowing her down. Makarova's taste was to dance the Odette adagio to an extremely slow pace and to the delight of all the Makarova fans. Musicality deals with being in tune to the music and has nothing to do wit the speed, as long as you are in tune with that speed. Plisetskaya and Makrova danced Odette adagio to very different speeds, but nobody would dare accuse Makarova of being unmusical because she slowed down the music. A ballerina, who uses her big extension to lift her leg higher, does not hinder her musicality by lifting her legs higher. If that requires her slowing the music to allow her to be in tune with the music, she still is musical. It priamrily si the moments when the ballerina is traveling that define musicality and not when she is standing, lifting her legs. The flow of movements define musicality. when the music is playing and the ballerina is moving, si she moving to the music, or as in Skorik's case, is she totally unaware of the music.I happen to have a Russian violinist friend in St Petersburg, who happens to love ballet and she recently saw Alina Somova rehearse Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Alina Somova has been wrongly accused on this forum for sacrificing musicality by using her superior extension. My violinist friend told me that she was amazed at the rehearsal with Somova and Terekhova, at the amazing musicality of Alina Somova. My friend plays violin professionally at the ST Petersburg Conservatory, across the street from the Mariinsky, and she would know if someone is musical or not. Actually I did think of Makarova as unmusical. To me being musical is responding musically, being inside the music and phrasing within the framework. It is not IMO musical to slow down or speed up music to suit your technical limitations or how high you wish your leg to go.

My question is, as it often is with Russian dancers - when and why did the music become so secondary, and why was this allowed to happen? In the Skorik Raynonda variations it seems to me that she was given a set of steps, rules about how to move her head, and other values, but told not to worry about the music. I just don't get her phrasing. The music playing along seems secondary. I just started reading Apollo's Angels so maybe the book will answer that question. Skorik seems to be amusical as compared to Kolpakova from years before.

Thank you for the clarification. Things are a little blurry in this situation. It is very confusing I heard her say in an interview that she was a soloist, but she was always listed in corps on the Bolshoi web site. Also, it's hard to judge a dancer from a few youtube clips, but to me she seem like a strong dancer, but not special. There are many strong dancers who are in the corps of every ballet company.

It truly seems that Womack had a kind of idolized version of Russian ballet and life in the Bolshoi. She wanted to be a ballerina there, and it became a fixation. She showed maturity in being able to move to Russian at a young age, learn the language etc. At the same time she showed tremendous immaturity in not picking up on clues along the way on how things work. Did she really have no idea during the months she worked there that there were people who got ahead and people who didn't. Did she not examine why some people got cast and others didn't. I'm not saying that everyone who got cast paid or had a sponsor, I don't know that one way or the other. But did Womack look at dancers who were advancing to try to figure it out? I've been watching the AOL NYCB series. In one episode a soloist says that she definitely watches who Peter Martins seems to take interest in and why. I'm sorry that Womack has gone through hard times, and had her dream broken. At the same time she threw herself into a complicated situation that she was ill equipped to handle and now blames external forces.

I'm still hoping for more opportunities for the home team.

I too saw it. I went this afternoon. I agree with Angelica that Ferri is amazing in her ability to convey emotion in stillness, as well as in motion. Expression pours from her face and every part of her body, every moment she is on stage. The character's inner life is fully revealed to us. Cornejo was credible, but his was more "ballet acting" than the natural fullness brought to us by Ferri. I'd recommend it, particularly for Ferri. Also, on the whole I felt the drama of the story is well presented. $25 dollars and an hour of my time to see great artistry, to my way of thinking is quite a deal.

The article is interesting, but I disagree with the value of sitting way up in nose bleed territory. I loved Rows A & B in the fourth ring, never liked being back further than that.

That's all true, but at the same time she is in a profession in which people are expected to behave maturely at an early age. NYCB is an example. You enter the company at 15-16-17 and it's sink or swim. To me what is interesting about Womack is that she had in interest in putting it all out in social media from the beginning, so there was always an element of self promotion. Self promotion is not necessarily bad, but it can be a two way sword.