Mr. Woetzel will begin his tenure there this summer, taking part in leadership forums, an “idea festival” and a symposium on Tibet.

But the wind all but died during the third dance on the bill, Luis Montero’s ballet interpretation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s play La Casa de Bernarda Alba. Heck, maybe it kept its velocity or raised it, and no one noticed because all eyes were glued to the emotive and sexually charged staging.

That is all in Lorca’s original, but the jealousy that accompanies sexual urges are mostly implied, via an unseen character, Pepe el Romano. In Montero’s vision, the male object (danced by Grant Dettling) is definitely seen, and things seriously heat up.

For the first time ever, the Royal New Zealand Ballet is selling off its handmade costumes.

140 pieces which have all required hours of intricate work, are on display in Wellington.

Gorboulev, a former dancer with Ballet Internationale, said there's been a void in Indianapolis since that troupe closed. Nearly 10 years after he left the dance company, he's coming back to Indianapolis to start this new venture.

"It was painful to me that there was no more ballet in Indianapolis," he said.

Executive Director Cheri Mitchell attributed the shortage to the poor economy, which has depressed ticket sales and donations from corporations. Bad winter weather also contributed to fewer ticket sales, she said.

"Our public isn't sure what's going to happen with gas, food, everything," Mitchell said, "and when that happens, there's usually a pullback in seeing the ballet and other arts groups."

The Castro government was keen to promote Cuba's cultural development, and set up several arts institutions as soon as it came to power. Alicia Alonso, the veteran head of the Cuban National Ballet, tells of receiving a message from Castro in 1958, sent from his hideout in the Sierra Maestra, asking her to head the ballet company when his guerrilla army triumphed. Shortly after their victory in 1959, Che Guevara commissioned two films for the cultural directorate of the revolutionary army. Gutiérrez directed one, This Land of Ours, on the subject of agrarian reform, and shortly afterwards became one of the founding members of the ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos) when it was set up only 83 days after the Cuban revolution.