Imagine you're Clara or the Prince and are wafted magically away to Dreamland -- a free, luxury, all-expenses-paid, 100% no-hassle visit to a peformance, in their home theater, by the Ballet Company of your choice.

Which Company would you choose?

It would be wonderful if you would also tell us WHY. (This will be especially helpful if you have selected "Other.")

Your choice of ballet and a dream cast would be quite excellent, too! Since this is magic, dancers no longer performing -- and even those no longer living -- may be included in your cast!

I'd transport to the Mariinsky to see Irina Kolpakova as Raymonda, but since this is magic, Gedeminas Taranda would be dancing Aderakhman, and Alla Shellest would have a dancing role. It would be in June, during White Nights.

I chose "other - classical".

My fantasy wish is to see the Estonian National Ballet. It is the company my daughter started her career with and because of my health, I was not able to fly over to see her perform with them. Oh, but she told me of her favorite dancers there! My choice of of ballet to see would be Romeo and Juliet with the amazing Sergei Upkin as Romeo and the sublime Luana Georg as Juliet!

I voted for "other-classical", and the troupe is no other than my homeland company, CNB. This, of course, attached with another old dream... going back home, and see them there...
If only.

The company would be the Maryinsky, but the ballet would be Balanchine's "Bourrée Fantasque" with Somova/Daniil Simkin in the Adams/Robbins roles.

And patience, Cristian, I can feel it in my bones, beneficial change is in the wind.

I still want to see POB's 'Wuthering Heights' more than any other ballet--it sounds like the best new evening-length ballet in decades. I'd like to see their 'Jewels' too, but with another ballerina in 'Diamonds' from the one on the DVD. I don't even care if she's French or in the company or not, but they probably do. But that was the least satisfying on the DVD, even though I see Mlle. Gillot praised for many other things, no doubt deservedly.

I would be going back to see the Imperial Ballet dance the premiere performance of Sleeping Beauty, and I would be bringing a video camera!

That was difficult!! After much considerations I chose to travel about 20 years back in time to see the Royal Danish Ballet perform Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet with a very young Nikolaj Hübbe as Romeo and Heidi Ryom as his Juliet. Together they made the most touching performance of that ballet I've ever seen. As Mercutio I would very much like to see Alexander Kölpin.
Well, if you really mean, one can only chose one, that would be the one!

I voted New York City Ballet but I would also like to add Miami City Ballet, Suzanne Farrell Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet for the quantity and quality of the Balanchine performed.
Then I saw Mel's suggestion of a Maryinsky Bourree Fantasque with those dancers and I heard a choir of angels singing "Alleluia!".

I would like to see Stuttgart ballet again in Romeo and Juliet with Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun. I supered in that when I was 18 or so at the Met and Philadelphia and they were magic!

I voted for the Royal Danish Ballet -- I've longed to see them do Bournonville for a long time: La Sylphide, A Folk Tale, La Ventana...

Runners up: Mariinsky in Raymonda with Gomes/Part and Gedemidas Taranda as Aderakhman(!!), Pennsylvania Ballet's Swan Lake, MCB in Jewels and Balanchine's Swan Lake.

This was pretty great, I agree. I saw it several times, and must have seen you too.

I would like to be in the Maryinsky Theatre with my closest ballet friends crammed in the Dress Circle, Box 13 on April 28 1902, to witness the debut of Anna Pavlova as Nikiya in La Bayadere with Pavel Vladimirov as Solor, Alla Shelest as Gamzatti and Valery Panov as the Golden Idol and then to go back stage to witness Marius Petipa congratulating Pavlova.

Looks like I'm the only Royal Ballet voter so far. I'd love to see the 1949 opening night in New York, Fonteyn as Aurora.

Mm...only one pic...? not fair. Yummy runner ups:

Pierina Legnani in 1893's premiere of Petipa/Ivanov/Cecchetti's "Cinderella"
Spessivtseva in Diaghilev 1921 opening of "Sleeping Beauty"
Alonso's 1947 premiere of "Theme and Variations"

Mariinsky Ballet. Even in an off-period as now, they are The Benchmark. The Mother of Us All.

I want an end to novelty stagings of the classics. A return to basics.

I want a law against extreme extensions in tutu ballets. A woman's working leg at 2:00/10:00 is plenty in any ballet, men's legs a little lower.

Those are my fuddy-duddy wishes going into the future. Will I see them? I am very dubious.

I didn't vote for a company, because I couldn't decide between Bolshoi and Royal Danes. Both are companies in transition. May Ratmansky's influence be retained, and may Hubbe be a wise, capable and tasteful leader.

It's interesting that as of now, with 22 votes cast, not a single one has gone to ABT, for all its outstanding artists. Could that be due to its generally stodgy programming?

possibly (probably?)
I think it also speaks to the fact that those of us in NY (one of the largest contingents on here) and in the US generally have a lot more opportunities to see them.
Since I *can* see them, with some frequency, they aren't nearly as enticing as companies that come here infrequently, such as the Bolshoi, Paris Opera, Royal Ballet, etc.

Of course NYCB has a few votes, I'd be interested in whether that is because they tour less or if it is NYers who put them top of the list.

Also, the fact it is a dream ballet experience, and you could, in theory, go back to any point in time probably makes this poll less "accurate" as a gauge of who people really want to see than if it was a possible experience.

A number of the historical performances would interest me very much. A purely personal choice, for example, I'd like to be able to return to a night on 1956-57 when Balanchine's Swan Lake and Agon, on a single bill, changed my life.

I'd also like to be able to see the Angel Corella Ballet performing -- at the Teatro Real in Madrid, preferably with the Queen of Spain in the audience. I remember the end of the Franco days and am constantly amazed and thrilled by how much Spain has changed -- not least of it being it's cultural flowering.

But I voted for Paris. I don't have a single ballet in mind, but over the past 10 years, I've been thrilled by the elegance, limpidity and purity with which the address their repertoire. I'd like to see them in Balanchine coached by Verdy and others who danced for Mr. B in the glory days.

A wonderful bill would include the same Swan Lake and Agon that made me a ballet fan so long ago, along with their original version of Symphony in C (Palais de Cristal). I'd stay overnight and watch them dance the Balanchine, too, along with Lliebesliederwaltzer and Firebird. And why not Coppelia or MIdsummer Night's Dream (imagine how Act II would look) on a couple of other nights?

With extensive coaching and more frequent Balanchine performance, Paris could become, I think, a new gold standard for Balanchine performance. This would not be the only way to present Balanchine, and it would certainly not be identical with they way Balanchine has been danced by his own company over the decades. Speed, for example, would have to be worked on. However, Paris has the elegance, purity, classicism, limpidity, and technical skill that could make each of these ballets shine. I'd love to see what they might make of Balanchine if they took a crash course for a year or so.

I love the ABT, but they and NYCB are my home teams and I would like to see some other companies. I had a peek at the Mariinsky and would like some more and certainly Paris and the Dans too but I had only one pick.

Instant run off voting next time?

As a New Yorker I put NYCB at the top of my list. I still love the rep above all else. In recent years, new dancers have renewed the company - Bouder, Mearns and others. In terms of musicality, in my opinion, this company is still the best.

ABT - Yes, the stodgy programming is a problem. I like the City Center rep season, but it is too short and the the quality of dancing can be uneven.

1. Tokyo Ballet "Swan Lake" many years ago. Only this time I actually get to dance in it. (In reality, my family was told we were returning to the States, and then the travel arrangements were changed last minute to a week later, but by then SL was recast and rehearsals all done, and "yours truly" ended up waving at everyone from the front row of the orchestra section for 4 days.)

2. Maya Plisetskaya at Ueno in "Carmen" and "Dying Swan" to refresh my awed but now limited memories.

2. The Nagy/Makarova ABT "Swan Lake" at the Met (and Live from Lincoln Center) that got 21 curtain calls. (I saw the live broadcast, but would have loved to have been there.)

3. The Baryshnikov/Kirkland "Giselle" Act 2 at Shrine Auditorium, so I can relive the timing on those supported pique arabesques. Still so totally different any I've seen since then.

4. Yes, Angel and his Company are well worth seeing, even in rehearsal, especially when he's coaching, always when he's dancing. And I have the tape to prove it.

5. Pavlova in "Dying Swan" to see if the legend was real.

6. But most especially...I would want to go to that very first "Swan Lake" (1877?) and tell Tchaikovsky, "Do not despair, it will become the most popular ballet ever created, and your music will live forever." (And don't get distracted by all the fluffly versions of Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty that follow.) Then I'd skip forward a few decades and congratulate Petipa and Ivanov for rescuing it, and saving it (along with their notes) for us future generations. Then I'd skip forward a good many years, and tell the Tchaikovsky Foundation to hurry up and tell Mr.B about that lost music.

1. The Mariinsky, to see Alla Sizova's entire career and Terekhova's Aurora and Odette/Odile.

2. Paris Opéra Ballet for Sleeping Beauty (and maybe back to before the Revolution for some Pre-Romantic Classical ballet)

3. Royal Danish Ballet for all things Bournonville with appropriate casting.

Also, I agree with Carbro's wishes to return to un-embroidered classics and lower extensions in tutu ballets.

Since this is a dream evening, I'll be unrealistic and ask for 4 ballets all with Tanaquil Leclerq, and I'd want Swan Lake, Boutique Fantasque, The Concert, Symphony in C, and Western Symphony --

OK, it's a long evening, and that's FIVE ballets, but still, she's in heaven so she's got more energy than anything mortal, and besides, that's what I WANT....
Maybe start with Boutique, THEN Swan Lake....
OOOOOOOOOh this is going to be such a great show....
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I voted for ABT---but I would revisit it as the BT of the 1940's.....oh, to see again:

l. Alonso and Youskevitch in 'Giselle'
2. Kaye, Laing and Tudor in 'Pillar of Fire'
3. Markova or Kaye and Laing in 'Romeo and Juliet'
4. Riabouchinska, Lichine, Hightower, Kriza, Alonso in 'Graduation Ball'
5. Toumanova's 'Black Swan PDD'
6. Robbins, Kriza and Lang in 'Fancy Free'
7. Massine and Toumanova in 'Aleko'

and, I would take you all along with me

Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing their first Giselle, February 21, 1962, with the Royal Ballet would set my heart a-flutter. Actually, anything they danced together would be wonderful.

I'm first in line for that performance, remember...

I would like to return to the Royal Ballet in the 60's to see (again!) Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour in MacMillan's "Romeo and Juliet"....the most memorable evening of ballet I ever experienced.

I have a copy of a documentary on Lynn Seymour with clips from that magical pairing and it must have been wonderful to see it live.

I want to be at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1947 when Maya Plisetskaya debuted in the O/O role in Swan Lake. I also wanted to be there when Ulyana Lopatkina debuted in the same role back in the early 1990's and at Ekaterina Kondaurova's recent debut in the role, too.

Mother in a way but Balanchine tried to bring mom into the 20th century and in my opinion mom has never caught up. Forgive me, I know there are many, many fans of Russian dancers here, but I don't agree and I don't think I ever will. There is a freedom of movement that is appealing but, again in my opinion, so much is lacking in subtle musicality and clean technique. A matter of taste I am sure. I am also sure that my idea of clean technique will be disputed. Again a matter of taste. I preferred - Gregory over Makarova in Swan Lake years ago and preferred Murphy over Vishneva recently. Fortunately there are plenty of wonderful dancers out there for us to argue over and enjoy.

So far the top three are Mariinsky (way out in front) followed by Bolshoi and Paris. Is this explained by extensive touring and active video-marketing -- certainly as compared with NYCB, ABT, the Royal and the Danes?

It looks like NYCB is tied with Bolshoi & Paris

Woops! You're right, vipa. Sorry for the sloppy graph-reading!.

More people voted for NYCB than posted a comment. Both pro-NYCB comments were from New Yorkers. The allure of NYCB to the outside world seems to have declined, relatively, over the past few decades. My question about the effects of touring and video -- which Aurora also alluded to in an earlier post -- still stands.

Before leaving Cuba, news and echoes from ABT and its dancers were usual in Havana. From NYCB...zero. An international phenomenon...?

I wonder if the ABT-NYCB comparison in Cuba was largely due to Mme Alonso's relationship with ABT, which as far as I know, still continues.

The exange was real...you guys got Toto and Xiomarita and we had some over there for a while-(Corella, Herrera and others...) This was Mme. doing Grand Bewitchery at her best-(Kevin asisting with the cooking, of course old pal Lucia Chase blinking her eye from up there giving her consent. ..he). The result was realy nice.
Meanwhile NYCB were too busy making friends with the Trust.