From Sept 3 to 12 , young competitors, aged 15 to 19, from countries such as Australia, the United States, Thailand and the Philippines will vie for a coveted medal, which may also pave the way for a stellar career in a major ballet troupe.

The 2008 Cy Young Award winner's fancy mound footwork got us wondering how a real ballet dancer might analyze Lincecum. There's a whole building full of them over on Franklin Street, so we cornered Australian-born principal Damian Smith and asked him to "review" Lincecum's performance from a dance perspective. Here's what he had to say about the wind-up:

"Lincecum demonstrates good rotation of the torso and forceful preparation before a dramatic release ... which in dance is similar to winding up for the big jump.

The Oakland Ballet already folded once in 2005, seven years after Guidi stepped down the first time. He resuscitated the company in 2007. "We're open to the next step," Levine said Tuesday over a cup of coffee at Caffe 817 on Washington Street. "Out of the chaos," she added, "came a strong, committed vision."

Now the ballet needs a permanent artistic director to forge the creative vision. The Oakland Ballet Company is in the early stages of a search for someone who will stay true to Oakland's classic tradition but who is open to contemporary works. Meanwhile, Michael Lowe and Jenna McClintock, two dancers with deep ties to Oakland and the ballet, have stepped in as guest

It was a quirky catalog of the new, the bold and the frequently beautiful Tuesday night at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. It also was the ideal opening salvo as the Chicago Dancing Festival set off on its third annual showcase of all facets of American dance -- a series of events that will culminate Saturday night at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, with all tickets free of charge.

The kickoff "New Dances" program -- a sampling of five works created by "a new generation of American choreographers," and performed by companies from Chicago and both coasts -- suggested the widely differing approaches being taken by younger choreographers who all have accrued formidable lists of credits, and who use the movement vocabularies of classical ballet, contemporary dance, jazz and even physical theater to make something wonderfully fresh.

Of the works new to Chicago, by far the most satisfying is the simplest, an ingeniously minimalist duet by Aszure Barton. Keenly enacted by Cherice Barton and James Gregg of Aszure Barton & Artists, it's a psychological work, more Antony Tudor than George Balanchine. Cherice Barton and Gregg sit opposite each other at a plain card table and slowly act out a series of wicked, id-like gestures and playground mind games. She walks two fingers across the table as a kind of salvo, and eventually the dancers interact and taunt each other, both on top and under the table, in a wryly funny piece about two people hitched but unable to reach each other.

Jessica Lang's "To Familiar Spaces in Dream," beautifully performed by the Richmond Ballet, is as much about Lang's set design as her choreography. Austere white columns, which give a vaguely Greek classical look to the piece, are manipulated throughout by the dancers, who variously use them as props, as makeshift slides and even as symbols of love and interaction. Ingeniously designed, the piece is also too long.

Solidly built, Mr. Prokovsky could move with tremendous energy on stage and be a secure, attentive partner. As a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet from 1963 to 1967, he created roles in George Balanchine's "Pas de Deux and Divertissement" (1965) and "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet" (1966); Melissa Hayden was his ballerina in both.

Born of Russian parents in Paris on Jan. 13, 1939, Mr. Prokovsky studied ballet with various Parisian teachers but made his stage debut stage in 1954 with the Comédie-Française, in a production of Molière's "Amants Magnifiques." He then danced in troupes directed by important French choreographers like Janine Charrat and Roland Petit before going to London and joining the London Festival Ballet as a soloist in 1957. After attracting attention as the Prince in "The Nutcracker," he was promoted to principal dancer in 1958.

The journey was more difficult for some. Damien Martinez has no doubts about his decision to leave Cuba with Cynthia Castillo, whom he met at the National Ballet of Cuba when they were preteens. The world-renowned ballet training center begun by legendary ballerina Alicia Alonzo has produced numerous performers such as England's Royal Ballet star Carlos Acosta and American Ballet Theatre principals Jose Manuel Carreno and Xiomara Reyes.

Although Martinez has a twin, David, who is still in the company, Martinez and Castillo were much more daring. They were heartened when Castillo won a visa lottery and was permitted to emigrate to Florida near Miami. But Martinez was left behind.