“It’s been such a long and consistent relationship,” Joffrey Ballet artistic director Ashley Wheater said about the bond between Joffrey and Hancher. “I want to continue that tradition.”

The UI Symphony Orchestra will accompany dancers of the Joffrey Ballet in two benefit concerts for Hancher Auditorium and the UI School of Music at 6 p.m. today in Chicago and again at 8 p.m. on Sept. 11 in the Des Moines Civic Center. Tickets for the Chicago show are $100 — which includes a $75 donation — and $50 to $250 for the Des Moines event, which also includes a donation.

The company’s first performance takes place on September 9 at Madrid’s Compac Gran Vía Theater, where it will stage 11 consecutive performances, including matinees. The Spanish tour also includes performances in Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha, Salamanca, Burgos, Santander, Granada, Bilbao, La Rioja and Pamplona. The repertoire chosen by the prima ballerina assoluta includes Swan Lake, Giselle, Don Quijote and The Magic of Dance.

Billed as “Fame” meets “High School Musical” for the preschool set, the daily half-hour show (weekly in some markets) co-opts some of the features of the Disney musical franchise in an effort to capture the attention of 4-to-7-year-olds. Now the series is set primarily in a performing arts school, the Camembert Academy, where dance is no longer just a hobby for Angelina: it is her focus, and the young mouse’s circle of friends has broadened from a few tiny bun heads with tails to include A. Z., a hip-hopper; Marco, a conga drummer; Gracie, a modern dancer; and others to help introduce young viewers to different genres.

Veterans from major dance organizations, like American Ballet Theater and the Ailey School, have been brought in to make the mice do their jetés, pliés and other moves as accurately as possible.

As a ballet ["Lettres intimes"] is brimming with virility, and yet with an incredible tenderness – a self-portray of Janacek the man, still on his creative peaks. Perhaps Spoerli was afraid of portraying himself too realistically, for he has stated that it is a ballet ´about a man and his relationship with a woman. with five additional couples to mirror what happens between these two protagonists – but it is not Janacek´.

And he certainly is not Janacek. As she is not Stösslova. Both performers are newcomers to the Zurich company. He is Arsen Mehrabyn, coming from Neumeier´s Hamburg troup – one of the Armenian miracle boys which the school of Jerevan seems to turn out by the dozen, and who are today dancing in San Francisco, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich. He is a tall, tigerish dancer, with a fire in himself, of infinite grace and suppleness and a springy alertness. He is certainly a welcome addition to Zurich´s already strong contingent of Russian males. As is Aliya Tanykpayeva, strengthening the roster of Zurich´s rather exotic ensemble of females. She hails from Kasakhstan, a model of warm Russian motherhood, with a steely technique and jet of heartwarming care and pure lyricism.

"When you say man in ballet you think, will the man be wearing a tutu?," Rick McCullough, Florida State University assistant professor of dance, said, "and that is the misconception about it."

The Tallahassee Ballet's first-time call for boys ages 7-11 to join its Ballet Class for Boys has gone unanswered.