As Feld planned a ballet for Mr. Swayze and Mikhail Baryshnikov, the future actor had knee reconstruction that nipped his ballet career in the bud. His fortitude throughout was a preview of the stoicism and resolve he brought to his fight against cancer.

That fortitude, however, had a daredevil downside. In his early years, Mr. Swayze was a reckless motorcycle driver and problem drinker. By all accounts, what kept him from spinning out was Niemi. He was 23, she was 19. Because dancing didn't pay the rent, and his role as Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway was only temporary, they supplemented their income through carpentry. When they moved to Hollywood in 1978, one of the homes they rehabbed was that of Jaclyn Smith, the Charlie's Angels star.

Watch him in the climactic Time of My Life on YouTube and you don't have to be a swooning girl to see that he makes the difficult art of moving in time to music look easy and natural. He seems to inhabit the space around him, his head bowed towards his partner in total concentration.

Dancing like this is the ultimate image of being alive; it fills the moment, expressing sheer joy in a way no words can convey. As Johnny leaps from the stage to lead his girl on a triumphant, hip-swinging sashay round the room, the audience jump to their feet and join in. His vitality compels others to dance, to celebrate the act of living. The contrast between that moment and Swayze's death after a dignified battle with cancer is one of the reasons that his loss is felt so keenly. But what a wonderful way to be remembered.

Shapiro entered the UNC School of the Arts' School of Dance as an eighth-grader and graduated with a high-school diploma in 2007.

She was just beginning her second season with the 37-member Carolina Ballet, said Robert Weiss, the artistic director and chief executive of Carolina Ballet. The company is dedicating the Swan Lake performances to Shapiro, Weiss said.

He was detained in the Wake County jail under a $2 million bond on the new charge Tuesday – the same day he also surrendered his medical license to the North Carolina Medical Board.

Cook was initially charged with a death by motor vehicle in Shapiro's death, as well as a number of other charges, including driving while impaired and careless and reckless driving.

Fort Wayne Ballet, northern Indiana’s oldest and premier dance organization, opens the 2009-2010 performance season with a grand jete into a medley of classical and contemporary dance selections.

"Director’s Choice" is the Ballet’s strategically choreographed performance that showcases a variety of dances designed to appeal to a broader audience......This year, "Director’s Choice" will feature traditional and classical movements as well as a series of newly choreographed, original works by emerging choreographers Eleonora Pokhitonova Chelsea Teel Wilcox, Miroslav Bart, and David Ingram.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart bought Unit #15C at 2721 Broadway on the Upper West Side from Rex and Courtney Reynolds for $912,500 on July 29.

Mr. and Ms. Reynolds paid $960,000 for the property in Aug. 2006.

Casting for the 2009 revival includes a mix of established New Adventures performers and newcomers. Richard Winsor and Jonathan Ollivier will both be making their debuts in the coveted role of The Swan.

Richard Winsor is one of New Adventures leading performers having created the title roles in both "Edward Scissorhands" (2005) and "Dorian Gray" (2008). He was also in the original cast of Bourne's "Play Without Words" (2002) and was seen as Angelo in "The Car Man" and the title role in "Nutcracker!". This Summer he is starring in his first major film, "Street Dance" , the first British movie to be shot in 3D, which will be released next Spring.

Roughly two-thirds of the docu is taken up with footage of dancers -- either in studio with choreographers or in full dress onstage -- rehearsing some of the key pieces in the company's 2008 repertoire. Per usual with Wiseman, no one onscreen is identified by subtitles or narration, but by paying close attention to the first names used and the end-credits roll call, it's clear participants include choreographers Wayne McGregor and Pierre Lacotte, among others, and dancers such as soloists Benjamin Pech, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Emilie Cosette, Wilfried Romoli, Aurelie Dupont and Laetitia Pujol, as well as the company's corps de ballet. Excerpts are culled from McGregor's modernist, electronically scored ballet "Genus" and fellow choreographer Angelin Preljocaj's haunting "Medee," plus a much more traditional rendition of "The Nutcracker Suite." Unfussily shot in long takes and mostly from a distance by d.p. John Davey so as to allow auds to see the perfs to their best advantage (alas, if only more helmers of modern film musicals would take note), the dance footage is an absolute treat for balletomanes.