Inspired by sonnets and madrigals from William Shakespeare’s plays, In Arden Woods explores the rapturous fragility of Elizabethan love. The piece is choreographed by LaHay and sung by Kelowna music ensemble Candesca under the direction of Alexandra Babbel. The Vernon performances also features live accompaniment by Draper.

Classic Contrast also features a new ballet by Paul Destrooper, artistic director of Ballet Victoria. Le Banc is a whimsical look at young love and relationships set to Bach’s cello suites.

“I wanted to bring high-quality dance to the community. I saw there was a possibility for something like a festival,” Gates said recently. “Quite frankly, having a dance company in Southern California has been challenging, at best, over the years. But I thought, something that’s community-oriented, yet brings in nationally recognized talent, and is an annual event, might be supported by the community.”

She got the festival started so quickly that she didn’t have time to establish her own nonprofit, so she ran it under the umbrella of another organization. This year is its fourth under the auspices of CaDance, her presenting organization. The three-week schedule event includes varied educational and outreach programs, and it culminates next weekend with three performances at the Artists’ Theatre.

The black body is not suited to ballet, dancer Thoriso Magongwa was told by choreographer Martin Schönberg at the Ballet Theatre Afrikan (BTA) academy when he was 12, when he was about to embark on his career. "I was told my body was wrong; my feet were wrong; that I was stiff and chubby," he said, theatrically lifting his leg to show me a right flat foot, at a restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg.

That day, in the late 1990s, the Soweto-born dancer went home depressed -- offended even; but he was oddly driven by a raging desire to succeed. It was a shock for a person who thought of himself as "a born leader”, the “child everyone wanted to follow".

SPAC expects to realize a modest profit at year's end, its fifth year in a row of operating in the black.

New York City Ballet average attendance went up 24 percent, per performance, during its shortened two-week season while Philadelphia Orchestra saw crowds increase 14 percent overall, thanks largely to this year's better weather.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center will reach its goal of breaking even for the fifth consecutive year, its board of directors announced Friday. And that translates into a "tremendous year," said Richard D. Geary, chief financial officer of the nonprofit arts presenter.

Compared to the 2008 audience figures, average attendance increased 24 percent for the two weeks of the New York City Ballet, a season shortened by one week from previous years. And attendance increased 14 percent for the Philadelphia Orchestra, largely attributable to better weather than last year.

The youthful wannabes aren't full-blooded enough to be called characters. They're melodramatic setups, like the pianist with the secret socko voice and the parents who just want her to play classical, or the Iowa ballet dancer who may not be strong enough to partner even willowy ballerinas. The only unpredictable thing about this movie is the all-encompassing totality of its banality.

I know everything old can be new again, but this film must be targeting teenagers who've never seen a music video.

The program will be a mixture of numbers from the upcoming season that includes the "Grand Pas de Deux" from "Don Quixote," the "Grand Waltz" and "Pas de Trois" from "Swan Lake," and selections from Balanchine's ballets that are set to Stravinsky's "Violin Concerto."

"The program is really diverse with Balanchine, who is more contemporary and neo-classical, and actually has some folk dance elements," said Mahowald. "Selections from 'Swan Lake' that are very classical, as well as 'Don Quixote,' so it's a really good mix. I think it's a good introduction to our season and people get to see what's in store. It's like a little taste."

Performances he arranged helped establish the popularity of American dance troupes both in Europe and the United States. In 1980, when he took over as the third editor of Ballet Review, founded in 1965, he was the first to bring it out on a reliable quarterly basis, a rhythm he and his colleagues maintained from then on.

Born in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 9, 1921, he received his bachelor’s degree from St John’s College in Annapolis and participated in D-Day while serving in the Navy. Music, literature, movies and the visual arts were all earlier loves of his; dance seized him only when friends took him (almost forcibly) in 1948 to the world premiere of “Orpheus,” with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Balanchine.