The story, set in the celebrated Paris cabaret in the 1890s, lends itself to vibrant colour and high-energy dance, said Morris, who was commissioned by RWB artistic director André Lewis to create a new ballet for the 2009-10 season. "The look, it's really going to evoke Paris at that time in the 1890s, the fashion and the colours and the energy of that time. It's a very spirited work and the dancers are bringing that amazing energy and the creative juices that were flowing at that time when Chagal was painting and Chopin and Debussy and Ravel were writing that kind of music," Morris told CBC News.

That movie [Center Stage] obviously changed your career - but is acting something you had even considered?

AS : I always thought ‘if it happened, it happened' - but it wasn't something I actively pursued. I'd get asked when I was younger what I wanted to do and I'd say ‘well I'm dancing now, but we will see what happens after wards'. The stars aligned, and the universe seemingly did have something else in store for me.

And what about you Camilla, did you ever envision becoming an actress?

CV : I always loved acting at school. And when I started ballet, I realized that I typically enjoyed doing the type of ballet performances that involved telling some kind of story. So I jumped at the chance to do this. As for whether I'll keep doing it, I guess I'll see what happens.

The length of the production also affords the chance to give the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the ballet via a prepared video, an idea inspired by the TV show "Dancing With the Stars."

Chamberlain said 32 years of teaching in the school and 25 seasons entertaining audiences has been quite rewarding. "I think what I've enjoyed more than anything is seeing all the many different lives and families; I've been able to guide their children into the professional world or just shape some bodies, knowing these kids move on with a sense of a good work ethic," she said.

With "Le Pavillon d'Armide" sandwiched in between Balanchine's "The Prodigal Son" of 1929 and "Le Sacre du printemps" in Millicnt Hodson and Kenneth Archer's reconstruction of Nijinsky's 1913 version, John Neumeier opened his 36th Hamburg Ballet Days on June 28, 2009, entitled "Hommage aux Ballets Russes", as the climax of his more than 30 years of concentrated efforts to revitalize the heritage of Diaghilev's legendary company. Thus the 100th anniversary of the company´s Paris debut -- celebrated by many troupes around the globe -- meant much more for him than the routine birthday celebration with the usual revivals from the Diaghilev repertory during its twenty years of existence between "Les Sylphides" and "Apollon musagete".

The second half of the program changed tone entirely. In the evening’s other tour-de-force performance, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company presented “Softly, As I Leave You,” a passionate, painful duet choreographed by Lightfoot León and danced by Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk. An open, coffin-like golden box stood on end, shining on a pitch-black stage like a bright beacon inhabiting nothingness. Jacoby, squatting inside, unfolded in a claustrophobic solo, literally climbing the walls, writhing in distress. As Jacoby escaped onto the stage, a soft light revealed Pronk emerging from the blackness in a spider-like pose. Each danced their solos around and because of – but not with – each other until, like sea creatures, they finally slithered to connection. In the end, Pronk slid into the golden box, Jacoby squeezing along a wall into the small space to surround and encircle him briefly in what was now his trap. It was she who softly left, and both who were tortured.

The McIntyre Project Residency replaces the center's Fall for Dance festival, another audience-building initiative begun two years ago that sold out both times. Patterned after, and done in conjunction with, New York City Center's award-winning Fall for Dance Festival, the center's festival cost twice as much to produce as the McIntyre Residence. One of its prime innovations was a $10 ticket price and programming of multiple companies and dance styles on the same night.

Scheduling difficulties made it impossible for the Orange County center to coordinate a festival this year with City Center, Dwyer said. Plus, center officials decided to use money saved from the lower cost of the McIntyre Project Residency to restart the outdoor dance parties with public radio station KCRW-FM -- the most recent one attracted 4,000 to the center's plaza -- and will inaugurate an independent band festival in February.

When Peter Boal last year added Jean-Christophe Maillot's Romèo et Juliette to Pacific Northwest Ballet's repertory, they already had a different production in their vaults: Kent Stowell's 1987 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. It's a lavishly handsome, traditional work, tailor-made for the company at that time, with elaborate sets by Ming Cho Lee. The Maillot version, dating to 1996, is about as far from Stowell's as you can imagine. It removes about all you could remove and still be Shakespeare.

That's the question that comes to mind after seeing Houston Ballet's current repertory evening "Without Boundaries." The three-ballet production ends with the company's first Twyla Tharp work, In the Upper Room. This company rocks Tharp. The dancers look born to her movement, and they clearly have the talent and energy to excel in her breathtaking marriage of modern and classical dance.

Ballet was created to deter the disruptiveness of bodies. It is about control, mastery, and form—and it is awesome and reassuring. It does not moan. So what do you get in most of the 80 ballet versions of Romeo and Juliet? Teenagers with no hormones. Nobody copping a feel. No kissing—no way. Love is a platonic thing that is impressive and repressive and wears its hair in a bun. It's nothing to do with sex. That's the Romeo and Juliet that Pacific Northwest Ballet audiences had been watching for 21 years, choreographed by former co–artistic director Kent Stowell (to the Tchaikovsky score). But there is a new chestnut in town, introduced only 18 months ago and now brought back already—thanks to popular demand—by the choice of Peter Boal, who took over the company in 2005.