Initially, Beresford, who has long been fascinated by different cultures, explores the poverty of Cunxin's upbringing in rural China, where his father earned $50 a year to provide for his large brood.

After his acceptance into the Beijing Dance Academy in 1979, the action truly picks up when the talented ballet dancer defects to the US while performing and studying in Houston in 1981.

It is in this part of the story that MacLachlan's character explores the legal possibilities of Cunxin remaining in the US.

The legendary music and ballet theatre in the Russian capital shut its doors in 2005 for a major restoration that was originally supposed to have been completed in 2008.

But the target date now has been set back to October 2011 and there have even been fears that this could even prove premature for the main contractor, private company Kurortproekt.

"We have warned the main contractor that we are on the verge of dispensing with their services," Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters in comments broadcast on state television.

She calls herself Bette Midler en pointe, and when she opens her mouth, you know why. Pat Neary is as loud as she is slender. She’s a New Yorker who tells it like it is. “Are you doing some other ballet here?” she quips to one graceful member of the corps. “Honestly, tell me what is it because it’s certainly not Balanchine!”

"Wunderland", Edwaard Liang's extrapolation for Washington Ballet from Balanchine's most modern classicism, held up well visually and musically (to parts of Philip Glass string quartet scores). Seeing it again, it seemed to me that Liang - like Christopher Wheeldon and Peter Quanz - juxtaposes the post-Balanchinian technique with a strong emtional slant. In the work of Wheeldon the feelings appear to come from the action, Quanz elicits them from the dancers' personas, whereas Liang's emotionality is almost a seperate mimetic language. The ten dancers from Septime Webre's company seemed in fine shape for their upcoming season.