The occasion for ABT's three newly created works was an unusually short four-day season at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. ABT had been forced to scramble after it learned that City Center, the troupe's usual fall venue, might be closed for renovations. All three choreographers were therefore challenged to make ballets that would fit on a nonproscenium, somewhat barebones stage with no wing space or orchestra pit. Each found a way to work with Avery Fisher's physical limitations, but only Mr. Ratmansky came up with a winning work of art.



His ballet uses seven of the more than 500 sonatas originally written for the harpsichord by Domenico Scarlatti, a contemporary of Johan Sebastian Bach. With musician Barbara Bilach on stage at the piano, Mr. Ratmansky sends out three dancing couples dressed by Holly Hynes in summery white costumes, all effectively cut if lackluster in detail.

After four years without an official music director, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has signed a three-year contract with Charles Barker, giving him the dual titles of music director and conductor.

Barker has been fulfilling those roles year-to-year since the 2006-07 season, but has not held the formal titles. He will continue living in New York City, where he is principal conductor of the American Ballet Theatre, and will travel to Pittsburgh as needed.

About 200 people attended an early-morning dedication ceremony outside the striking new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, both part of the new AT&T. Performing Arts Center.The red opera house, with its large canopy, and the tall, silver box-shaped theater created a dramatic image in the fog during the ceremony – which managed to start and end between morning rains.

"In typical Dallas style, the center was the most ambitious project of its kind in the U.S. No other city has raised as much money for such a magnificent facility as we have," Mark Nerenhausen, president and CEO of the arts center, told the crowd.

At one performance, Joseph Phillips and Sarah Lane engaged in a high-velocity duet, only to land in a joyful, exhausted heap on the floor. Hallberg, his blond mane flying, and the delicate Kent had their own lovely interlude, filled with yearning. The most arresting tableau came at the end: the three women sinking sideways to the floor, their men behind them on their knees, slowly lowering down their heads to meet them.

"Everything Doesn't Happen at Once," a new work by Benjamin Millepied, was interesting to watch — how could it not be, with 24 dancers moving in a constant rush and remaining onstage even when they weren't dancing. If at times it resembled rush hour at Grand Central Station — with eclectically dressed, extremely attractive commuters — it was a crowd-pleaser.

For a choreographer so well suited to the Royal Danish Ballet, Jerome Robbins' ballets have been the obvious missing component in the RDB repertoire. The productions have been too few and too far apart and more often than not we have had to survive on his small scale works. No other ballet has been missed like "Dances at a Gathering" and missed by generations of dancers and audiences. There cannot be many other ballets so suitable to a high standard dramatically toned classical company. But instead of the real thing the company has presented several ballets that resembles "Dances at a Gathering" like Hans van Manen's "Song without Words". Finally we have our hands on the original.

This season gets underway this weekend with “Timeless Innovation,” featuring George Balanchine’s “Rubies” from his full-length ballet “Jewels.” There also will be two Las Vegas premieres – “Coco,” homage to Coco Chanel by James Canfield, and “Jungle,” which is set to the music of electronic group Future Sound of London. Shows are set for 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee at UNLV’s Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway near Flamingo Road. Tickets are $10 and $20.

“Rubies” premiered in 1967 and comprises one-third of Balanchine’s “Jewels.” An audience favorite, “Rubies” features Igor Stravinsky’s “Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, 1929” as its score. According to the Nevada Ballet Theatre, although “Rubies” is without plot, it was said to be created after Balanchine viewed the work of famous jeweler Van Cleef and Arpels.

Ballet dancer, choreographer and National Dance Institute founder, Jacques D’Ambroise sayts that both he and his late wife signed papers saying that when they were dying, they didn’t want tubes down their throats or to be hooked up to any machines.

Brown, who was a Carlisle area dance and ballet instructor, had inappropriate sexual contact with the 14-year-old girl from September 2006 to September 2007, police said. She is now 17.

Court records show Brown was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault, both felonies; and corruption of minors, and unlawful contact with a minor, both misdemeanors.