The Milwaukee Ballet gave an eloquent retelling of the "Cinderella" story Thursday evening, in a production choreographed and produced by Michael Pink and set to music of Prokofiev. Pink's choreography blends decisive characterizations with clearly expressed angst, tenderness and affection. He creates stage-filling corps numbers, switching to intimate moments in which a simple touch of two hands speaks volumes.

Pink's take on the fairy tale adds a household servant that befriends Cinderella. He uses the benevolent spirit of Cinderella's deceased mother in place of a fairy godmother and draws on a bit of the Grimm brothers' version, as Cinderella's stepmother threatens the foot of one of her daughters to fit it into the tiny glass slipper.

There's short, bearded painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Yosuke Mino), busy at his canvas. To complete the 1890s Parisian clichés, a pretty girl in a black choker and a basketful of baguettes can't be far behind. It's all très, très charming. And certainly, cultural clichés are as expected in Moulin Rouge as castanets in Carmen.

But the sense that the Royal Winnipeg Ballet has transported us to a sanitized Paris never leaves the much-anticipated production, which had its Canadian premiere Wednesday at the sold-out Centennial Concert Hall.

Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director André Lewis was looking for an evening of entertainment when he commissioned Moulin Rouge – The Ballet , and that is what choreographer Jorden Morris has delivered. The Winnipeg audience indicated their enjoyment factor with a standing ovation.

Moulin Rouge – The Ballet at its most superficial level is a sweet story about star-crossed lovers. The dancing is pretty and well-executed. Morris uses readily identifiable ballet vocabulary that is comfortable for the eye to take in. As for the heady intoxication of Belle Époque Montmartre, however, that is nowhere to be found.

If it all sounds rather theatric -- well, it is. Ballet purists may not approve of Moulin Rouge's tendencies to sacrifice properly executed fouettes for the sake of comic relief and to let Andrew Beck's sets and decorations (notably the huge spinning windmill lurking over the stage) shine almost as brightly as the stars. Dramaturge Rick Skene might have had to work overtime to get the dancers to emote as clearly as they do, given the narrative-heavy work -- which seems to lose some of its momentum in the second act.

Some promising dance talents do manage to emerge among all the drama and glitz. Second soloist Jo-Ann Sundermeier commands the stage as cabaret queen bee La Goulue, garnering hollers for her explosive half of a danceoff with Nathalie. First soloist Mino brings his signature quirk to cheeky Toulouse, Lambiotte's leaps could earn him a track-and-field ribbon and Lawson's vulnerable portrayal of Nathalie is nearly as flawless as her arabesque.

The Pennsylvania Ballet inaugurated its 46th season Wednesday night at the Academy of Music with a pair of smash hits and one disappointment. Constructed to showcase the troupe's versatility, this program included two venerable and very different works (George Balanchine's abstract but visually lush Theme and Variations and Agnes de Mille's quintessentially American story-ballet, Rodeo), plus a world premiere by choreographer in residence Matthew Neenan. At the Border, Neenan's new piece, was fascinating - if also a bit frantic, as the dancers raced across the stage to John Adams' propulsive, sometimes atonal music for two pianos played by the estimable Martha Koeneman and Donna Battista. John Hoey's evocative lighting design complemented both the choreography and Martha Chamberlain's costumes (loose shirts and boy shorts in rich shades of blue for everyone except the two principal women, who wore vivid red).

"A lot of it," White says. "Up until that stage, I was having a lot of drama. I'd run one day and then couldn't run for a week. That was a big thing - and still today I do their exercises to keep me going."

Working on his core strength, his training with the ballet company's finest taught White to "walk light''. So influential was the unlikely relationship, the company gave him a pair of signed ballet shoes and he got them Storm tickets. He also intends to use them again during the off-season.

Askegard trained with the School of American Ballet and joined American Ballet Theatre in 1987, where he worked his way up to soloist. He joined the New York City Ballet in 1997 as a soloist and became a principal in 1998.

Ballet Tucson has other works in store for opening weekend: a new version of "Esmeralda" by former Ballet Tucson resident choreographer Mark Schneider; an elegant rendition of "Giselle's" Act II; and a new ensemble piece, "Masquerade," created by artistic director Mary Beth Cabana and assistant artistic director Chieko Imada.

The Omaha Theater Ballet launched its final season at the Rose Theater on Thursday night in high style, presenting a delightful grab bag of adventurous new works and comfortable old favorites. The Rose Theater, which oversees the ballet, announced last month that it would discontinue the troupe at the end of its season in February.

If the dancers felt dispirited about the demise of their company, they didn’t show it Thursday. They danced all six works on the program with grace, taste and unbridled enthusiasm. The concert, part of the company’s traditional season opener called “Confetti,” began with Deborah Carr’s ballet “Pridelands.”

The costumes are jointly owned by the two companies. But in its lawsuit filed last week, Eugene Ballet says the Boise-based troupe refused to ship the outfits to Oregon unless Eugene Ballet agreed to rent them or buy out Ballet Idaho's interest in them.

Sergei Diaghilev was an ambitious young man when he came to St. Petersburg in 1890 from provincial Perm to seek his fortune. Thanks to his extraordinary talent and energy, as well as a mission to leave a significant impact on the artistic development of his country, he soon found himself at the center of artistic life in the imperial capital.

The five-part exhibition in the Russian Museum takes visitors through this exciting period, which began with the launch of the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) journal. The magazine was more than a glossy publication; it was an important step toward Diaghilev’s future great projects. Art exhibitions were organized under the banner of the journal in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where work by contemporary Russian artists was shown to the public for the first time. Altogether, there were six such exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The magazine also published reviews of the achievements of contemporary foreign and Russian artists.

The new commission came courtesy of the Australian choreographer Tim Harbour. We are told (in helpful little films of the dancers in rehearsal) that his Leaving Songs is about the ending of things and the beginning of something else, but you would be hard pressed to glean that from his meandering and colourless classical writing. The undulating choreography (to music by Ross Edwards) cossets the dancers ( nine in all) to no clear purpose, while the use of clear balloons as dancing props is meant to suggest something deep, perhaps the circle of life and death?

Classical technique is the last thing on the minds of Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, a duo from Netherlands Dance Theatre, here working — inexplicably — with Morphoses. Their Softly As I Leave You is a dire trio for Drew Jacoby, Rubinald Pronk and an upright box (an upended coffin, a phone box?). It starts with Jacoby trapped inside, her heart and body struggling to be free; it ends, predictably, with Pronk in the box. In between comes their contorted romantic emoting to Bach and Arvo Pärt and very little of choreographic interest.

Paquita began life in 1846 in Paris; in 1881 Petipa updated it for St. Petersburg, with a new grand pas de deux classique and pas de trois and children's mazurka by Don Quixote composer Ludwig Minkus. Petipa's additions are pretty much all that's left of the ballet (though it's been reconstructed for the Paris Opera Ballet), and they make for a popular classical divertissement. Boston Ballet last did it, in a version by Tatiana Legat, in 2007, on a bill with Dace Dindonis's ill-starred Carmen. (The plot of Paquita has to do with a Gypsy girl, hence the connection with Carmen, and with "passions.") It's the kind of showstopper you expect to see at ABT, with fans whistling for their favorites.

That's never been the Boston Ballet way, though the 1997 opening-night Paquita, Larissa Ponomarenko, was electrifying. Last night, Ponomarenko was on crutches, having broken a bone in her foot, and we got Lorna Feijóo and Nelson Madrigal in the grand pas de deux. Feijóo shone in her closing fouettés, which she did while revolving in a circle while staying smack on the beat, but she doesn't have Ponomarenko's elasticity of phrasing, and both she and Madrigal look oddly pulled in. He had his best moments in the air, especially two big ciseaux, and he landed a pair of double tours in a creditable arabesque, but he also stumbled out of a couple of jumps.

Halloween is a week away, but Friday night's Charleston Ballet performance, "Dark Dances," certainly got the audience in the spirit of the season. Set against tenebrous backdrops including a graveyard scene, Friday night's performance was a special treat for anyone craving the macabre. Dark but definitely not dreary, the show began as languid (in mood not talent) ladies dressed in black took the stage. Their tantalizing tangos were followed by Kim Pauley and Olivier Wexsteen dancing "Delirium." Pauley's performance as a black widow is nothing short of magical and magnificent. She leaves the audience wanting to get caught in her web. Never has a spider seemed so evil and appealing at the same time. Her performance was the pinnacle of her 20 years as the ballet's artistic director.

Now Mr. Roxey, 41, a former principal dancer with the American Repertory Ballet, is leading his own version. On Oct. 30, his troupe of 16 dancers, plucked from around the world at annual auditions in Manhattan, will interpret the classic vampire lust story at the Community Theater at the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts in Morristown. (Earlier this month they performed it at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton, and they will repeat it on Oct. 31, Halloween night, at Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, N.Y.)

Mr. Roxey has been developing the dance since 2003, he said during a recent rehearsal punctuated by wolf howls and cymbal crashes from the ballet studio’s sound system. Roughly 90 minutes long, it is based “very loosely” on the Bram Stoker novel, he said, and is not for the faint of heart.

As the days become shorter and colder, what better way to spend the evening than a trip to the Royal Theatre? Giselle is currently being performed by the Kongelige Teater and is guaranteed to warm even the coldest of hearts. Giselle is one of the most beautiful ballets, and this performance by the Royal Ballet is no exception. Directed by Sorella Englund and Nicolaj Hübbe (the ballet master of the Danish National Ballet) the performances, while being technically perfect, also contain a great deal of emotion, enabling the audience to empathise with the dancers.

It is every ballerina’s dream to dance the lead role of Giselle, but it is a role that needs to be earned; it demands much from the ballerina, who is on stage for nearly the whole performance. The dream has become a reality for Christina Mickanek, the new solo dancer at the Danish Royal Ballet. It cannot be easy to follow in the ballet shoes of the last dancer to take the part in Copenhagen – Silja Schandorf.