OK fellow BalletAlertniks, see what you think of this idea.

There's very little I enjoy more if I'm travelling than catching local ballet and other dance companies as well. And in larger cities, there is often more to the "scene" than the main company of the city. For instance, New York has both ABT and NYCB, but there's also Ballet Tech and several small ballet companies like Dances Patrelle and Dance Galaxy (to say nothing of towering modern dance companies). There's more to Washington DC than Washington Ballet, more to Paris than POB, more to Saint Petersburg than the Kirov, and so on. . .

Could local BalletAlertniks tell us what's out there - the main company, of course, but also the smaller companies to look for. This would be a great reference for all of us. If a fellow BalletAlertnik were coming to your city and had time to see more than the main company, what else would you take him or her to?

I'm sure we'll have NY covered (and we have contingents in San Francisco, Paris, London, Toronto and Copenhagen that I am certain can be browbeaten or embarrassed into reporting ), so please, people from less represented cities, CHIME IN!

It's really time for the folks in Seattle and Boston to de-lurk. This is a not-very-subtle hint. Any reports possible from Russia?

Great suggestion Leigh! There's a veritable wellspring of information here just waiting to be tapped!

I've travelled to St. Petersburg several times in the past year, and am most impressed by the diversity of the ballet scene there. Besides the Kirov performing in their beautiful Mariinsky Theatre, there are normally 2 or 3 other ballet companies performing every week. I haven't found time this year to see the Moussorgsky Ballet (Maly Ballet) which I did see a decade ago, or the Eifman Ballet.

But I did see Konstantin Tatchkine's St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre performing in both their home theatre on Liteiny Prospekt as well as in the newly restored Comedy Theatre off the Nevsky Prospect. There is a golden room in the Comedy Theatre which is very palatial.

And I've seen two mixed galas at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, opposite the Mariinsky Theatre, featuring dancers from various St. Petersburg companies.