Thanks, Catherine.

Living part of the year in Switzerland, I would really like to see this.

Things come together in interesting ways sometimes. Lausanne, Switzerland, where Ulyana Lopatkina will be performing, is also the home of the Bejart Ballet and she will be performing in the same theater that it uses.

The Bejart Ballet danced two nights at this year's Mariinsky Festival and one of it's members, danced at a Gala. Her performance, for me, was perhaps the company's most successful effort. Interestingly, for what appears to be a primarily male company it's major work,"Bolero," was completely centered around a single female soloist.

I've been watching an internet video clip of Sylvie Guillem perform this and if anyone can make it come to life, she can! Wow! The dance ends with her still atop an elevated platform, but now with a sea of perhaps thirty men dancing below her. Not for a second does she lose complete control of everything! It's all extremely sensual, but also highly nuanced and elevated. Performed by her it's a curiously powerful statement of female entrancement.

It reminds me of what Diana Vishneva was able to do at this year's Festival with "Carmen Suite." Both these women can turn creations like these into their own personal display of passionate Fireworks(!).

Ulyana Lopatkina has performed a tamer and beautiful sort of solo tango at two closing Festival Galas. She has also danced "The Fragments From One Biography" by Vladimir Vasilyev, which is a somewhat animated Spanish theme dance and apparently "Carmen Suite" as well. I wonder if she will do any of this in Lausanne.

In a world of contrasts it's always wonderful to see that beauty can come in so many different forms of expression. Ulyana Lopatkina is a goddess of transcendental gentleness and grace and there is no need for her to be otherwise. Still, she ventures into this world of high passion from time to time, which can remind us that magnificent beauty can come in many shades and colors.

Buddy I especially appreciated your last paragraph there...quite true.

If you do have such luck as to see this performance, I will be there in spirit but hope you can report back!

Thanks, Catherine.

May is a long time away, but if she does come to Costa Mesa in October, I'll certainly try to be there and to write about it here.