long overdue!<P>i found this post at alt.arts.ballet:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The Hong Kong Ballet will make its European debut in October 2000 with a<BR>six-week tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company will be<BR>presenting an original production, "The Emperor and The Nightingale," which<BR>is based on an old Chinese folk tale.<P>To find out more about the company, the production and the dates and venues<BR>of tour performances, please visit <A HREF="http://www.hkballet.com" TARGET=_blank>www.hkballet.com</A><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 15, 2000).]

Grace, I hope you will come to Hong Kong in the near future to see this company and others.<P>The National Ballet of China will return next February to premiere a new full-length ballet. This company is well worth catching, if you haven't seen them, and its repertory is diverse. I don't have details yet of other visiting companies next year.<P><p>[This message has been edited by Kevin Ng (edited October 16, 2000).]

I would love to catch HKB myself, perhaps on en route to visit relatives in Singapore.

Azlan, you should catch the Singapore Dance Theatre then. Chan Hon Goh, principal of the National Ballet of Canada, guested with them last year.

Kevin, thanks for the tip. I saw Chan dance in Toronto last winter. She was quite impressive.<P>I suppose I should catch the Singapore Dance Theatre. Do you know where I can find their schedule? Now, how to explain the scheduling to the relatives...

<P>Mentioning the National Ballet of China brought to mind a book I have on my shelf. I found it sitting all by its lonesome in a used book shop although it looks new to me. It is called "Red Detachment of Women" Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1972. <P>It was just when President Nixon went to China and Mrs. Nixon brought back tapes of the company dancing. I think another ballet they did was "The White Haired Girl". Anyway, the West was quite stunned by the bravura dancing of the Chinese company. It is true the gestures and facial features were very stylized. And, yes, the ballets were very political - Mao was still in power. But the dancing was superb. This is classical ballet - not Chinese traditional dancing. The teachers were imported from Russia. <P>Well, this book is really quite a work of art itself. The pages are very silky, it has an attached silken ribbon page marker. There are gorgeous color photos - action shots - even fold out color pictures. And, the musical scores of the ballet at the back of the book. I have never seen its like anywhere - ever. <P>I do not, but wish I did, have a tape of the ballets - it was televised before home video recording was readily available. <p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited October 18, 2000).]

Hong Kong Ballet is back this week from its European tour. I don't know the feedback from Europe. But the company is holding a press conference next Tuesday to report on the tour, and also "on the contract renewal with artistic director Stephen Jefferies".<P>So Stephen Jefferies' contract has been extended. If there is any other news, I'll post again after the press conference. I'll definitely ask Stephen why there are no guest artists, and whether this will change in future.