I just have to share with you all...<P>I'm watching a tape from the early eighties of Cynthia Gregory in Sleeping Beauty. She's absolutely superb, as always, but my favourite moment is in the Rose Adagio.<P>There's a stray flower that falls off a garland in the Waltz beforehand, and it's sitting smack in the middle of the stage. You can see when Gregory comes out that she spots it . Then it becomes a matter of suspense. Is she going to slip on it? Ignore it? Dance around it? Is it going to mess up her control in the Adagio? Will she fall off balance because she's distracted in the middle of a nerve-wracking moment?<P>Without missing a step or a beat, she does her whole variation, and halfway through the Rose Adagio, she takes a soussous on her way to a shoulder sit and adroitly, almost unnoticeably kicks it out of the way.<P>What a star.

Oh Mehunt - I have that tape too - and it is one of my very favorites! Her Rose Adagio is absolutely splendid. The petit allegro combination she does when she first comes out on stage is just so delightful - so young - so full of sunshine.<P>I adore watching in the balances in arabesque (not the attitude balances) - she comes down very slowly from pointe - just like the textbook says - toe/ball/heel -everytime. <P>I also remember that flower in the middle of the stage and watching to see what she would do about it. <P>Just about that time a new ballet magazine debuted - I am trying to remember the name of it - Ballet News? She graced its very first cover in her Sleeping Beauty costume and the title was: "An American Beauty."

Is that video for sale? I remember the telecast and would love to have it in my collection. I would also like to see the interviews because I remember Jolinda Menendez saying that Mr. Tudor told her that the Lilac Fairy is the younest.

Glebb- I taped mine from the telecast. Bujones is also splendid.<P>Another Rose Adagio that I have, and adore, is Fonteyn.

I loved Cynthia Gregory's Aurora, too. Even later in her career, she was so radiant in this role. And her technique... <P>Jolinda Menendez did a nice job with Lilac Fairy in the telecast version. (Glebb, I don't know if that video is available.) That's interesting about the Lilac Fairy being the youngest. All I'd been able to find out about her was that she was the Fairy of Wisdom, so I always thought of her as the oldest. But do fairies have ages? I remember there was something about an old Russian custom surrounding the birth of a child, where the baby was held under a lilac bush or branch, which was supposed to convey wisdom to the child. Don't ask me to document that one, but I'm pretty sure I actually read that somewhere. I liked the idea that the fairy of wisdom was considered the most important...<P>There was another fairy variation on that tape that looked really good to me. I can't remember which fairy, but I think it was danced by Janet Shibata.

I've been looking for this tape for years and a friend of mine just got a copy of it, so naturally, I've been watching the parts I remembered. Cynthia Gregory was (and still is) an idol of mine and this performance made a huge impression on me when I first saw it. <P>Yes, it was Ballet News, Basheva. I still have my copy of the magazine with her in Rose Adagio costume on the cover. Aren't her arabesques amazing? You're absolutely right, she lifts up her torso and rolls down so gently from pointe, it's like watching a how-to video.<P>I don't think it's for sale anywhere, because I really LOOKED for it. I like the idea that Lilac is the youngest. I recall hearing that before too, because Carabosse is the oldest and arguably, the strongest.<P>The other fairies I had a hard time identifying. I don't know who does Candide (the first one), but I do know that Coulante is Kristine Elliot. Is that Janet Shibata doing the Miettes? And I thought that Canari looked like Susan Jaffe and that Yoko Ichino maybe was the one doing Finger Fairy?<BR>Does anyone know for sure?

In Balanchine's book "101 Stories of the Great Ballets here are the fairies listed:<P>Fairy of the:<P>Crystal Fountain<BR>Enchanted Garden<BR>Woodland Glades<BR>songbirds<BR>Golden Vine

I just checked my tape and I think you got them all except the first one, Mehunt. Candide, I believe, is Nanette Glushak.

Thanks nancy! Nanette Glushak. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while!<P>Was the cast listed at the end? Silly me, I suppose I could have just checked that!

I don't have the entire ballet on tape; a dear friend gave me excerpts, of the Prologue (which I staged for our Recital last year; hence the familiarity with the fairies) and the Rose Adagio. The years surrounding that broadcast were the ones during which my husband and I got to ABT four or five times a week in season, and I knew the dancers pretty well. So I didn't have the cast list to check at the end, but I'm 99 per cent sure that was Nanette.

Oh, these kinds of threads are so frustrating to me! I have only one tape of Cynthia Gregory (In a Rehearsal Room) and would dearly love to have more. I WISH it was possible to buy these things!

To add to Sissonne's frustration ( ) here's what I have in tapes for Cynthia Gregory:<P>firebird complete<BR>le corsaire pdd<BR>paquita complete<BR>sleeping beauty complete<BR>swan lake black swan pdd<P>In my opinion, Gregory wasn't nearly as well appreciated as she should have been. She was at the height of her career at the time when we were welcoming some wonderful dancers who had left the Soviet Union. I think the public did not give the amount of acclaim due to artists who were home grown - but just as deserving. Bujones was another one.

It's the same feeling now when going to the Kirov, Basheva. Because it is a Russian company, it's been sold out houses. Even all the standing room positions were filled. ABT did well for the performances I saw, but not that kind of packed house. And the audience for ABT seemed more sophisticated than the audience for the Kirov seems to be. More non-ballet goers appear to be attending the latter. Now, no question the Kirov is an excellent company, but so is ABT. And it's the Russians who garner the attention, just as it was for Gregory and Bujones when Makarova and Baryshnikov were around. All four of them were extraordinary dancers.

"In a Rehearsal Room" is fabulous too. That was actually filmed at the ballet studio that I used to study at when I was little, on Upper Broadway. They put up flats with windows cut intot hem, but every so often, you'll see the dancers pass one of the distinctive doorways. I had such a crush on Ivan Nagy then too.<P>I definitely agree with you, Basheva, about the American dancers of that era who were overlooked, I think of Eleanor D'Antuono, who was so hard-working, and Christine Sarry. Then of course, there's Gelsey Kirkland.<P>There's such a mystique attached to the Russians, who are, undoubtedly superb. Sadly, I always feel that American dance-goers get most excited about dancers from other countries. Even at ABT now, so many of the stars are from other places. It's starting to look very different from that Baryshnikov era when he promoted all those young American dancers.<BR>

I would have to agree with Sissonne that it is quite frustrating to hear about these beautiful tapes/interviews and how difficult they are to find. I don't suppose any of the super talented people who have created and manage this site have ever considered a swap meet/video section? Probably there would be copyright issues, but wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to download these directly to each other and put on DVD? <BR> Speaking of interviews, I just saw the ABT Theatre Now video, and there was a very brief interview at the beginning with Susan Jaffe who came across as someone very thoughtful. Is anyone aware of any longer interviews with her on video? <BR>