With all due respect, I have to disagree with Catherine on a number of points. First, it is presumptuous, at least, to suggest everyone who enjoyed SFB Swan Lake is an ignorant rube. Whatever criticisms we had, and most of us had some, on balance there was a lot to enjoy and I don't think I and others are dummies because we think so. Or should we just get DVDs of Kirov Swan Lake and watch that over and over but never see anyone else?

I also disagree with the main point that classics stand alone and unchanged. First, it's not factually true; before the printing press when books were hand copied, not only were there transcription errors, it was the norm for copiers to add and embellish - not considered dishonest back then. In fact, that's why we have the King James bible. The king got annoyed with so many versions and ordered the chief scholars and poets to put together a single version. How close it was to the original Hebrew and Aramaic is anyone's guess.

Leaving aside that ancient history, I would submit a book changes every time a person reads it. When I read Wuthering Heights, written after the invention of the printing press and in my native language, based on descriptions I visualized the scenery, the appearance and dress of the characers, their voices, their motives, etc. And every reader does the same. That is why to this day scholars debate, for example, what Shakesepeare's true message was in Merchant of Venice, fiercely, even though they all are reading the same play.

Reading is a private communion between writer and reader. But a performance, music, dance or theater, is public. And what we see is a director's interpretation of a work of art, filtered through the performers. It's a public version of what happens when we read a book. And making a film of a classic (some are crap but some, like the Russian War and Peace and the 1968 Romeo and Juliet are very good) is doing the same. The story doesn't change, but scenery, costumes, voices, emphasis all reflect a director's view.

I for one would have been disappointed had Tina LeBlanc and Lorena Feijoo danced Odette/Odile exactly alike. They are two different women, different physical attributes, from two countries. I would expect to see those differences. For every performance to be exactly alike, and exactly like Kirov/Bolshoi, would be boring indeed.

BTW, I do agree on the feather caps. But perhaps the mixture of costumes and scenery could have been making a point, that Swan Lake is essentially a dream, outside time and place?

On another point, it seems all of us saw either LeBlanc or Feijoo - anyone see the other casts? I'd be interested to hear some thoughts, especially on Sarah Van Patten, whom Rachel Howard, rather surprisingly, considered the best of the six.

coats had additional fabric to add an attractive swirling effect as well, so there seemed to be a consistent theme

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I am curious about this discussion. Especially of the "menace' and the "balloon", both of which the quoted author found fabulous. I assume that neljeffz agreed, that's why he quoted fluteboo. But what are we talking about?--- ballet steps, 'themes' of costumes, or ice-skating arm moves?