Maybe another thought on why someone would go to Russian primarily to see a dance festival, a Mariinsky dance festival in particular.

On of my favorite composers is Mozart. Many consider him to be the best composer ever.

I've been watching a video of the New York City Ballet over and over. It's a performance of George Balanchine's "Andante from Divertimento No. 15" to the music of Mozart.

There are a thousand and one things about it that fascinate me. There's the classcal flow and the non-classical flow, the compaction and the expansion, the patterns, the attraction and the rebound, the focus and the drift,.... A seemingly infinite number of ways to express beauty.

To me it's Wonderful !

Then I put on a video of the Mariinsky performance of "Chopiniana-Les Sylphides".

Interestingly, while they were dancing to another composer's music, the music of Chopin--to me

" They *Were* Mozart ! "

The dreamlike simplicity, the 'classical' perfection, the restraint....

Is Mozart really better than for example Simon and Garfunkel. They are perhaps two very different worlds.

I'm not saying that I think that the Mariinsky dancers are the best.

I am saying that I think they are--Very, Very Wonderful !


[typo corrections made]