I used to volunteer at the Washington Ballet School.  From my little office on K street, I’d hop on the red line, make a requisite stop at Whole Foods, then arrive at the school where loads of kids would be starting classes, ending classes and stretching in the middle of the hallways.  There was no [...]

Darcy Kistler, left, adjusts six year-old Mia Cardillo’s legs as as Katrina Killian, right, adjusts Cardillo’s feet during auditions for new students at the School of American Ballet in New York.  It was the first time in the school’s 73 year-old history six year-olds were allowed to audition. Previously the earliest age group was eight.  [...]

The economists at Freakonomics pose an interesting question this week:

Over the past half-century, ballet dancers who perform Sleeping Beauty at London’s Royal Opera House have been raising their legs higher and higher. So why, over the same time period, have professional basketball players not improved their free-throw shooting?

The question* supposes that a raised leg [...]

“If you can’t find any potions for sore muscles at your local pharmacy it’s probably because the dancers of the National Ballet of Canada got there first.”
From Michael Crabb’s review of Innovations, appropriately titled “Bent Into Shape.”

First time at the ballet?
Ricardo Bustamante, ballet master from the SF Ballet, offers a few tips for people seeing their first ballet performance.  “Anyone can go to a ballet performance without knowing much about it.”
Video: Canada’s pregnant ballerinas
Next month’s Canadian Family Magazine features a story on The National Ballet of Canada’s three pregnant (at the [...]