Though I hadn't planned it this way, I have settled into featuring dancers - ballet dancers and modern dancers, primarily - on this blog every other December, in even-numbered years.
I'm starting my fourth series of beautiful dancers at a time when ballet seems to be in trouble. Despite the popularity of other forms of dance, as evidenced in the big ratings for dance competition television shows, the popularity of ballet is fading; profiling New York City Ballet choreographer Peter Martins for "60 Minutes" only recently, correspondent Lesley Stahl (featured here on this blog, in April 2011), a ballet fan herself, reported that young people find ballet too stodgy and inauthentic. Modern dance, at least, seems to be doing better; a PBS Newshour report from this past week on the modern dance company TuDance in St. Paul, Minnesota, focused on the TuDance's growth and popularity in the Twin Cities area since the company was founded in 2004 . . . although correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro noted that raising enough money to run both the company and its school can be difficult.
So, given the hardships the U.S. economy has faced in recent years - not to mention the disdain for high art among the American general public - it's imperative for those of us who can attend a dance performance to do so, and support the arts. I myself have taken in performances of the American Ballet Theatre, although, more recently, my own economic situation has made that difficult.
So, yes, see a dance performance if you can. And when you do, here are some of the lovely women that, depending on where you live, you'll get to see. :-)
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