This week's #ThrowbackThursday focuses on the early 20th century ballet Cleopatra. Anna Pavlova and Mikhail Fokine, 1909 Cleopatra, or Cléopatre, is a one-act dramatic ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine. Set in Egypt, the ballet follows the young lovers Ta-Hor and Amoun. They are meeting in secret at a temple when the high priest arrives to announce the arrival of Queen Cleopatra. Amoun falls in love with the queen, who agrees to spend the night with him on one condition

Here's Hannah O'Neill and Karl Paquette of the Paris Opera Ballet in La Esmeralda. - Selene

This week's Spotlight Saturday focuses on Misty Copeland. In a Degas inspired photoshoot for Harper's Bazaar Misty Copeland was born on September 10, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the fourth of six children born to Sylvia Delacerna. Her home life was hard; the family moved around a lot before settling in San Pedro, California. They lived with Sylvia's fourth husband, who was emotionally and physically abusive to both his wife and stepchildren. Copeland took refuge i

Today's #ThrowbackThursday is a fairly recent ballet by Christopher Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Wheeldon based his ballet on the popular children's book by Lewis Carroll. Set in 1862, the ballet begins at a garden party, where Lewis Carroll is entertaining the three Liddell girls, Lorina, Alice, and Edith, by performing magic tricks and reading them a story. Jack, the gardner's boy, brings in a basket of roses; Alice's mother dislikes red roses, so Jack gives

This week's Tutu Tuesday is also a bit of a throwback: Margot Fonteyn in The Sleeping Beauty. - Selene

This week's Spotlight Saturday focuses on Tanaquil Le Clercq. Tanaquil Le Clercq was born October 2, 1929, to French intellectual Jacques Le Clercq and his American wife Edith Whittemore. Born in Paris, she moved to New York at the age of three, where she studied ballet with Mikhail Mordkin. In 1941, she won a scholarship to the School of American Ballet, founded and run by George Balanchine. As Dewdrop in 'The Nutcracker', 1954 With Nicholas Magallanes in 'Jones Beach', 1950

This week's #ThrowbackThursday is The Dying Swan. Anna Pavlova The Dying Swan, originally just The Swan, is a solo piece by the choreographer Mikhail Fokine for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. Technically a very short ballet - at just 4 minutes - Pavlova interpreted the ballet as following life to its expiration. Anna Pavlova Inspired by her love of swans and by Tennyson's poem The Dying Swan, Pavlova - having just become a ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre - asked Mikhail Fokin

It's Tutu Tuesday! Here's Ulyana Lopatkina in Balanchine's Diamonds. - Selene

Last weekend was the Restricted Dance, Impromptu, and Musical Theatre Competitions run by Alison's Studio of Dance. We had a great turn out this year, and especially enjoyed the new Musical Theatre section of the competitions which ran on Saturday night along with the Variation classes. Well done to all the students who danced! Here are a few photos which Alison managed to snap in between running around organising the comps. A huge thank you to everyone who helped out over th

This week's Spotlight Saturday focuses on French ballerina Genevieve Gosselin. Genevieve-Adelaide Gosselin was born in 1791. Her father was a ballet master, and her three younger sisters also became ballerinas. Constance Gosselin married the danseur Auguste-Anatole Petit; Louise Gosselin achieved success as a prima ballerina in both London and Paris; and Henriette Gosselin danced with the Paris Opera Ballet for seven years. Genevieve, it could be said, had a certain amount of