Revised Tours en l'air Ballet Holidays 2011-12 schedule

It's time for you to put in your two cents worth and help me to choose the trips that will be Tours en l'air in 2011-12. Below is a list of all the trips I think are doable and interesting. Remember, you don't have to live in Toronto to join these trips, as you find your own way to wherever they start. Please let me know which ones you may be interested in. It isn't a commitment, it's just a way for me to eliminate the trips for which there is insufficient demand before I go ahead and do the detailed planning. If you think you might want to go on any of these trips it is best to tell me now, even if later you may have to decline, because otherwise I'll assume there is a lack of interest and will abandon any further planning. It's also your chance to ask for tweaks to the proposed schedules, for instance if you want it a bit longer or shorter, aren't interested in one of the ballets in the schedule, etc. I do need your input as soon as possible as some of the opera houses require that I put in my requests for tickets as early as June 1st this year. Here you go, your "balletomane in a candy store" moment:

Tuesday 4 October – Monday 10 October 2011

London 5 performances

Northern Ballet: Cleopatra

Royal Ballet: Jewels (Balanchine)

Limen (McGregor), Marguerite and Armand (Ashton), Requiem (MacMillan)

English National Ballet: Strictly Gershwin (Deane)

Birmingham Royal Ballet: Symphonic Variations (Ashton), Checkmate (de Valois), Pineapple Poll (Cranko)

Saturday 22 October – Sunday 23 October 2011

Montreal 1 performance

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal: Rodin / Claudel (Quanz)

Saturday December 3 - Sunday December 11
Paris 3 performances
Paris Opera Ballet: Onegin
Cinderella (Rudolf Nureyev's version set in the golden age of Hollywood)
here's a clip, but you really have to see the beautiful pas de deux!
Royal Ballet of Flanders: Impressing the Czar (Forsythe)
See the RBF's great promo video for this season here:

Thursday 26 January – Sunday 5 February 2012

Vienna and Prague 4 performances

Vienna State Ballet: La Sylphide (Taglioni)
Le Concours (Béjart)
Ballet of the National Theatre of Prague: Swan Lake
Onegin

Friday 24 February – Thursday 1 March 2012

Birmingham 2 performances

Birmingham Royal Ballet: Hobson's Choice (Bintley)

Daphnis and Chloe, Two Pigeons (both Ashton)

Tuesday 6 March – Wednesday 14 March 2012

Holland and Paris 5 performances

Dutch National Ballet: van Manen program

Swan Lake (van Dantzig)

Mixed repertoire program

Paris Opera Ballet: La Bayadère

Dances at a Gathering (Robbins), Appartement (Ek)

Saturday 31 March – Tuesday 10 April 2012

Berlin, Dresden, and Prague 3 performances

Berlin State Ballet: Gala excerpts

Romeo and Juliet (Cranko)

Dresden Semperoper Ballet: Coppelia (Balanchine)

Friday 20 April – Monday 30 April 2012

Munich and Stuttgart 6 performances

Stuttgart Ballet: The Lady and the Fool (Cranko), Gaîté Parisienne (Béjart)

Birmingham Royal Ballet: Checkmate (de Valois), Take 5 (Bintley),

The Dream (Ashton)

Bavarian State Ballet: Illusions – Like Swan Lake (Neumeier)

Scènes de Ballet, 5 Brahms Waltzes, Voices of Spring (all Ashton),

Song of the Earth (MacMillan)

Wherever he looks (Mannes), Daphnis and Chloe (Kohler)

Gods and Dogs (Kylian), Goldberg Variations (Robbins)

for detailed itinerary, please click here. Signup deadline January 20, 2012.

Friday 18 May – Monday 21 May

Boston 2 performances

Boston Ballet: Etudes (Lander), Barber Violin Concerto (Martins),

Fancy Free (Robbins)

Mark Morris Dance Group: The Muir, Festival Dance, Socrates

Sunday 3 June – Wednesday 13 June 2012

Vienna 4 performances

Vienna State Opera Ballet: Carmina Burana, Bolero

Don Quixote (Nureyev)

“Young Talents” mixed program

Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (Forsythe), Bach Suite III (Neumeier),

Rubies (Balanchine), Variations on a theme of Haydn (Tharp)

Thursday 28 June – Sunday 1 July 2012

Chicago 3 performances

Paris Opera Ballet: Giselle

Suite en Blanc (Lifar), L'Arlésienne (Petit), Bolero (Béjart)

Gala evening

This gives us a rare opportunity to see Paris Opera Ballet on this continent. Their tour rep includes the thrilling display piece by Serge Lifar, Suite en Blanc, from which I know you will love this notoriously difficult solo, called "TheCigarette"!