"Line!"

Roslyn Sulcas has an interesting piece in the NYT on the new adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes. (Link courtesy of Alice.) As a child, I read all the Streatfield novels I could lay my hands on again and again, but I do think that one is her best...

On a related note, also at the Times, Alastair Macaulay considers the question of what Degas's paintings show about the styles of ballet prevalent in turn-of-the-century Paris. (NB I saw the play mentioned in the third paragraph, and it is not recommended - I felt the fact that I know nothing about ballet was the only reason I was not as irked by the poor dance-related skills of the supposed dancers as I was by the frequent use of very poorly pronounced and embarrassingly clumsily inserted French words and phrases in the dialogue!)