Ballets Russes

Watching the emotionally and aesthetically engulfing Ballets Russes, you step into a living hall of legends. It gives you such an intense hit of creativity that afterward you may find yourself trying to jete out of the theater and into the street. From 1909 until the impresario's death in 1929, Sergei Diaghilev's original, Paris-based Ballets Russes revolutionized dance with the collaborations of choreographers like Fokine and Nijinska, dancers like Pavlova and Nijinsky, composers like Stravinsky and Ravel, and designers like Picasso and Matisse.

Capsules by Michael Sragow and Chris Kaltenbach. Full reviews at baltimoresun.com/movies. Annapolis -- wasn't shot in Annapolis and doesn't have an original thought in its head. James Franco is Jake Huard, son of a neglectful, working-class father. Determined not to spend his life in a factory, Jake gets an appointment to the Naval Academy. Those who have seen An Officer and a Gentleman know the rest of the plot. Once there, Jake faces nearly insurmountable odds, most the result of his uncanny ability to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

It was one of musical history's most memorable nights. On the evening of May 29, 1913, the curtain at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris went up for the first time on Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Almost before the first notes had faded, pandemonium broke out in the house. Eyewitness descriptions of the evening (no two of which agree) include fistfights in the audience, objects hurled through the air, screams, fainting, invective, even a challenge to a duel.

Watching the emotionally and aesthetically engulfing Ballets Russes, you step into a living hall of legends. It gives you such an intense hit of creativity that afterward you may find yourself trying to jete out of the theater and into the street. From 1909 until the impresario's death in 1929, Sergei Diaghilev's original, Paris-based Ballets Russes revolutionized dance with the collaborations of choreographers like Fokine and Nijinska, dancers like Pavlova and Nijinsky, composers like Stravinsky and Ravel, and designers like Picasso and Matisse.

Reinaldo Arenas, 47, a novelist who spent several years in prison in Fidel Castro's Cuba, committed suicide Friday in his apartment in Manhattan, police said. He had AIDS, according to his literary agent, Thomas Colchie. Mr. Aenas found success as a writer after a decade of struggle in the United States, having escaped from Cuba during the Mariel exodus in 1980. His novels included "Farewell to the Sea," "Hallucinations" and "Singing From the Well," which won the Prix Medici in France for the best foreign novel of 1969.

Kamal Adham,71, an adviser to the late Saudi Kings Faisal and Khaled, died Friday of a heart attack in Egypt. Mr. Adham, a brother-in-law of King Faisal, was in charge of Saudi intelligence during the early 1970s.The staunchly anti-Communist King Faisal dispatched him to Egypt in 1970 to persuade then-President Anwar Sadat to lessen his dependence on the Soviets.Mr. Adham's secret mediation is believed to have led Mr. Sadat to expel 16,000 Soviet military advisers from Egypt in 1972.From 1975 to 1982, Mr. Adham served as adviser to King Khaled.

As part of "Vivat! St. Petersburg," Baltimore's salute to the Russian city's 300th birthday, Baltimore Museum of Art has launched the exhibitions Art of the Ballets Russes and The Brilliance of Bakst, illustrating the Russian ballet company's profound influence on music and art. Between 1909 and 1929, music and dance leapt forward into uncharted artistic regions under ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, with his collaborator artist Leon Bakst's costume...

Al "Lash" LaRue,78, a bullwhip-cracking star of low-budget 1940s Westerns whose movie career quickly faded with the onset of the television age, died May 21 in Burbank, Calif. Moviegoers in the years after World War II knew him for his handiwork with a whip and trademark black outfits, but he never achieved the enduring fame of such movie cowboys as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. His films included "Song of Old Wyoming" in 1945, "The Caravan Trail" in 1945, "Law of the Lash" in 1947and "Son of Billy the Kid" in 1949.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland in the 2002-2003 season will honor the life of Edward Stewart, the BTM founding artistic director. Stewart, who died of lung cancer July 30, left a legacy of dedication and discipline for the dancers who begin a new season without him. A number of guest choreographers will offer their artistic perspectives in new productions. The company will not select a full-time artistic director until at least the end of the season. The season begins with a program designed by choreographer Peter Anastos, who arrived Sept.

Capsules by Michael Sragow and Chris Kaltenbach. Full reviews at baltimoresun.com/movies. Annapolis -- wasn't shot in Annapolis and doesn't have an original thought in its head. James Franco is Jake Huard, son of a neglectful, working-class father. Determined not to spend his life in a factory, Jake gets an appointment to the Naval Academy. Those who have seen An Officer and a Gentleman know the rest of the plot. At the academy, Jake faces nearly insurmountable odds, most the result of his uncanny ability to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

As part of "Vivat! St. Petersburg," Baltimore's salute to the Russian city's 300th birthday, Baltimore Museum of Art has launched the exhibitions Art of the Ballets Russes and The Brilliance of Bakst, illustrating the Russian ballet company's profound influence on music and art. Between 1909 and 1929, music and dance leapt forward into uncharted artistic regions under ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, with his collaborator artist Leon Bakst's costume...

It was one of musical history's most memorable nights. On the evening of May 29, 1913, the curtain at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris went up for the first time on Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, performed by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Almost before the first notes had faded, pandemonium broke out in the house. Eyewitness descriptions of the evening (no two of which agree) include fistfights in the audience, objects hurled through the air, screams, fainting, invective, even a challenge to a duel.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland in the 2002-2003 season will honor the life of Edward Stewart, the BTM founding artistic director. Stewart, who died of lung cancer July 30, left a legacy of dedication and discipline for the dancers who begin a new season without him. A number of guest choreographers will offer their artistic perspectives in new productions. The company will not select a full-time artistic director until at least the end of the season. The season begins with a program designed by choreographer Peter Anastos, who arrived Sept.

Kamal Adham,71, an adviser to the late Saudi Kings Faisal and Khaled, died Friday of a heart attack in Egypt. Mr. Adham, a brother-in-law of King Faisal, was in charge of Saudi intelligence during the early 1970s.The staunchly anti-Communist King Faisal dispatched him to Egypt in 1970 to persuade then-President Anwar Sadat to lessen his dependence on the Soviets.Mr. Adham's secret mediation is believed to have led Mr. Sadat to expel 16,000 Soviet military advisers from Egypt in 1972.From 1975 to 1982, Mr. Adham served as adviser to King Khaled.

Al "Lash" LaRue,78, a bullwhip-cracking star of low-budget 1940s Westerns whose movie career quickly faded with the onset of the television age, died May 21 in Burbank, Calif. Moviegoers in the years after World War II knew him for his handiwork with a whip and trademark black outfits, but he never achieved the enduring fame of such movie cowboys as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. His films included "Song of Old Wyoming" in 1945, "The Caravan Trail" in 1945, "Law of the Lash" in 1947and "Son of Billy the Kid" in 1949.

Reinaldo Arenas, 47, a novelist who spent several years in prison in Fidel Castro's Cuba, committed suicide Friday in his apartment in Manhattan, police said. He had AIDS, according to his literary agent, Thomas Colchie. Mr. Aenas found success as a writer after a decade of struggle in the United States, having escaped from Cuba during the Mariel exodus in 1980. His novels included "Farewell to the Sea," "Hallucinations" and "Singing From the Well," which won the Prix Medici in France for the best foreign novel of 1969.