Washington Ballet

LONDON -- Baltimore-Washington cultural life came under critical scrutiny here this week as John Waters' "Serial Mom" opened at a half-dozen movie theaters and the Washington Ballet played Sadler's Wells.Mr. Waters got generally good reviews for continuing his celebration of wayward Baltimoreans as the slightly weary "Pope of Trash."The Washington Ballet was just trashed.The Big Issue, the journal of London's homeless street people, gave "Serial Mom" four stars, which no doubt means it's a whole lot better than sleeping rough in a doorway on The Strand.

WASHINGTON -- "Savannah," which will receive its premiere Wednesday at the Kennedy Center, is not about the city in Georgia. Its choreographer, Ntsikelelo "Boyzie" Cekwana, is from South Africa, and his piece is inspired by the great grasslands of Africa.The Washington Ballet and the Kennedy Center have co-commissioned the work from the 27-year-old Cekwana -- whose name is pronounced Sechwana, rather like the Chinese province -- as part of the dance company's 20th-anniversary season and the center's African Odyssey festival.

It's the time of year when we often find ourselves falling almost uncontrollably in and out of nostalgic reveries. This can be brought on by radio stations playing the year's top songs, by writing or receiving holiday letters or by reading lists written by people like myself, who wistfully remember the best and sometimes worst events of the past year.As dance years go, 1992 was slightly above average. Any dance fan hopes to get lucky at least once during the season and come away from a performance with all sensibilities satisfied.

The Columbia Festival of the Arts has become one of the premiere showcases for dance in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Since its modest beginnings in 1988, when the festival's featured companies were Kinetics Dance Theatre of Ellicott City and the Garth Fagan Dance Company, dance has become an integral player in the 10-day event. The 2000 festival, which wrapped up yesterday, included performances by such renowned international artists as Marcel Marceau, companies as groundbreaking as `The Next Ice Age" and an announcement of a company in residence for future festivals - the well-respected Washington Ballet.

Maryland-reared ballerina Amanda McKerrow was in D.C recently to dance the starring Snow Queen role on opening night of the Washington Ballet's "Nutcracker Suite."This was a sentimental return for McKerrow, who has been with American Ballet Theater in New York since 1983 and is a principal dancer. She was reunited with Simon Dow, now the ballet master at Washington Ballet, who was her partner in 1981 when she won the gold medal at the Moscow Ballet Competition.Also, her 11-year-old niece, Jenna McKerrow, had a part as one of the party children in Act 1. Jenna has been attending the Washington Ballet School since September.

Fresh off a bus from New York, where they finished their first American performance late Friday night, the dancers of the Cuban dance company Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba were eager to make their debut before a Columbia audience yesterday afternoon at Howard Community College. At a reception held to honor the American debuts of Dance Cuba and Traje Nuevo, a popular Cuban band, at the Columbia Festival of the Arts, the dancers forgot their fatigue and gave an impromptu sneak preview of a dance they will perform tonight at the Rouse Theater.

For Columbia's Alex Ketley , the dance road leading to this week's national TV exposure on "So You Think You Can Dance" began under the tutelage of the late Anne Allen as a member of her Columbia Multi-Media Dance Theater Company. That training opened doors for this Wilde Lake High School graduate, and earned him credits with the Washington Ballet. The road led eventually to California as a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, where Ketley performed from 1994 to 1998 in a wide-ranging ballet repertory that included the works of master choreographerGeorge Balanchine.

Dust off the tuxedos, pull out the pearls and get ready to celebrate a new dance season with anniversaries, reunions, holiday performances and a masked ball here in Howard County. Around this time of year, Kathi Ferguson puts on a seasonal dance show for children and their parents. In the past we have watched dancing ghosts and goblins and a wicked witch who jumped high on her broom. This season, the director of the Howard County Ballet has planned a "Masquerade Ball," complete with waltzes set to Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, and a vampire scene a la "Phantom of the Opera.

SATURDAY BALTIMORE BALLET: The Baltimore Ballet celebrates its 10-year anniversary with guest performances by members from American Ballet Theatre, Washington Ballet, Merce Cunningham and Alvin Ailey. Three one-act ballets will also be performed at the gala. The event takes place at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 to $72. Go to ticketmaster.com. CURIOUS GEORGE: LET'S GET CURIOUS: This exhibit takes kids inside the world of Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat with adventures in math, science and engineering at Port Discovery, 35 Market Place, through June 6. Admission is $12.95.

The Sugarplum Fairy remains the most challenging role in "The Nutcracker" ballet. A ballerina must be secure in her classical technique and mature in her dramatic skills to excel in this role. She also must be a smart leader on stage as she endeavors to keep all those tiny sugar plum darlings from tripping over one another in the Land of the Sweets. For young dancers, being chosen for Clara also elicits "oohs" and "ahs" of envy, for it is she who gets the spotlight as she wins the heart of her Nutcracker Prince.