As the cloud-soft "swans" of England's Royal Ballet last week skimmed through a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a small woman with grey sculptured hair clapped her hands to halt the piano in the pit of the Metropolitan Opera House. "What on earth are the swans doing? Really!" She asked in a voice edged with impatience. "Movements on strong beats, please. You understand, don't you?" And "Isn't this lighting brighter than in the first act? Why?"
Ninette de Valois has been casting commands in the form of such darting questions ever since she singlehandedly...
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