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I'm glad I did. All I can say is, "wow." I'm still raving over the character dancing the mazurka and czardas in Raymonda. Lopatkina is about as close to perfect as I can imagine, and I loved the way she clapped her hands without actually clapping them in her solo. I could go on and on, and probably will, but I wanted to get a couple of comments up right away.

The company style seems more refined and understated than when last I saw them in 2002; certainly the overall caliber of dancing is astonishingly high. And it's wonderful to see such arms and such epaulement.

Lopatkina is a tough act to follow, and the other ballerinas did follow, at an ever-increasing distance.

In Paquita, Vishneva started with great brio, but pushed too hard, with some quickly corrected but unfortunate finishes to the occasional pirouette where she should've done one less turn than she did. And her little flicks of the wrist got to be very annoying. She's certainly strong, though.

It was interesting seeing Shades on such a small stage the corps looked great, and did only two steps between each arabesque to fit.

Somova danced like a peroxide blonde with the odd root showing. Wait a minute....

She danced Shades like the whole thing was just a bunch of dull stuff between opportunities to show how high she can kick (I give her points for doing, or rather trying, doubles in both directions while holding the scarf, though.) And those arms. Dear God. And those jetes where she'd kick her front foot up so high it was like the prow of a Viking warship. Truly, truly ugly.

I really loved Kondaurova in Paquita and Shades (last, big variation).

And it was good to see Yana Selina again. I got rather fond of her in 2002, when she seemed to be the hardest-working dancer in the company. When she wasn't a demi, she was in the corps, and it seems like she would appear in every act of Jewels in one capacity or another. Selina did the demi solo in Raymonda, and was quite wonderful, too.

I'm probably going to wear out that adjective; get used to it.

During an intermission, a friend favored me with: "There are lies, damn lies, and Russian casting." So true.

Oh, the men weren't bad, either. I've never seen the double tours carried off with such panache in Raymonda's pas de quatre.