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NEW REPERTORY FOR ERICK HAWKINS COMPANY

Composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, widow of Erick Hawkins, makes her choreographic debut with Radical Ardent and Taking Time to Be Vulnerable, which the Erick Hawkins Dance Company performs March 23 to 25 in the 92nd Street Y's Harkness Dance Project in New York City. The company also dances the first formal showings of two Hawkins works staged posthumously by Dlugoszewski from Hawkins's notes, as well as Hawkins's Cantilever Two and Early Floating.

SOTHEBY'S SALE OF DANCE ITEMS BREAKS RECORD

An auction of set and costume designs fetched $873,577 at Sotheby's in New York City, December 9. Leon Bakst's 1910 costume design for Almee in Scheherazade (pictured) was acquired by Robert L. B. Tobin of Texas for $167,500, a record for the artist. Tobin's collection of theater art at the Marion Koogler McNay Museum in San Antonio is one of the largest repositories of stage and costume designs in the United States.

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Clive Thompson, former principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was in New York City for the company's opening gala in December. Along with other Ailey alumni, he kicked up his heels on the City Center stage in celebration of the fortieth anniversary. "How wonderful it's thriving after all these years," said Thompson. "Thanks to Judy, more and more people understand what Alvin wanted." After Thompson left Ailey twenty years ago, he ran his own company and school on Staten Island in New York for ten years, in order to be at home while his two sons were young. Once they went off to college, he returned to his native Jamaica, where he had begun his career with the National Dance Theater Company. Today, he combines all the activities that are closest to his heart. While continuing to choreograph at least one piece a year for the National Company, he runs a miniature farm at his home in the hills outside Kingston, raising bees, exotic plants, chickens, and pink ginger lilies. He also gives Swedish massages. For someone who has always loved gardening, Jamaica offers unimagined possibilities. "My newest pursuit," he said, "is landscaping. After making my own place as lovely as possible, I like doing it for other people's homes."

AESTHETICS OF DANCE DEBATED

Apart from a single, occasional paper dealing with dance, the annual meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics have not given much time to this art form. But last fall two full hours were devoted to "Theories of Dance: Past, Present, and Future."

Ballerina Violette Verdy, who is now in charge of ballet at Indiana University, inspired the choice. Chairing the first session, she produced a lecture-demonstration with her students, illustrating various forms of theatrical dance from classical ballet to jazz. A special feature was a performance of George Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, which Verdy had danced with New York City Ballet. Not limiting the scope to the United States, university dancers performed dances of China and India.

The second hour was devoted to a panel discussion with philosophers Arnold Berleant of Long Island University and Francis Sparshott of the University of Toronto, along with dance historian Sally Banes from the University of Wisconsin. The speakers dealt with various questions, including, What makes dance dance? Sparshott, who has published two books on dance, is a proponent of the idea that no one definition or system can answer this question.

DANCE MAGAZINE'S WEB SITE:

www.dancemagazine.com includes issue highlights, the performance calendar, a photo gallery, and Web site exclusives.

PEOPLE AND COMPANIES IN THE NEWS

Earle Mack has resigned from his position as chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts to spend more time with his family. ... Maestro Denis de Coteau was appointed music director emeritus at San Francisco Ballet.... Former Australian Ballet principal Marilyn Rowe is the new director of the Australian Ballet School.... Alberta Ballet returned to Calgary from a successful five-week tour of China last fall.... Marcel Marceau performs at New York City's Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, March 18 to 28, and will teach an intensive mime workshop at City Center Studios. For information, call [phone].... Ballet West principal Raymond Van Mason (left, with Isabelle Crest) has accepted a position as dancer, choreographer, and ballet master with Ballet Pacifica.... Ohio Ballet's Heinz Poll will receive the Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio on March 24.... Herbert and Audre Deckmann Mendel were honored by the Chicago Wedgwood Society with the "Illustrious Moderns" award in part for their support of American Ballet Theatre, where Audre once was a soloist.... Chicago's Hubbard Street Trainee Ensemble has announced a choreography competition with a March 27 deadline. Contact [phone] for information.... Former New York City Ballet dancer Melinda Roy takes her country western dance company, The Outlaws, to sea on an Arts at Sea Caribbean cruise, February 24 to March 7. For information, call [phone].

NATIONAL DANCE WEEK

Actress and dancer Shirley MacLaine has been named the national spokesperson for this year's National Dance Week, which runs April 24 to May 2. For information on events, see Dance Magazine's April issue or visit the National Dance Week Web site at www.ambrosiaweb.com/ nationaldanceweek/

* SIX CHOREOGRAPHERS are the recipients of 1998 Choo-San Goh Awards for Choreography to support new works added to a dance company's repertory: Susan Hadley, for her work for BalletMet Columbus; Leigh Witchel for Dance As Ever; Dominic Walsh for Houston Ballet; Doug Varone for Limon Dance Company; Pascal Rioult for Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre; and Matthew Neenen for Pennsylvania Ballet.

TWO NEW STARS IN PARIS WAX MUSEUM

PARIS--Onstage, they are electric. Paris Opera Ballet stars Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Nicolas Le Riche leave spectators spellbound when they perform together, as they did on January 2, 1999, during an emotionally charged holiday performance of Nureyev's Don Quixote, marking Pietragalla's departure for the Ballet de Marseille. An extended standing ovation greeted the couple as Pietragalla bade farewell to her Parisian home of the past twenty years.

Although their partnership has come to an end, the two dancers' likenesses will live on in Paris's illustrious wax museum, the Musee Grevin, where, on December 16, 1998, Pietragalla, 35, and Le Riche, 27, celebrated the unveiling of their wax mannequins in the company of a few little rats from the ballet school.

Surrounded by the figures of fellow dancers Sylvie Guillem, Patrick Dupond, Serge Lifar, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Le Riche and Pietragalla are now preserved for eternity under the magnificent gold-plated dome of the museum's central hall and, dressed in their costumes from Don Quixote, will forever be remembered for their final role together.

The wax figures took nearly six months to create and are now part of a collection that includes such historical figures as Louis XIV, Mozart, and Joan of Arc, as well as some of today's stars, including Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli, and Marilyn Monroe.

BALLETS AND BEASTS IN MARCH

To mark its twenty-fifth anniversary, Orlando's Southern Ballet Theatre performs Act III of Don Quixote, March 12 to 14. The same weekend, Portland's Maine State Ballet also performs Don Quixote, with Quixote riding a real horse and his sidekick, Sancho Panza, astride a mule. A unicorn is one of several roles in Georgia's Festival Ballet Company's performances of Nicolas Pacana's Beauty and the Beast on March 7, 20, and 21 in Macon, Rome, and Jonesboro, respectively. State Street Ballet of Santa Barbara, California, jumps on the bandwagon with performances of Robert Sund's Beauty and the Beast in Santa Barbara, March 20; Ridgecrest, March 24; and Thousand Oaks, March 27. Czech choreographer Ctibor Turba brings his bat ballet to The Kitchen in New York City, March 3 to 6. Four dancers hang by their feet during the length of Turba's The Hanging Man.