Hey, Emma,
I'm glad you feel as if you're learning more about the wonderful subject of ballet. Indeed, Joe really knows his stuff having been a ballet dancer with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, one of the most admired and longstanding ballet companies ever. Now he does volunteer work for American Ballet Theatre and not only gets to see their great performances from great seats, but also gets to watch the rehearsals, which are often more educational and interesting than the performances. For example, watching two great dancers in a pas de deux try to work out way a lift isn't working with the music gives such insight into how delicate the timing has to be, much like figure skating.
Although I started in ballet and performed in both ballet and modern till I was 18, I knew by the age of 16 that I was an evil modern dancer, lol. However, only modern dancers who adhere to a very strict modern style do not take both ballet and modern classes. I bring this up because I've always wondered if athletic skaters such as Irina find some benefit from the right style of modern dance for her. For example, with Irina's power, speed, and skating "deep into the ice," I wonder if she might like classes in Humphrey-Limon technique. The H-L technique is deep into the earth, uses natural positions of the arms, and is built on a system of "fall and recovery." You don't actually fall to the floor; it's actually a system of giving into gravity until the last possible moment when you recover your balance. It also has beautiful use of the torso, where Irina is very flexible but tends to get rather wild sometimes. Like I said, I'd just love to see if classes in Humphrey-Limon would (a) appeal to Irina and (b) if they would make a positive difference in her skating.
I could go on and on with skaters and what kind of modern or ballet technique classes might be interesting for them, from my point of view, but I'll spare you all, except to say I'd be interested to see Sasha work with the technique Paul Taylor developed. It includes the strong lines of Merce Cunningham; the power of Martha Graham; and the fluidity of Humphrey-Limon--everything that, IMO, would be beneficial to Sasha.
One more thing about ballet: I second Joe's suggestion to rent a tape of a ballet performance. While it's true that most any tape will give you a good idea of what's involved, but if you want to see the creme de la creme, I'd recommend Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Markova doing "Swan Lake" or, even though it's older and most of the corps dancers look like beginners next to the stars, the tape of Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev (first Russian dancer to seek and get political asylum in the west) doing "Romeo and Juliet." Those are just two tapes that show four of the greatest dancers of the 20th Century, but Joe is right that watching any tape of American Ballet Theatre or New York City Ballet will be a great experience.
As for my "War and Pairs" post (thanks for the great review, Mathman; you're a mensch) I'd send it to you as a private message but it's too long. If you want to PM me your e-mail I'll e-mail it to you. Otherwise I can just re-post it with a warning:
THIS IS A RE-POSTING OF "WAR AND PAIRS." READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Now as for Mathman, who slightly loses his mensch status for describing my post about Michelle's as it being my treatise on why her skating "sucked"--now, Mathman, you know darn well I never said Michelle's skatting "sucked." In fact, I wrote the post because several people had asked me to explain what I thought of Michelle's skating since certain other people were inaccurately explaining it for me. If I still have it, I will gladly send it to you.
Anyway, your mensch status is reinstated for mentioning the love of my life, Cartman!
Besides, that was a great analysis of the problem with the NJS system. Although I've seen you write about the "MacGuffin" (see Alfred Hitchcock movies) of throwing out two random scores, I'm sure a lot of people haven't. It's just so silly you wonder if the statisticians who supposedly helped put this together had ever had a statistics class in their life?! I also agree that we'd get a more accurate calculation of the skater's (get ready to barf) "true score" if the scores of all 9 or 12 judges were used with the high and low scores thrown out. Even if you think the "true score" is as believable as Tinkerbell (clap three times), the point is I agree that the skater's placements would be more accurate if they used the scores with the trimmed means.
Sorry I threatened you with torture--you do know I was kidding; I can't even get to where you live!--but you did give use a great post about the NJS vs. OBO.
Cartman would react by saying, "Screw you, Mathman. I'm going home!" The ultimate compliment.
Rgirl
P.S. Wasn't this thread originally about whether Sasha was brittle or fragile? Actually, most people are doing pretty well for a thread this long. JMO.
wants me to dig up my "War and Pars" post for all to see. Let's just say that I strongly disagree that S&P were the best that night, Anton's flub on the side-by-side triple jumps or not. It's like comparing Van Gogh's orginal "Sunflowers" to Gaugain's "Sunflowers" that he painted as an ode to Van Gogh after his death. Two arguably equally great painters, but with these two particular painings, one could argue that Van Gogh was "sloppy" and simply piled yellow on top of yellow, whereas Gaugain had mastered his technique. But when you compare the density and complexity of Van Gogh, plus the artistic quantum leap of Van Gogh doing a paining all in shades of yellow against Gaugain's simple repetition of everything he'd done in his Tahiti paintings, you can see why Van Gogh's work captured the sheer emotional impact Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" around the world. No matter how much technique and feeling Gaugain put into his "Sunflowers" as a tribute to Van Gogh, it's now contest.
hwell: 
Theo van Gough vs Paul Gauguin
:scratch:
