JEANNE TEACHES DANCE

Shortly after somewhat simultaneously delving into both Jennifer Homan's  Apollo's Angels and Christina Ezrahi's Swans of The Kremlin , I jokingly exclaimed, "ballet's been cheating death since it's inception!"  Despite any modern day chatter of it being a dying and irrelevant art (the reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated   since at least the fall of the Russian Empire), and that it is merely an activity for those who lack the Olympian athleticism and grit of competitive sports, the art form is, still very much alive and kicking. Dancers once again enjoy the pop culture spotlight and the art form has been given more athletic clout as is evidenced the ever popular debate question: "is dance a sport?"  By definition that dance is not a game that is regularly scored in some way (be it by points or time records), I prefer to refer to it as "an athletic art," but that's simply my feeling on the matter--the competition circ