Sam Archer

YOU have to hand it to Richard Winsor, 24 and Sam Archer, 25, the two English dancers who alternate in the title role in Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands." In the dance-theater re-imagination of Tim Burton's 1990 film "Edward Scissorhands" -- which starred Johnny Depp as Edward -- the two men somehow manage to make dancing with a collection of unwieldy scissor blades standing in for the five fingers of each hand look easy.

YOU have to hand it to Richard Winsor, 24 and Sam Archer, 25, the two English dancers who alternate in the title role in Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands." In the dance-theater re-imagination of Tim Burton's 1990 film "Edward Scissorhands" -- which starred Johnny Depp as Edward -- the two men somehow manage to make dancing with a collection of unwieldy scissor blades standing in for the five fingers of each hand look easy.

THE wonderful photo by Myung J. Chun of the lead dancers in "Edward Scissorhands," Sam Archer and Richard Winsor, is surely the most beautiful thing we'll see all week, regardless of where we look in the paper or elsewhere ["A Sharp Pair of Scissors," by Diane Haithman, Dec. 19]. I'm sure I speak for thousands in telling you we appreciate the L.A. Times photographers. Viewing their work every day is definitely one of the finer things in life. CHERIE ROUSE Loma Linda

Fed up with "Nutcracker" sweets? Try an imaginative gothic alternative. Based on the 1990 Tim Burton film, Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands" blends romance, fantasy and social satire in a full-evening dance drama about a boy who's a little too different to fit easily into suburbia. With Sam Archer and Richard Winsor alternating in the demanding title role, the award-winning production comes to the Ahmanson Theatre for a three-week run. "Edward Scissorhands," Ahmanson Theatre, L.A.

Derek Loville rushed for 154 yards and Bill Musgrave threw 3 touchdown passes as Oregon opened its season Saturday with a 49-0 romp over Cal State Long Beach. Loville scored on runs of 8 and 1 yards as the Ducks rolled up their biggest victory margin in 15 years. The junior tailback carried the ball 22 times and had runs of 24 and 36 yards, the two longest of his career. He gained 154 yards, a career best. All of Musgrave's touchdown passes came in the first half, when Oregon opened a 28-0 lead.

Defensive end Chris Doleman apparently became the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL when he signed with the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday. Terms of the contracts weren't released, but the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Doleman signed a five-year contract estimated at $2 million per year. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis quoted a team source who said the contract was for four years at about $1.7 million per year.

Latin Berry scored on a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter Saturday to lift Oregon to a 7-3 victory over Stanford in a Pacific 10 Conference game at Eugene, Ore. In a tough defensive battle, undefeated Oregon (3-0 overall, 2-0 in the conference) took advantage of one of Stanford's few mistakes. With Stanford (1-2, 0-2) leading, 3-0, early in the fourth quarter, Oregon linebacker Scott Kozak intercepted a pass by quarterback Brian Johnson that was tipped by one of the Ducks' defensive linemen.

Rigid class structures and the fantasies they inspire make for potent melodrama and equally exciting movement theater. From August Strindberg's "Miss Julie" to Jean Genet's "The Maids," intense parables of forbidden love and social revolt have not only become stage classics but also staples of the international ballet repertory.

CHOREOGRAPHER Matthew Bourne is best known for flipping his sources: taking a ballet, an opera, a feature film and switching period, location, character-gender until it yields a powerful, newly engaging dance drama. But Tim Burton's 1990 film "Edward Scissorhands" seemed to need no radical reinterpretation.

CREATED for England's Opera North in 1992 as "The Nutcracker," but revised and retitled a decade later, choreographer Matthew Bourne's "Nutcracker!" wants to be a satiric look at what the have-not children of this world see as the big lie of Christmas cheer.

LEZ BROTHERSTON loves a challenge. That's one reason he's the perfect match for Matthew Bourne, the choreographer-provcateur whose wide-ranging imagination might daunt a less creative collaborator. Bourne has become a pop icon famous for spinning fresh tales out of well-trodden classics.