Suzanne Farrell Ballet

In the dance world, the title "Don Quixote" refers to a much-revised 19th century ballet-comedy about a barber and his girlfriend, with the leading characters from Cervantes' literary classic relegated to fleeting comic relief. The music a patchwork credited to Minkus, the steps changed to suit the tastes of virtuoso stars -- that's "Don Q." But not always.

In the dance world, the title "Don Quixote" refers to a much-revised 19th century ballet-comedy about a barber and his girlfriend, with the leading characters from Cervantes' literary classic relegated to fleeting comic relief. The music a patchwork credited to Minkus, the steps changed to suit the tastes of virtuoso stars -- that's "Don Q." But not always.

Suzanne FARRELL is in a rehearsal studio, a setting she has been intimately familiar with for more than 40 years. She is working on a ballet by George Balanchine, a process that has also been part of the fabric of her being since the early '60s. Back then, Farrell was on her way to becoming Balanchine's favored muse -- a unique, mold-breaking interpreter of his choreography who bonded with him in an artistic union that galvanized the ballet world and led to the creation of enduring masterworks.

Suzanne FARRELL is in a rehearsal studio, a setting she has been intimately familiar with for more than 40 years. She is working on a ballet by George Balanchine, a process that has also been part of the fabric of her being since the early '60s. Back then, Farrell was on her way to becoming Balanchine's favored muse -- a unique, mold-breaking interpreter of his choreography who bonded with him in an artistic union that galvanized the ballet world and led to the creation of enduring masterworks.

Performances canceled: The Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company has canceled its West Coast tour, which was to have included Sept. 24-25 performances at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

In the 20 years since the death of George Balanchine, his unprecedented choreographic legacy has been compromised by inevitable stylistic drift and the contradictory agendas of different artistic directors. For instance, the Kirov Ballet (the company that trained him) tries to dance Balanchine as if he never left Russia, while New York City Ballet (the company he co-founded) currently enforces a hard-driven 21st century efficiency in his works.

Perhaps the most important dance event of the fall takes place in faraway Noumea, New Caledonia, where some 2,000 delegates from 27 island nations will participate in the Eighth Festival of Pacific Arts, from Oct. 23 to Nov. 3. Held in a different country every four years, the festival displays and helps preserve some of the rarest and most endangered traditional dances on the planet: rich idioms seldom seen beyond their far-flung points of origin or such visionary showcases as this.

Right now, the Kirov Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, is once again arguably the greatest ballet company in the world. Not only have its new leaders developed a roster of brilliant star ballerinas, but they've examined and reinterpreted the company's solid-gold 19th century heritage with unparalleled daring. Thus the return of the full company to Southern California for the first time since 1992 marks a special occasion for local balletomanes.

Two of the dance world's most beloved flagship franchises came to grief in 2000, each shortly after Southland engagements. In May, the Martha Graham Dance Company and school shut down, citing crippling financial problems, and by the end of summer the Bolshoi Ballet also suffered a major crisis. Returning to Moscow after a sold-out U.S.

POP MUSIC A little of this and that Third time's the charm? After a couple of postponements, the 2003 edition of the super-eclectic All Tomorrow's Parties festival is on for this weekend in Long Beach.

The Vatican may proclaim that there's only one path to salvation, but the approaches to Balanchine heaven are, happily, more numerous and varied. In progress at the Kennedy Center, a splashy two-week "Balanchine Celebration" enlists six companies in a millennial tribute to the ongoing vitality and influence of one choreographer's seminal artistic vision.

At a news conference Tuesday, UCLA Live announced a 2003-04 season that will include theater, music, dance, talk and strange combinations of them all. The series will feature roughly 170 performances, among them the U.S.