Check out the Montgomery Ballet. It's a ballet school, as well as a dance company of eleven professionals, housed in east Montgomery.

I always knew we had a ballet company in Montgomery, but yesterday was the first time I ever went over there and met some of them. Elie Lazar, the new artistic director this season, let me watch the company practice for shows in early February. While seeing professional dancers work can make you feel lazy, or realize that you have terrible posture, it mostly made me think "discipline."

I saw pieces of Lazar's take on Carmen, and Le Corsaire. The choreography is very traditional for Corsaire and more modern for Carmen. Lazar wants to provide variety for audiences, and he's high-energy enough to do that. These ballets will be performed at the Davis Theater in downtown Montgomery on February 8 and 9. They're presenting Sleeping Beauty on February 10 as a family-friendly 2:30 matinee.

Elie has also started a partnership with the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts for a lecture series at the MMFA's Wilson Auditorium. This Saturday, Elie's talk is on classic vs. contemporary ballet. On Tuesday, January 22, the ballet invites the public to their studio to watch rehearsals of the shows. You can hang out, sip on something, watch some performances and talk to the dancers. This is called the Tuesday Club, and Elie has made it a regular event this season.

Call the ballet for more information at 409-0522.