It looks and sounds like the home team's trip to China was a great success. Haglund can't wait to see more of Gene Schiavone's pictures of the trip. A group photo of many of the dancers and staff in front of The Great Wall is posted on Gene's website here.
Meiling, who lives in Beijing and authors a blog entitled All Red on the Inside, attended ABT's mixed repertory evening and found it truly inspiring. Haglund found Meiling's own reflection on the dancers' discipline and creativity inspiring:
"watching last night's pieces and reflecting on them afterwards, i found
myself struck by our endless flow of creativity and spirit. that we can
ceaselessly gyre forward in our means of expression and art. and again
i found myself i want to find myself closer to that widening gyre (in a
positive sense). closer to creativity somehow. which of course requires
discipline. something else that the dancers reminded me of. i have at
times run my fingers through the idea of discipline as freedom."
Meiling also planned to attend Don Quixote. Maybe she will write about that as well.