STAYIN’ ALIVE: American Ballet Theatre makes a rare appearance in North Texas this weekend – the company has only come to town once in the last 30 years. And those who are ready to write off ballet might say we don’t see more of the company because there aren’t enough top-notch chroeographers creating new material. But artistic director Kevin McKenzie disagrees. “There are always going to be giants to follow,” he tells dallasnews.com. “The 20th Century had some, and when they passed on there wasn’t a giant to hand off to,” McKenzie said. “There were potential giants, but they needed to steep. They had to put in their 10,000 hours to become excellent, and they were doing that quietly through the ’90s.”

THE JAZZ MAN RETURNS: Joe Rogers is known primarily in Fort Worth for the many years he served as the in-house composer and pianist for Jubilee Theatre. But after Jubilee founder Rudy Eastman died suddenly in 2005, Rogers’ work with the company decreased as he focused on his day job. Lately, Rogers has returned to the music scene by focusing on his true love, jazz. In the cover story of the current Fort Worth Weekly, which tracks Rogers’ musical career, he makes it known that he’s been thinking big. “I’ve been thinking a lot that in some ways jazz has not changed too much since the ’60s. The mainstream of jazz that went through Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington froze in time. I’ve been trying to figure out some way for jazz to evolve. I’m not sure I’m the one to do it, but that’s what I’m looking at.”

DCT’S NEW LOOK: Dallas Children’s Theater has just launched a major revamp of its website. In addition to the usual links to buy tickets, etc., it now has a blog featuring behind-the-scenes videos that show how the company prepares for a new production. Check out the latest entry, in which Karl Schaeffer explains how he prepares to play the title role in the upcoming If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.