When George Balanchine said so famously, "The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman," he was thinking of dancers, not choreographers. Offstage, women still haven't come a long way, baby. But ...

In February at the Atlanta Ballet's annual gala, Lynda Courts saw an item up for auction that she just could not refuse. The evening's performance was Romeo and Juliet, and Romeo himself was on offer.