Perhaps the nearly overlooked and best deals for your money of the offerings of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival this season are the Piccolo Harbor Cruises. You are out on the ocean with a terrific view of leaping dolphins taking a spin around Fort Sumter and then admiring the lights on The Battery, which alone would cost you at least $25 a person for a two-hour cruise.

But that would be without the fantastic jazz offered by some of the areas best musicians. Not only that, you can dance on the top deck. And all for $15. I was on the first of the four Piccolo cruises Wednesday night which had people at the dock wanting to buy tickets. However, boat officials said the place was totally filled with 255 passengers. For full disclosure, I will say the Franklin Ashley Quintet was churning out the tunes that night, and I happen to be married to the piano player, whose name headlines the group. But I was not the only one who was amazed to hear clarinetist Jack Dressler produce a sound like Benny Goodman on “Moonglow.” And more than one person said, “Does that fellow play in New York?”

When Dressler and Bryan Reed swung like crazy with a jazz duet of “Honeysuckle Rose,’ the crowd went ballistic, as the wine flowed. As I mingled in the crowd, I estimated about 50 percent were from “off,” like playwright Carmilla Carr and her son Kali O’Dwyer who are from L.A., and about half were Lowcountry residents. “Los Angeles doesn’t have anything like this,” said Dwyer.

We also hear that John Tecklenburg & Friends’ mellow jazz on the cruise last night was well-attended in spite of the lousy weather. You can still catch Rolling on the River with Oscar Rivers on June 4 and singer Rob Keiter’s trio on June 5. And for all of this, tickets are just $15. Only in Charleston.

Spoleto gossip
Although the Boston Ballet has come and gone, as a dance critic I would like to point out that no matter how terrific, that dancers like writers, need to be edited. Certainly, technically, the Boston Ballet was to this dance critic of 30 years, on the level with the Bolshoi, the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet. However, the first number “Brake the Eyes,” beautifully executed en pointe, consisted of the same combination of eight to 10 steps performed over and over again, despite the fact the audience kept applauding at various intervals, thinking it was over. This went on for nearly 30 minutes, but seemed like several hours. Choreographer Jorma Elo simply took the easy way out by having something that was superb go stale.

The excerpts in the next piece from”Swan Lake” were the best I’ve ever seen and 27 years ago I saw Russian prima ballerina Maya Pletsetskaya dance the “Dying Swan” divertissement. Unfortunately, we were left disappointed when Twyla Tharp in her modern piece “In the Upper Room” took the same path as Elo. She had her superb dancers perform the same combination over and over for about 25 minutes. At firstn we delighted in the “with it” costumes or black and white stripes with women in mini-skirts with matching briefs (often seen) and red socks. But after awhile, the frenetic trademark Glass music started to seem like bees buzzing in our brain and I began to feel imprisoned, as if I couldn’t bear the repetition and the unrelenting music anymore. Afterward, at the gala, which WAS gorgeous, a prominent local artist was walking around inquiring as to whether anyone had an asprin as the dance had given him a terrific headache.
I knew exactly how he felt. What a shame some of the most astute dance in the world had to be partly spoiled by choreographers.