Ilya cuts loose

At Tuesday night's Fort Worth Zoo shindig, while most of the Cliburn competitors were game to don some Western duds -- creased jeans, big hats, and boots with spinning spurs -- all of them were claiming a sudden case of two-left feet-itis as reason for leaving the dance floor totally deserted. Except, that is, for the most endearingly introverted and shy of the original group of 29: Russia's Ilya Rashkovskiy. Newly and very happily married, Ilya, who was eliminated in the preliminaries, clearly had spent the passing time between the party and his elimination enrolled in a Texas two-step class. This pianist was all over the Zoo Party's floor, swinging his Japanese wife around with same heedless abandon he used on his preliminary round Rachmaninoff. Looking very Western in a rakish red bandanna, Ilya certainly won the Texan-for-a-night portion of the Cliburn. -- Andrew Marton