Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen.

From its inception, Rus was a fragile entity as it represented a conglomeration of Slavic tribes that were united by trade, religion, rivers, and similar tongues.

To protect fragile entities that are, after all, technically dead, the building is kept dim and chilly.

They are very fragile entities.

Word of Mouth is a really fragile entity.

At a minimum, travel brings home to the average cosseted Westerner a truth well understood by the great proportion of the world's population: that life is a tenuous proposition, a fragile entity.

"We are an improbable and fragile entity . . . an item of history, not an embodiment of general principles," he writes.

Mr. Moi said the bombing demonstrated "in a most crude and violent manner that peace is a fragile entity that should not be taken for granted."

In other words, we are an improbable and fragile entity, fortunately successful after precarious beginnings as a small population in Africa, not the predictable end result of a global tendency.

The audience must be considered, but so must the insatiable needs of that protean but fragile entity known as the ballet company.