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Beyond ballet bashing: making ballet a more vital art form.

Article Excerpt
Last August, Los Angeles Times dance critic Lewis Segal published a diatribe titled "Five Things I Hate About Ballet." Although his approach was somewhat clumsy--like the guy at a family reunion who drinks too much and blurts out why he hates his relatives--he brought up a number of debatable issues that prompted a response from John Rockwell in The New York Times and ignited an international firestorm among ballet bloggers. Among Segal's claims and targets: dwindling ballet audiences; a repertoire "that's decaying"; the infantilization of ballet dancers; ballets that traffic in archaic stereotypes; classics that are inauthentic for today's audiences; an art form that values "prettiness" over beauty and depth; and ballet's irrelevancy to today's world. Dance Magazine decided to reframe the argument and ask, "How can ballet evolve into a more vital, relevant art form in the 21st century?" Ten heavy hitters in the ballet field, including choreographers, directors, dancers, and executive directors, replied with some solutions.

MIKKO NISSINEN, Artistic Director, Boston Ballet

Anytime we talk about the future of ballet, we have to recognize that it is based on very solid platforms. One of those is music--let's use good music. The second is the choreographers--let's put lots of effort into cultivating young choreographers. I try to scout the world looking--not for the people everybody knows-but for the next generation. Multiculturalism should be the next big step in ballet. Risk is a word people shy away from, but I think calculated risk is a form of judgment. Neoclassical ballet has a different sensibility from the period of classical ballet when prettiness was highlighted. Balanchine's Agon is not a "pretty" ballet. Occasionally I see ballets that look like a...