Calliope

Alexandra, What keeps a criticism from becoming an opinion? Who sets the standards that the critics judge by? Maybe this should be a different topic. But I'm curious. If you go by dictionary definition an opinion is a "belief stronger than an impression" which makes it more than a "casual observation"

I think Leigh hit it on the head. What I was implying was not whether or not the piece is a success, but whether or not (in some instances) the coaching worked. In a lot of ways you're helpless when it comes to the audience. You can nudge them and hopefully in the right direction, but many outside factors influence a ballet. I once had a woman come up to me after a performance of "Stars and Stripes" and she didn't like it b/c she was from Germany. She found the "pomp and circumstance" too much. I thought it funny b/c Mr. B wasn't American either. But we can't control what an audience goes into the performance with but hopefully we can disparage some of their feelings and get them to enjoy the performance. Not necessarily understand it either, it took me years of doing "Agon" before I "got it"

I admit I read my reviews. You take them with a grain of salt. I used to see if the reviewer "got" what I was trying to convey to the audience. And a big role, well that was a major event, when it wasn't covered, that was a little hard to take. While no dancers really base themselves on their critiques, sometimes that outside review was an opinion of someone who wasn't in the studio throughout the process.

Casting is posted for the tour on NYCB's website