I think that whoever titled Mr. Shayer's op-ed piece, and perhaps it was Mr. Shayer himself, got it absolutely right. ABT does not see him as he sees himself, because he has a false sense of how he appears to others as a classical dancer, i.e., he sees himself as dancing like a prince, but he doesn't have the finesse that a prince needs to have. He was hired when he was young and his high jump suggested he had promise. Either he doesn't quite have what it takes or he didn't put in the work to develop it and his jumps were no longer so high as they had been.