Nobody said anybody has to care what anyone else thinks, but my point of view is not that ballet is elitist, but that it is crude and tired and trite and illustrationy. I don't care if it delivers a message, so does a postal worker.

The better ballets are really more modern, less classical ballet, simply because all that effort of choreographers and dancers really does add up to something. You can't really respect the work of dancers at the same time you deny their growth and direction. It would be like saying um, "in my more informed opinion, this is not elitist, you're just full of crap" which is a pretty elitist way of saying something isn't elitist. When Barishnikov was here with the Mark Morris Modern Dance company they did good straight modern and the ballet audience HATED it. I think it would be better if it were MORE elitist, less commercial pandering to people who want to pose as cultured aristocrats, more for people who really like it.

    I know these people. They buy and patronize the stuff they are supposed to have, whether they like it or not. I see it all the time, selling them $50,000 rugs and stuff, then explaining to them they're supposed to look handmade, like that.

Other people certainly may genuinely like ballet more than I do, sure--I used to love old dry brittle lute music, loved it. But nobody can tell me ballet isn't struggling with a largely phoney parasitic audience of posing idiots. I happen to prefer modern dance, myself.