Evan, yeah you were on the opposite side of the lecture room from me. We will definitely have to meet up sometime! I’ll look for your comments on the Winger.

Jolene, I’ve actually been thinking about that. I really do wonder about the effect of the reviews. I think the diehard ABT and NYCB fans will always go see those companies regardless of what any critics have to say. I know I do. With respect to those big companies, I think where the difference lies is in potential newcomers, who probably take those reviews more to heart than we do. For example, I’d love to know exactly what brought all those people to Martins’s R+J. The State Theater was really filled to capacity every single night for that and I think the entire run was practically sold out before opening night, before the first round of reviews even came out. I think it was probably more their inventive advertising and marketing strategies with all the posters and fliers and Kristin’s Tragic Love videos. But on the other hand, there were some early magazine and newspaper articles about the young dancers Martins used, etc. So, newspaper and magazine hype was created beforehand too. I think, as Counter Critic says, that the real difference that reviews make is in the smaller stuff. If a small company’s work gets trashed, or worse, gets no coverage at all, people are either not going to know about it or not want to spend money on it. I think in that department Gia Kourlas probably has more effect than Macaulay though, because I think most young people or people who are more likely to try a smaller, downtown performance tend to read Time Out. So her recs are probably key. They probably read the Times too though, since most arts-oriented people do… It’s an interesting issue!

Thanks for briefing us on that Macaulay presentation and also for giving us some idea of what he looks like (now I will be able to recognize him at the NY State Theater, Met and City Center when he is there for his reviews). I had wanted to make it to Barnard for that evening but I couldn’t pull it off. Sorry there was a lack of depth in the discussion and questions but that’s pretty much what usually happens in those kind of events.

Hope you are going to see the New Ballets Program at the Miller Theatre this week and of course, Morphoses at City Center in October.

Thank you too for your review of Dancing With The Stars – I missed it both last night and tonight but I’ll depend on you to let me know whether it’s worth catching up with in future weeks.

I actually wish the Times would be like some of the other papers (The Sun, Newsday) and allow comments on the articles. I realize most of them would probably not be all that well written and many would just be from disgruntled fans, but once in a while they might get a thought–provoking remark and I wish they’d open themselves up to that. Anyway, thanks for commenting and for linking to me!

Ariel — I knew people would want to see his picture That’s why I took it. I’m just sorry I had to turn off the flash; it came out a bit blurry…

I posted my run-down on Counter Critic. My exact question to Macaulay was, “Does dance need to be beautiful, and if so, what does that look like to you?” He didn’t really answer either part, which was disappointing to me. Trust me, I spent like an hour formulating the question to be that specific.

At any rate, I think it’s hilarious that the general response to his presence is generally something along the lines of…”He’s actually human.”