With the proliferation of the internet, blogs and twitter patrons are able to critique plays, exhibitions and organizations. As art administrators we too should be critics, but we should take what we see and learn from it. Being able to look critically at our own and other organizations can give us better insight.

AAGA’s own, Michelle Lopez, took advantage of this idea and took herself out to the ballet. Through her internship at the Cultural Alliance she was able to

Take a closer look, then step away, then closer. Like Seurat organizations should be studied from many distances.

talk with Marketing Coordinator for the Pennsylvania Ballet, Claudia van Poperingen. Michelle attended a dinner for subscribers before the show, hosted by “Brenda Dixon Gottschild, a very well respected dance critic”.  Here is an except from Michelle’s paper about the experience:

“Brenda spoke at great lengths.  She described the program in extreme detail, reading from several different materials.  Next to her was ballet dancer Holly Lynn Fusco, who would not be in that nights premiere but would dance in Saturday’s matinee performance.  Brenda had a series of very thoughtful questions for Holly who answered very honestly.  When asked about the most challenging aspect of the performance, Holly explained, “each choreographer has his own language.”  The dancers only had 18 rehearsals and each of the three ballets sounded very challenging, especially The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude because it required a lot of gyrotonics, which Holly explained, is a derivative of Pilates.  I thought it was interesting that Holly referred to the other dancers as “women” and “boys”.  I wasn’t sure if that was how Holly describes men or if that was a ballet industry term.

During the question and answer session an elderly man asked if In the Upper Room would be the final ballet in the performance, and if so, he would get up and walk out because “I can’t stand Philip Glass,” the composer of the musical accompaniment.  I must say he was very rude and Brenda handled the situation very well.  She asked him to bring earplugs and remain in his seat in order to watch the wonderful dancing that will be taking place.  But he replied with a “bah humbug.”

After diner I was able to sit down with Claudia, the marketing coordinator.  She has been with the Pennsylvania Ballet for two years and came from a dance background.  She explained the ballet was a Balanchine based company meaning they focused on modern ballet classics and also try to pull in as many new choreographers as possible in order to broaden their audience.  This brought me to raise the question of whether or not they would want to increase the diversity of their  “Before the Curtain” program.  I felt the dinner was very much an elitist meal for subscribers and felt very much out of place.  But Claudia believes that it is important to keep the dinners intimate.  They do not want to make it a large-scale event.  Instead they plan to offer pre-show talks for members of the audience, which will be marketed to a younger crowd.”

By continually evaluating the strengths and weaknesses in our organizations and those we attend ourselves; we can evolve and be better able to serve our loyal audiences.

Thank you to Michelle Lopez for letting the AAGA use her critical write up on the Pennsylvania Ballet for this post.