• Home
  • About
    • About this Blog
    • About Andrew Taylor
    • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Other AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

The Artful Manager

Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture

But how do you REALLY feel about ballet?

August 7, 2006 by Andrew Taylor

Lewis Segal at the LA Times is fed up with ballet, and isn’t afraid to say why in his recent opinion column.


Most ballet is every bit as bad as audiences secretly suspect — and it’s not going to improve until companies stop conning or shaming us into accepting damaged goods. In the meantime, guilt-free hatred of ballet is reasonable, maybe even necessary.

Ouch. Let the letters to the editor begin.

Thanks to Trevor and ArtsJournal for the link.

Filed Under: main

Comments

  1. Hope Dougherty says

    January 24, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Ballet is a beautiful art. You may think it is stupid but it really isn’t. Ballet to me is a hard sport, and it is amazing to dance. I love ballet because whenever I dance it onstage, it feels so good. I don’t feel this feeling dancing any other kind of dance.

About Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor is a faculty member in American University's Arts Management Program in Washington, DC. [Read More …]

ArtsManaged Field Notes

#ArtsManaged logoAndrew Taylor also publishes a weekly email newsletter, ArtsManaged Field Notes, on Arts Management practice. The most recent notes are listed below.

RSS ArtsManaged Field Notes

  • Sorting artists by social type January 20, 2026
    Clustering artists (and arts organizations) by their relationship to an "art world" can be both useful and terrible
  • Strategic outsourcing: when and why to DIY January 13, 2026
    Outsourcing can improve focus, amplify expertise, and reduce costs. But don't give away the farm.
  • Invitation to recalibration January 6, 2026
    In this new year, consider a next chapter in your Arts Management story
  • Top 10 Posts of 2025 December 30, 2025
    The most-read ArtsManaged Field Notes in a bumpy, grumpy year.
  • Pillars of a creative community December 23, 2025
    Six ways to make a place hospitable to artists

Artful Manager: The Book!

The Artful Manager BookFifty provocations, inquiries, and insights on the business of arts and culture, available in
paperback, Kindle, or Apple Books formats.

Recent Comments

  • Barry Hessenius on Business in service of beauty: “An enormous loss. Diane changed the discourse on culture – its aspirations, its modus operandi, its assumptions. A brilliant thought…” Jan 19, 18:58
  • Sunil Iyengar on Business in service of beauty: “Thank you, Andrew. The loss is immense. Back when Diane was teaching a course called “Approaching Beauty,” to business majors…” Jan 16, 18:36
  • Michael J Rushton on Business in service of beauty: “A wonderful person and a creative thinker, this is a terrible loss. – thank you for posting this.” Jan 16, 13:18
  • Andrew Taylor on Two goals to rule them all: “Absolutely, borrow and build to your heart’s content! The idea that cultural practice BOTH reduces and samples surprise is really…” Jun 2, 18:01
  • Heather Good on Two goals to rule them all: “To “actively sample novel experiences (in safe ways) to build more resilient perception and prediction” is about as useful a…” Jun 2, 15:05

Archives

Creative Commons License
The written content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images are not covered under this license, but are linked (whenever possible) to their original author.

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2026 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in