Letters: Pursuing perfection in dance

Re “The price of perfection,” Opinion, June 22

I do understand the points about “perfection” made by Chloe Angyal and Courtney E. Martin, but as a professional dancer, I’d like to remind the authors that a dancer’s pursuit of perfection is just that: a pursuit.

Dancers know we’ll never be perfect. Every dance can be executed better, and not just with more pirouettes, higher jumps or seeming effortlessness, or being thin. It is being better married to the music or expressing emotion more clearly.

Male dancers must also appear effortless. A man whose jumps land with a thud learns to land lightly. And though an Olympic weightlifter can grunt all he wants, the male dancer better not grunt or grimace when he lifts the ballerina.

Michele Hart

Los Angeles

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