Last week, a NYC Ballet vet danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. After her performance, a lovely dance critic said she looked like she’d “eaten one sugar plum too many.”
After considerable and justified outrage, the critic — Alastair Macauley of the New York Times — tried to explain why he would make such a comment: the body matters to ballet, an overweight body inhibits performance, etc. What he failed to do was explain how the ballerina, one Jenifer Ringer (who absolutely is not overweight), performed in a manner that suggested she was off her game and how that might be because of her weight.
