So You Think The Judges Are Supposed To Offer Useful Advice?

Last week was especially bad for the judges in a season where they've already showed utter disdain for concrete critiques. Nigel, who usually at least keeps the dancers straight, mixes up Chris and Robert (as I mentioned in my prior post), but he also asks Mitchell why the voters keep putting him in the bottom three -- when:

1. it's only Mitchell's second time in the bottom;
2. the first time was due to injury.

So, as a way to balance out the inanity, here's a profile on Alexei Ratmansky, currently the artist-in-residence at ABT (and formerly the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet). The online article is behind a paywall, but I like this explicative half-graph on ballet technique:

Discussing turnout—the hundred-and-eighty-degree rotation of the leg that is now considered essential in ballet, to enable the dancer to move in all directions—he says without hesitation that the Bolshoi scores low on this. Then he adds that, if hte Bolshoi dancers had perfect turnout, they would not be able to do the high jumps they are famous for. "When did you ever see an animal who was a jumper and had turnout?" he asks.

A mere 74 words that outweighs three weeks of the judges' blather!