To all critics: I'm not asking you to be kind. That does no services to our community. However, I ask that you consider your role in the community and the power your words have over the common reader or the new audience member:
When we speak of fat, chubby or plump ballet dancers, we are referring to dancers certainly below medically recommended weight. Let us not forget we have a responsibility to the vast number of young dancers watching and reading about dance.
New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay's recent review of The Nutcracker has stirred up quite a controversy due to a line saying one dancer "looked as if she'd eaten one sugar plum too many".
