On pointe and off

I was totally thrilled by Lewis Segal’s boldness and accurate frankness about a ballet world I have experienced for nearly 25 years [“Five Things I Hate About Ballet,” Aug. 6].

It is an amazing feeling to read one’s own feelings and opinions through someone else’s words. Thank you for that.

I am French-born, trained in the Paris Opera Ballet school and have traveled abroad for 10 years in order to follow the career I wished to have. It is the first time I have found someone who dares to say the things he has. Journalists do not have that kind of freedom of speech here [in France]. We find ourselves trapped in our own ballet traditions.

I am also taking this opportunity to thank Segal for those wonderful things he has expressed about my “ibou” and “ballet-tics” performance in Hollywood. Those solos were world premieres. They are also my first choreographic works. You know how anxious one can get about presenting one’s own world -- merci mille fois!

ALEXANDRE DE LA

CAFFINIeRE

Paris

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THE nerve of Lewis Segal trying to shut down the ballet world.

He should stop going to the ballet and let us who love it enjoy it in peace. The dancers do not want him there. And the little girls with big dreams of becoming ballerinas someday can sense his hatred.

Give the dance critic assignment to a different staff writer. Segal would be more suited to write about murders and hate crimes.

EVELYN GRAUTEN

Long Beach