Dancing in the dark

I refer to the article Dancing In The Dark (Showtime, November 3), in which I feel that I was misinterpreted.

I was asked to comment about the state of choreography in Malta - however, only half of my comments were published, and I was labelled as pessimistic in this article. If you read the entire comment that I sent to Showtime, you will conclude that I believe that quality is present on the island. Furthermore, as I mentioned, several of the people who passed their comments about the state of dance do not attend most of the local dance performances. I would have also expected regular dance critics to contribute.

The following is the entire comment that I had sent to Showtime:

"Has dance in Malta developed in the last few years or are we truly stuck in a rut? Being seriously involved in dance I should be the last to admit this but yes...I really think that dance has not really developed fast enough in the last few years.

"Save for one or two gifted choreographers and inspired dance teachers, everybody is still teaching the same old syllabus or producing the same work...reinventing the wheel...as we often joke at the studio.

"Before putting any labels as to who is working in the right direction as opposed to everybody else, I suggest that your readers and anybody who has contributed to this article should watch ALL the dance performances and not just the ones with a big advertising budget. You will find that one or two of the school/company performances produced in minor theatres are truly surprising with a high standard of creativity and technical excellence. So yes, quality does thrive on the Island but only in very small doses.

"It is common knowledge that I attend most of the dance performances. I do this to learn from both the positive and the negative aspects and to make sure that I do not get stuck in the rut! Did I see you at the last dance performance I attended?"

Showtime replies: It was impossible to include everybody's comments in full, since we received a heavy response to the question we posed. Many of the respondents wrote far too much to be included in full, so we had to try to distil the essence of what they were saying.