Cranky choreographer

As an artist, I understand and accept the idea that my work will not always please everyone, that some of it will be misunderstood, and that some of my shows will be better than others.

After 14 years now of producing shows for my company, Pigeons International, I've pretty much seen it all in terms of reviews which have ranged from exuberantly positive (most of the time) to rather tepid. But never have I (or the company) had a review that focuses on the critic's blatant ignorance and incapacity to even mildly understand innovative work ["Prancing Pigeons," April 12].

I am astonished that this review (if I can call it that) got the editor's okay and made it into the paper. Ms. Barratt's bad teenage standup-comedy-style writing is much more telling about her shallow capacity (or rather her great incapacity) to analyze work than it is about our show. It also says a lot about the Mirror, which openly celebrates (through this article) some of the lowest journalistic standards that I have come across in recent years.

Now let's talk about L'Autre. Yes, poor child, it does mix dance and theatre. We are so very sorry that this has confounded you so, but I have a bit of advice for you to help you get through this major mental blockage. First: did you finish high school? There's a good place to start. Try to get through high school and nail an average grade in English.

Then, get yourself a good summer job, work hard and save money so that you can fly off to Europe for a few months. Check out Germany and ask people if they have ever heard of dance-theatre. I'm sure some people will be able to help you out. Then come back to Montreal, check out a few museums, paintings, sculptures, then maybe a bit of dance and, mostly, spend a bit of time checking these words in your dictionary: lyricism, expressionism, impressionism, poetry, dream, fragmentation (a scary word, but you'll be okay).

As you will discover, there are other forms of theatre that do not necessarily evolve around the notion of realism; not all theatre aims to tell good bedtime stories with clear beginnings, comfortable middles and happy endings. Once you've done all these things, you can come and see another one of our shows. And if you still don't understand our work, you can throw another public tantrum, only this time it might have a little more substance to it. And here's something else to freak you out: those animal skins in our show? They're real! Ououou!

--Paula de Vasconcelos, director and choreographer of L'Autre