I'm sorry, that's bullshit. You would appreciate it better if you had private knowledge of the writer's life? Not a chance. If you can't make your story manifest in the work itself, you have no business wasting people's time with your bullshit.

Your biography is your material, and your muse, but not your story, unless you're writing biography (and even then, you have to make the connections explicit).

Making chumps out of your audience because they aren't in on the groovy secret is just plain shitty. Especially in a ballet, where verbal narrative isn't available to you.

"My definition of gender must be more fluid than yours" is a weasel's way out, too. It calls the whole of his work into question. Ah, maybe it's all just pretty dancing about, then?

I can't believe so much attention has been given to such a mediocre piece of work. Like Jen I am, seemingly, in the minority on thinking this. There are dozens of Seattle choreographers that do better, more lucid, and riskier work than Weavers. Being a master performer does not make you a master choreographer or make what you have to say more interesting.

Jen and Marine,
While you are both entitled to your opinions, I think you both are looking at Wevers’ work from the wrong angle. You expect that since Whim W’Him was presented at On the Boards that Wevers would somehow be more overt in his ideas. Wevers never promised to shock you or beat you over the head with his concept. What he did promise was an evolution of what classical dance can become. It is clear by his use of dancers, that Wevers is trying to push the boundaries of ballet, and bridge the gap between classical and modern dance. His movement style is also a stretch from classical dance; he uses the floor, and introduces quirks, and lines which are far from the classical repertoire.
I understand where you might have some confusion about why 3seasons wasn’t more colorful, after all Whim W’Him was presented at On the Boards. I think if you truly understand the context of the dance scene, then you also understand that OtB presenting WW is shocking in itself. Where else can you see piointe shoes, tutus, and someone dressed in a KKK mask shouting insults, all in the same venue. Secondly, I find myself asking the question, is it a critic’s responsibility to judge a work based on its context or should they remain objective? Would the Mona Lisa look different hanging at the Guggenheim? Of course, but would that somehow make it better or worse?

Jen,
as for the thin trail of crumbs you say that Wevers left us with, while there may not have been a direct narrative, or window into Wevers head, we as audience members were left with some captivating imagery. The man encaged by his desire for more objects, the duet between two dancers who seem to be pulling each other by an invisible thread… We witnessed a portrait of the human cycle, we saw the beauty, the awkwardness, the pain, the passion, the desire for connection; each section of 3seasons captured a different emotion or aspect of human nature. Finally at the end of the piece, the thread that ties the whole thing together, the woman wearing a tutu, is tossed in the garbage. To me this symbolized the disposability of us all. We live our lives thinking we are different from the rest, but really, we all, be it MAN or WOMAN, just end up being disposed of. It is nothing new, we all know we are fragile, and our time here is temporary, what 3seasons did was reflect something we already should know, through a fresh vocabulary.

May we all continue to create our opinions and discuss them; art, and the conversation it creates enriches us all.

Before anyone writes a commentary based on what they believe is inside personal information regarding the relationships of the dancers of Whim W'Him - they should be very sure that they are correct in their information.

Yes, Kaori Nakamura is Wever's ex-wife - but their parting as a married couple was civil and did not reflect on the deep friendship they still maintain - or the huge degree of respect they share for each other's talent and creativity. In all interviews, Olivier has constantly named Kaori as his muse and one of the people most instrumental in encouraging him to take the next step in his career and expand as a choreographer and leader of a company of his own. And now for the zinger: will the real husband please stand up? The man perpetrating the rape at the end of that dance segment is NOT Olivier Wevers spouse; he is Whim W'Him dancer and current PNB Principal, Jonathan Poretta. The other man in the pas de trois is Lucien Postlewaite - Olivier's husband. If you are trying to slyly read some sort of personal symbolism into the choice of dancers - don't. I believe those choices were more about the way each dancer moves and uses their body than who they go home with with when they are not performing.

If Wevers had chosen to put a man in the trash can at the conclusion - would you then have insisted that he has a grudge against his fellow men and that he was "trashing" his own gender? I think the image of the tutu and the incredible legs of Kaori Nakamura brings a balance to the garbage receptacle: we use and then discard perfectly beautiful and still useful items in our disposable society. Logistically she worked - maybe better than some of the male dancers - I don't know.

All in all - everyone is entitled to an opinion - though I think reviewers need to be sure of their facts. That's a responsibility inherent in writing for a public publication. And each individual who sees a performance will get something different from it - that's what live performance and art is all about. Isn't it intriguing that weeks after the show we are all still arguing and discussing? It obviously incited thoughtful conversation - on both sides of the fence.