George Balanchine's Ideology Of Ballet As High Art

What further activates this ideology of ballet as high art comes at the intersection of language choices, like referencing George Balanchine’s modern ballet choreography style, and the voice inflected by the organizational persona and then assumed in the document. When language choices like “Quadrille,” “Grand Pas de deux,” or “ballet mime” are used, this directly conflicts with the PBT’s organizational persona of being an educator for the public of Pittsburgh. They draw heavily upon the artistic tradition of ballet, which influences the audience’s perception of who is being spoken to in the document. As mentioned in my evaluative reading, the PBT runs on model of sustainable funding, where patrons of their performances largely fund future

However, this is at odds with the voice used by the organization in the audience guide and the language chosen to describe the ballet. The PBT takes on the language of ballet history, thus creating tension in the document as the voice fights against the strategic goal, rendering the goal ineffective. Voices of marginalized audience members are kept out of the audience guide. There is no focus on audiences who need sensory friendly experiences or public school students and their families who may not know or interact with the ballet without the PBT’s educational programs and student pricing. The PBT does have these programs, but they are not advertising these in the space of the audience guide, inadvertently showing what audience the PBT finds most important. McKerrow in his article on theory and praxis of critical rhetoric cites a study done by Wander. His analysis supports “the influence of the "not said," particularly as it reinforces that which is said (1981)” (107). By privileging the knowledgeable audience tacitly, the PBT is forwarding the ideology that ballet is elitist and should only be enjoyed by those who can afford it. Not only is this at odds with their strategic goal, but they are also harming their sustainability and longevity model by alienating a whole subset of their potential audience. Because of the status of the PBT as a world-class company, readers may accept this ideology without examining it, and determine if they are considered by the PBT to be a part of this “in”